ipl-logo

Good Country People Thesis Statement

1115 Words5 Pages

Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People is a short story mostly centralized around a thirty-two year old woman named Joy. Joy works alongside her mother Mrs. Hopewell who owns a farm out in the boondocks of Georgia. Joy has a wooden leg due to a childhood accident. Joy has a strong belief in atheism and holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Due to the depressing life that Joy lives she finds that her name does not suit her characteristics whatsoever, she goes so far as to change her name to “Hulga”, a rather ugly name that her mother does not find very suitable. Joy tends to think very arrogantly in nearly every scenario she faces. She thinks she has a superior mind compared to everyone else. Her “superior mind” is tested when a bible salesman by the name of Manley Pointer shows up on Mrs. Hopewell’s door. Despite having no interest in purchasing bibles from Mr. Pointer, she still invites him in believing he is on of the “good country people” she is so fond of. As the bible salesman was he invites Joy to a picnic for the next day. Now Joy has never …show more content…

Bernens has some strong criticizing words to say specifically about the book “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” His mane points revolve around his thesis statement, which he states, “Page by page I journeyed on, and by the time I had finished what was set before me, I could hardly bring myself to believe that this was the work of the greatest American Catholic author of the twentieth century”(Bernens). He does not slander O’Connor’s ability to write and acknowledges her incredible talent and intellect. He does state that in his opinion that he thinks she would of made a better philosopher than an author. He is not happy with the way such she treated such delicate subjects such as psychological pain and regret, he felt she could have gone done a less sensitive route. Bernens is not a fan of how a like her writing style is to James Joyce and Truman Capote; he finds there is and imbalance which breaks the substance of her

Show More
Related

  • Redemption In Flannery O Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    946 Words  | 4 Pages

    Redemption is the act of being saved from acts of evil and sin. The debate of whether human nature is redeemable or not has been one to plaque religious scholars. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, this question continues in the interactions between the characters; the most notable being the Grandmother of a rather horrible family and the Misfit, a murderer. While on a road trip, these two characters’ paths collide and lead to a rather unfortunate end where the Grandmother and her family are killed. While many readers believe the ending creates and overall negative tone of the story, some believe that there is a hope for redemption; the story’s author O’Connor who is a devoted Catholic included.

    Read More

  • Good Country People Comparative Essay

    543 Words  | 3 Pages

    Flannery O’Connor, in her short life, wrote one novel and many short stories that impact literature to this day. She wrote two superb short stories, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People, which have many similarities hidden in the theme of their complex text. While both stories include themes about religion, identity, and the way we view others, the endings are astoundingly different. Nonetheless, O’Connor’s main theme concerning the way we view other people, is the most significant in both short stories. In Good Country People, Mrs. Hopewell repeatedly states that the bible salesman is the “salt of the earth” meaning that he is just a good and simple country boy.

    Read More

  • Good Country People Hulga Summary

    252 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Good Country People” the main character, Hulga behaves nothing like the traditional women of the time were expected to behave. Hulga’s actions and beliefs were completely against the socially constructed gender roles of 1950’s America. First, Hulga was an educated woman who found pride in being intellectually superior to other people. Hulga acquired a PhD in Philosophy which was very uncommon for a women to do so at the time. In fact, in the 1950’s when this short story was published, women were expected to aspire to be more of housewife than an educated woman, “A 1959 study determined that 37 percent of female college students were leaving school before they graduated, most for marriage” (Gale).

    Read More

  • A Good Man Is Hard To Find Psychopath Analysis

    1097 Words  | 5 Pages

    The grotesque psychopathic nature of the characters in Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” ironically shows how a good man does not truly exist through the revelation and proclamation of what characteristics a good man possess. In the story The Misfit shows characteristics of a psychopath by escaping prison and killing an innocent family. However, The Misfit isn’t the only character in the short story to show psychopathic tendencies. The grandma also shows some characteristics of a psychopath because she does not care or show remorse for her family who was brutally murdered

    Read More

  • Violence In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1393 Words  | 6 Pages

    In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor creates a story where the roles of good and evil blend together. In the short story, a family in the rural South gets caught up with a criminal named the Misfit after their wreck and they end up getting murdered. The clash between the grandmother and the Misfit highlights the religious aspects of the story and also O’Connor’s beliefs. Her stylistic traits of violence, distortion, and religion are used to convey a corrupt world that needs salvation. O’Connor’s trait of violence is used throughout to reveal the corrupt and criminal world that emanates the need for salvation.

