Symbolism In Hulga Glasses

Hulga, intelligent but naïve, is tricked by the dashing bible salesman, Manley Pointer. She owns glasses and one prosthetic leg, which she can't live without. Until one-day Hulga's perfect night was turned upside down. The drastic turn started when Manley slithered on of his many lovely lies to her and said, "I like girls that wear glasses."(O'Connor, 7), and he reeled her out to the barn by telling her what she wanted to hear. By Manley mentioning her glasses, she has already become blind to the world from only a six-word compliment. Hulga vividly sees this cold-hearted world through her glasses which causes her bitterness. However, when her glasses are taken off she is at her most vulnerable state. This vulnerable state is described by

Her poor health keeps her living on a farm with other who don't share the same hobbies as her. While Hulga reads, others gossip and tend to the animals. She thinks education makes people intelligent believing that she has nothing else to learn. Due to that belief, she is blind to the people around her and sees them as unintelligent inferiors. This clouds her perception of reality. Flannery O'Connor symbolizes this loss of reality by writing, "Then she had gone and had the beautiful name, Joy, changed... Her legal name was Hulga." (O'Connor, 2) When she changed her name she lost the sense of reality and inevitably "Joy"; most importantly she lost herself. By changing her name, she wanted to symbolize that she was better than everyone else; that she was smarter and did not need a frilly name to entitle her. She devotes entirely too much attention to her books and claims herself to be an atheist. This claim has led her to withdraw from society and replace books for people and people for inanimate objects. Her obsession with books has led her to become completely oblivious to the fact that even though the "good old country people" seem unintelligent, they are completely cunning and know every way to corrupt people that she