O'Connor /Good Country People

O’Connor/ Good Country People


I first have to say this story was very hard to follow for me. I am not sure if it was the way it was written or what but I had a really hard time understanding it. I think that Hulga’s conviction that intelligence and education are incompatible with religious faith is just her way of dealing with the way her life turned out. Hulga’s loss of her leg makes her loose touch with reality in my opinion. Hulga even changes her name from a happy name of Joy to something that sounds ugly as Hulga. Hulga feels ugly so therefore wants everything about her to be ugly.

I think that it is important to know that Joy or Hulga as otherwise known has two names to show her struggle and how comfortable she is with her own appearance. With her name being Joy ,one would expect a happy ,comfortable person. With a name like Hulga one does not expect too much .

The term good country folks were used quite often in this story. We are made to believe that the Bible salesman is a good country boy. The Bible Salesman even mentions to Mrs. Hopewelll that he is. He makes up a story about his family and how is father died when he was very young. He said that he was one of twelve children and that his mother worked very hard to provide for them and made sure that they went to bible school every Sunday. We later find out that he is nothing more than a common thief not even a Christian. I am not even sure if he actually sales Bibles. He persuades Hulga into going with him on a Picnic and tells her he loves her. He insists on her showing him how she removes her leg. When she did this he steals her leg and leaves. This to me is a story about deception. This proves to be a classic good versus evil story.