Good Country People story review
The story Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor is a typical representation of Christianity and the South American people. O’Connor’s story touches on the role of intellectualism and physical challenges in shaping individual identity. The story is centered in Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter, Joy/Hugla, who is emotionally scattered due to hunting escapade that went wrong, rendering her crippled. The physical impairment caused her to retreat from the physical world and into the world of intellect. She was given her original name as joy by her mother, Mrs. Hopewell, an optimistic woman who confronts adversity by her simple philosophy of hoping for the best. The optimistic nature of her mother irritates Joy, who retaliates by changing her name, legally, to the ugliest name she will think of, Hugla.
The story does not give an account of how various people react to physically impaired people. However, O’Connor took a different sway on Joy’s identity. The choice of her name, Hugla, mirrored the deliberate ugliness in her personality. Joy is intentionally rude to her mother because of her philosophy of simplistic nature of facing diversity by merely hoping for the best. Moreover, Mrs. Hopewell is insensitive to her daughter’s bitterness comes as a result of her understanding that Joy was disfigured (O’Connor). The physical impairment was, however, used to symbolize spiritual impairment. The moral deformity that is present in Joy’s character resulted from the brokenness of human nature. From the Christian point of view, humanity was crippled in the fall of the first humans to be created, Adam and Eve, during the first sin. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The Christian paradigm was not Joy’s belief. She often identified herself with elite intellectuals, thus rising above such superstitions of spiritual being. The Christian morality was introduced in the story by the traveling bible salesperson, Manley Pointer. The bible salesman was supposed to be a decent guy who represented the Christian community. However, he is portrayed as a man who travels home to home, pretending to sell bibles to seduce girls. To seduce, he managed to win the heart of Hugla, who agreed to go out with him (O’Connor). However, he did not appeal to her emotions, as Hugla admits she has none. He instead saw her through her weakness-intellectual pride. Hugla believed that she was superior, for she was the smartest among the village “pumpkins,” for she had a doctorate. Falling for Manley’s profession of love proved that there is no such thing of intellectual superiority.
She made her mission to prove that there is no such thing as love rather a hypocritical disguise for lust. She viewed love as an illusion, just like Christianity, the other myth to which Manley seemed to believe. Yet, it turned out that Manley was not a Christian, as he had claimed. He was a con artist who wanted to exploit Hugla not only sexually but managed to take her prostatic leg to which she held dear.
Christians have a particular philosophy of life of frameworks of ideas, beliefs, and values through which their community or individuals interpret the world and interact with it. People that share the same culture have a common set of assumptions and similar expectations on how they perceive the world. It’s possible to have Christian cultural complementary models within a paradigm. However, paradigms are not complimentary. This implies that an individual can only share one traditional outlook at a time. Christianity is a way of life, not just a set of beliefs, values, or ideas. It’s the larger model in which ideas are only one part (Barbour). To become a member of scientific or Christian society, an individual acknowledges its paradigms and adopts its assumptions and beliefs. Christianity or science is not an individual enterprise; instead, an individual interprets his or her experience within the communal tradition.
The term Christian encompasses everyone regardless of age, gender, or occupation who trusts Jesus Christ as the savior and strives to follow his teachings. Christians tend to place significant stress on the importance of a person’s relationship with God. They believe that this relationship is fulfilled through prayers, the study of God’s word, and fellowship with other people as well as service to others in Jesus’ name. How Christians express their faith in the context of community is paramount. However, in the end, it’s an intensely and individual matter rather than church membership and doctrinal orientation. The holy books back this analysis in the book of Romans 10: 13 (Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved). Therefore, a Christian is not anyone who claims to believe in Jesus Christ and follow his teachings.
In the short story Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor, two models are present; religion and science. O’Connor sets up opposing sides between believing in God and believing in nothing. Joy/Hulga is devoted, open, and seemingly committed to her believes of atheism. On the other hand, so-called Christians are not devoted to their beliefs. Hulga’s mother does not even know where her bible is. However, Mrs. Hopewell’s attributes match that of a Christian. She sees good in people and welcomes others in her house. She employed the Freeman family despite her being warned that Mrs. Freeman is a lousy and nosiest person. She took chances with them, and she was able to live with them happily.
The personal attributes that distinguish a true Christian from non-Christian are Christ’s definition of love (Sledge). Jesus defined a Christian as a person who has love at heart (John 13:35). Mrs. Hopewell loves her family and the Freemans. She liked to tell people how great the freeman family is and was not ashamed to tell other people. She considered them part of her family. She was proud of them because they were good country people.
O’Connor portrayed both families in the story as the typical American family that has lost touch with God and Christian values. Hulga, for instance, does not understand herself as innocent since she is highly educated. She only believes in science. She lost faith in Christianity since she had lost her leg in the hunting expedition that went wrong when she was ten. She, therefore, became emotionally crippled as much as she was physical.
Consequently, she turned to science as a consolation. Since she compensated this through becoming an intellect, she imagined herself being superior to others. Indeed she managed to make herself unpleasant to other people by becoming rude even to her parents. However, her mother still showed nothing but love for her.
The good country people that are depicted in the story are regarded as people who believe in God and acts according to Christian values. This was portrayed by Manley Pointer, who was, at first, seemed committed to serving God. He looked like a good person who sees well in people. In his first encounter with Mrs. Hopewell’s family, he showed gratitude and managed to show an interest to Hugla to who has shut down everyone in the family. Mrs. Hopewell was happy seeing how enthusiastic her daughter was meeting someone to whom she did not despise. This, however, did not last long for Manley turned out to be the con artist.
Since Hugla had denied God and embarking on her quest for intellectual satisfaction, she could not see through the evil. To her, evil and God was an illusion. She was shocked when Manley wanted to take advantage of her and said, “Aren’t you just good country people?” since she always considers herself as an intellect, she wanted to seduce Manley just as Eve to Adam. But in the end, her Adam came out as evil. If only Hugla had faith in God and believed in evil, she would have seen what was coming (O’Connor).
Moreover, the families in the story had not lost faith in God entirely. They are portrayed as kind and loving to others. Mrs. Hopewell is charming and warm. She accepted the Freeman family even after being warned and managed to live with them happily. Also, Hugla found redemption after she was coned and now believes in the presence of evil. Previously, she used to see herself as superior, but just a village boy eventually robbed her. The embracing of Christian values helped the family to have self-control. Understandably, what is found in religious people can also be found in nonreligious (Ricker). There are people to whom, for some reason, with unceasing despair, individuals who wear unhappiness to block other people into their lives, such as Hugla. This is common in people who love Godless lives.