Love In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

Joy/Hulga from O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People” is a sarcastic and cynical protagonist, who claiming that she doesn’t believe in anything, as her mother, Mrs. Hopewell said to Manley, “My daughter is an atheist and won’t let me keep the Bible in the parlor.” (O’Connor 224) Also, Joy/Hulga tried to express herself to Manley as her being a strong, smart, and independent woman that only believe herself, “I don’t have illusions. I’m one of those people who see through to nothing”(O’Connor 231) However, at the end of the story, the readers can discovered that Joy/Hulga was just a weak innocent woman who failed to see the real world that is a mixture of good and evil and destroyed her belief through her lack of self-awareness that being used by Manley.

Not only did Hulga’s wooden leg have a symbolic meaning in the story “Good Country People,” but also the imagery of her spectacles has a symbolic meaning as well. Her glasses symbolically represent the loss of vision and gaining of insight. At the beginning of the story, Hulga is wearing these glasses, which many of us tend to associate with being smart. However she does not gain insight until Manley removes her glasses. It is stated in “Good Country People”, “When her glasses got in his way, he took them off of her and slipped them into his pocket” (O’Conner 1350).

Hulga thought she was better than everybody and smarter than everybody in the country, until one day she came across a countryman who was really a con-man. Hulga does not deserve sympathy for having her wooden leg stolen because

Hulga thinks that she will benefit from this and imagines that “she very easy seduced him” (376). Hulga doesn’t realize that Manley is not interested in her, but her wooden leg instead. Hulga never realizes that he wants to steal her leg because he is covering himself up as a good country person. At the barn, Manley is finally able to steal Hulga’s leg. When they at the barn, he seduces her first and begs Hulga to confess her love for him.

“...The hunting accident...the leg had been literally blasted off” (O’Connor 484), this sentence mentioned by the author symbolizes Hulga’s personality, because when something very valuable is taken away from someone and they are aware of it, but are not able to react to it, it could change a person drastically. Hulga could have been a totally different women if she had her leg, that’s why the author decided to give her a wooden leg. In the story the author mentions how Hulga does not care about her appearance at all. When she goes on a date with Manley Pointer she wears a dirty white shirt, applies Vapex as perfume, and never smiles. “...

A poetic irony - Shakespeare gives one of the most thoughtful lines in the play, to the least thoughtful of characters. Bottom says it all; sometimes there is no reason to justify true love. Often, when one’s mind becomes obstructed by love, most reason, logic and rationale goes away in order to fulfill that love. Therefore love really keeps little company to reason, and can become very foolish and filled with

They kiss somewhat more and Manley at last takes Hulga 's leg. She gets furious, however Manley declines to return it. He opens up his Bible to uncover it 's holding bourbon and cards; things being what they are he is a trick craftsman and Manley Pointer isn 't his genuine name. Hulga gets angrier with him, yet Manley packs up his stuff and discloses to her that, in spite of her instruction, he, a basic book of scriptures businessperson, figured out how to trick her. He at that point keeps running off with her leg, abandoning her powerless in the

Each and every day, people make sacrifices for their loved ones. Maybe they choose to get up earlier in order to do chores or miss an important meeting so that they would have time for each other. There is no greater example of sacrifices for loved ones than in Romeo and Juliet however, where Shakespeare explores two star-crossed lovers, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, who come from two families that have a deep hatred towards each other. The pair meet each other, secretly wed, and then in order to stay together, commit suicide out of despair and distress. Through Romeo and Juliet’s acts of defiance and sacrifice, Shakespeare proves that while hate has the power to destroy and kill, love is even more powerful as it has the power to transform.

She uses the term good country people and “nice young men” (page 3) as insults to keep those types of people at arm’s length due to her insecurity; Manly Pointer could be described by both of those terms. When Hulga’s mother calls Manly the salt of the earth as a reference to him being a good country person she makes a rude remark about getting “rid of the salt of the earth” (page 4) so she could eat. Then during the meal she ignored him because she doesn’t believe that he is worth her time, but still observes “sideways how he handled his knife and fork” (page 5) like he is a science experiment and she is recording her data not observing him as a person of equal stature. All of these actions show the reader that Hugla does not partake in real life but prefers her make believe land where all of her assumptions are right before interacting with anyone or anything. When she does this to Manly Pointer it allows him to figure out what he needs to be to contribute to her needs without her getting in the

He causes Hulga to have an epiphanal moment about her beliefs when he removes her eyeglasses, steals her leg, and breaks her heart. When the two enter the barn, they begin a process of ritualistic cleansing. He first takes off her eyeglasses when they “got in his way” of his barrage of kisses (CS 295). Flannery symbolizes this theft as an ironic changing of view for Hulga: she loses her logical eyeglasses to gain a more emotional way of seeing. This change goes unnoticed by Hulga as she “seldom paid any close attention to her surroundings” (296), causing her to be dependent on Manly for sight.

Evana Baggett Sun God Freshman English 28 September 2016 In the short story Good Country People Hulga believes herself to be intellectually superior. The quote “Hulga had learned to tolerate Mrs.Freeman who saved her from talks with her mother.”

Hulga used to be insecure about her wooden leg, she cherishes it as a defining quality, and also her education. Hulga takes care of her leg by herself and she never lets anyone see it. However, her attitude just happened to be her downfall in the story, Hulga let Manley take off her leg, and she became vulnerable in her mind. She had no clue what to do without it, she panics and Manley ends up stealing it and leaving her.

Deceptive people have a keen way of getting people to give in to their irresistible charisma. In the short story “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, there is a character who shows the reader just how deceptive someone can be. The character’s name is Manley Porter, and he is the antagonist in the story. Throughout the short story Porter shows the reader how he is able to play with his victims. The victim he decides to play is a one legged girl name Hulga, and he shows the audience just what kind of person he truly is.

Despite popular opinion, love at first sight does not exist. The idea of “love” is widely misinterpreted as a mere attraction between two individuals. However, many do not understand that love goes much further than this, and what follows is a common misconception between love and lust. Shakespeare in his 17th century play Twelfth Night delves deeper into this idea of love. He presents the character Duke Orsino who appear to be infatuated and love-sick for the Countess Olivia, a woman with which he knows little about.

Shakespeare’s novel “Macbeth” demonstrates the many ways in which love can factor into a play. Through the connections built between characters, and the relationship Macbeth holds with power, the ways in which love are perceived through “Macbeth” are evident. In Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth,” there is a strong relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, the relationship between the two characters is known as the most obvious - yet this relationship challenges traditional perceptions of love. The attitude Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have towards each other constantly changes, thus making it hard to form a clear-cut opinion of their relationship.