Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People"

Paper Summary:

This paper describes Flannery O'Connor's protagonist, Hulga in "Good Country Poeple", as a one-legged woman, who takes great pains to make herself unattractive and unlikable. The paper also depicts Hulga's mother and the bible salesman and then goes on to show how the salesman manages to steal from Hulga her sense of self, in spite of her staunch psychological defenses. The paper highlights the story's lesson that there really is no such thing as "good country people" and human beings are not nearly as simple as one would imagine them.

From the Paper:

"Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" tells the story of a cynical woman outwitted by someone even more cynical. It is also a story whose underlying message is that most people are not completely what they seem. In "Good Country People," the story's protagonist endures a symbolic rape and humiliation that may be likened to a baptism of fire. Though she is duped into her predicament by a seemingly innocent bible salesman, she herself is also partly responsible for the fate that ultimately befalls her. The story has numerous tragic elements, but the most tragic is that its protagonist lets down the very set of psychological defenses that enable her to survive. As a result, she allows herself to be lured into a compromising position she would never have imagined for herself."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Desmond, John. "Flannery O'Connor's Misfit and the Mystery of Evil." Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 56 (2): 129-137.
• Havird, David. "The Saving Rape: Flannery O'Connor and Patriarchal Religion." The Mississippi Quarterly 47 (1): 15-26.
• O'Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People" in The Complete Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus And Giroux, 1971. 271-291.

More papers on Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People":

• Comparison Essay # 71219 : "Flannery O'Connor and Alice Walker"
• Analytical Essay # 125999 : "Irony in "Good Country People"
• Analytical Essay # 7368 : "The Importance of Flannery O'Connor's Writing"
• Analytical Essay # 33793 : "Irony in the Works of Flannery O'Connor"

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