Good Country People free essay sample

Manley Pointer exploits joy-Hulga’s weakness to the fullest extent, because she never sees it coming. Greatest flaws can often be found in those characters with physical impairments (Oliver). Joy/Hulga had grown cynical and cold as she grew up with only one leg and heart ailment. She creates an image that she is smarter and better than the rest of the characters in the story. Her education and self-absorption seemed to instill this attitude. Those who are physically crippled are often emotionally or spiritually crippled(Oliver). We can relate these impairments to Joy’s impairments. She emotionally died at age 10 when she lost her leg. Now her weakness is the feeling of power she believed she gained from her studies. She refers to herself as a person who â€Å"sees through nothing† (Flannery). Little does she know that she is stating her greatest weakness by saying this. Ideally good country people are moral, religious and therefore trustworthy. We will write a custom essay sample on Good Country People or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Mrs. Hopewell refers to Manley Pointer as â€Å"good country people† and â€Å"the salt of the earth† (Flannery). Good Christian people. The title of the story comes from what she likes to call the poorer and less fortunate people that live off the land and work their whole lives just to hang on to some scrap of a life. This is how she views these people. She believes that they are good country people not a bad seed among them, that they are all eager to help out. But Manley Pointer is really a demon, a demon that has come to remind them of their weaknesses. Hulga changes her name from Joy to spite her mother. Joy believes she had picked out the ugliest name she could find. But in all actuality the name true meaning â€Å"the holy one† Which is ironic as Joy is Atheist. â€Å"She is seeking, unconsciously, a moral and spiritual perfection that is holy in nature. That Hulga also likes to see herself in the part of Eve add not only to the irony of her name but her fate in the story† (Holsen). In the short story â€Å"Good Country People,† Flannery O’Connor utilizes the characters Joy Hopewell and Manley Pointer to expose how believing in nothing makes a person isolated and spiritually empty.