    Read More

  • Good Country People Character Flaws

    793 Words  | 4 Pages

    Essay 3: Pride as a Character Flaw, Option A In Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor, Joy (later renamed Hulga) becomes blinded by her pride due to a bible salesman that turns out to be less than adequately stereotyped. Duped into succumbing to his tricks, the main character Joy allows her pride to keep her from seeing the truth until it’s too late. Joy’s pride contributes to her downfall because she hides behind a wall of intelligence to accommodate for her wooden leg.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1254 Words  | 6 Pages

    In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” she uses writing skills such as symbolism and imagery to get across her different themes to the reader’s with plenty of room for self-interpretation. Though O’Connor’s work could be defined as cynical, she does an excellent job of writing in the third person with her uncomplicated structure of sentences leaving plenty of room for her character 's thoughts, feelings, and actions to get across the realism of our world. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a battle between a grandmother with a rather artificial sense of goodness, and a criminal who symbolizes evil. The grandmother treats goodness as having good manners, and coming from a family of higher class, but at the end of the story comes to

    Read More

  • A Good Man Is Hard To Find The Grandmother Character Analysis

    1165 Words  | 5 Pages

    Turpin and the grandmother’s character, Flannery O’Connor made them very hypocritical and made sure her readers would notice it. The two women’s behavior came off in a way that suggested they had higher standards and were above everybody they encountered. Grandmother believes that where you stand in the social class depends on your blood and the family you were born into. Mrs. Turpin judged others and their place in the social class by whether they owned land or a home, and by their race, “Sometimes Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming the classes of people.” (pg. 416)

    Read More

  • A Good Man Is Hard To Find Theme

    1583 Words  | 7 Pages

    Freeman Bailey Freeman Hensley English 11/ Fourth Period 05 March 2018 Part 14: Rough Draft #2 In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” she writes, “If you would pray,’ the old lady said, ‘Jesus would help you.’

    Read More

  • Redemption In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

    756 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout much of O’Connor’s works, there is this idea that a character needs redemption, as Dorothy Walters suggests in her book, Flannery O’Connor. Walters also states when these characters are enlightened, it is often “through catastrophe.” In O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” this salvation through violence occurs for Joy. Through the evaluation of Joy’s downfalls in character and her misinterpretation of Manley Pointer, Joy has a horrific experience that will forever change her perspective and reform her overconfidence. Before Joy/Hulga even meets Manley Pointer, readers understand that she has a lack of experience in the real world.

    Read More

  • Love In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

    890 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are many things that factor into reasons for loving someone. Often times when people think of reasons for loving someone, they only think about the immediate motives. People do not consider reasons outside the obvious. However, there are many hidden motives that cause people t love one another. Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” and William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”, show that love can be influenced by an ulterior motive, through the use of specific word choice and storyline twists.

    Read More

  • Distortion In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1466 Words  | 6 Pages

    “Her characters, who sometimes accept and other times reject salvation, often have a warped self-image, especially of their moral status and of the morality of their actions” (Hobby). This addresses how some of the important lines in the story describe to the reader about the extreme exaggeration and the psychological realism of the church, which O’Connor wanted to express within her story. The extreme use of exaggeration and how the use of the characters bring a sense of an uncanny feeling of good and evil within each character, portrays how deep the meaning is seen in this short story.  “the story is filled with dark, grotesque humor created largely by the story 's many ironies” (Hobby). The author of this source highly emphasizes that O’Connor creates this dark humor for her characters to build on her meaning in the story and uses irony to create the distortion within her

    Read More

  • Hypocrisy In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    897 Words  | 4 Pages

    " This makes the readers think that Mrs. Hopewell will go through the same experience in order to destroy her confidence and control to use Mrs. Freeman. As readers, we should think differently when we read a story especially Ms. Flannery O’Connor's stories. We should not think that she is mocking religion, as she is a religious person herself. There can be instances where we feel like we want to be able to feel or experience the story itself. What we don’t see in the story is how Ms. O'Connor's characters used the idea of religion, how all are equally guilty and showing hypocrisy, at the same time become aware to their

    Read More

  • Messages And Themes In Flannery O Connor's Short Stories

    965 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “Good Country People”, the bible salesman is not as good as Hulga is led to believe. He steals her leg and runs, leaving her in a hayloft to fend for herself (384). This type of twist is what makes O’Connor’s writing so exciting and compelling. O’Connor’s life in the south greatly influenced the style and dialogue within her

    Read More

  • Good Man Is Hard To Find Response

    1016 Words  | 5 Pages

    In her short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor introduces the reader to a world of family issues, danger, and murder. The story was written in 1955 during a period of social and racial unrest in the southern United States. Mostly, the story follows O 'Connor 's basic Southern Gothic writing style. A work that is "cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent" (Galloway). While the quote gives major insight into the theme of the story, it does not offer a glimpse into O 'Connor 's real message of the story.

    Read More

More about Good Country People Thesis Statement

Open Document