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Love In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

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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.
In Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, the Bible salesman’s motive for wanting to get Hulga to fall in love with him was solely to steal her wooden leg. It is originally believed that Pointer likes Hulga for who she is. He is very persistent in trying to get her to love him. Readers are led to believe that Pointer is a Christian because he is going around selling Bibles. It is not until the very end of the story that readers are shown the true character of Manley Pointer.
It is possible that the motive for stealing Hulga’s leg is that Mrs. Freeman hired the Bible salesman to steal the artificial leg from her. “Something about her seemed to fascinate Mrs. Freeman and then one day Hulga realized that it was the artificial leg” (O’connor 436). It is interesting that …show more content…

William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” shows that ulterior motives for love can also refer to personality and non physical features of a person. 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

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