R.+Purk

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= __**Flannery O'Conner Short Story Assignment:**__ = 1. In the **short story, “**Good Country People”, Mrs. Hopewell is a divorced, middle-aged woman with a 32 year old daughter named Joy, who is the **protagonist.** Due to a freak hunting accident Joy loses part of her leg. Joy is overweight and self conscious about her leg. She decides to rename herself Hulga, due to the ugliness of the name. The Hopewell’s allow Mrs. Freeman and her daughters to live with her because they are “good country people”. Mrs. Freeman is a **static character** who believes she is always right about things and one of her daughters is pregnant and married at the age of fifteen. One day as Hulga is preparing dinner. Manley Pointer, a **stock character** assuming a role as an innocent bible salesman, shows up at the house and begins conversing with Mrs. Hopewell. He speaks of his life and his calling for “Chrustian Service”. He tells her about his heart condition, the same condition as her daughter Joy. Mrs. Hopewell invites Manley for dinner. At dinner Manley speaks more about his family and his mission while glancing frequently at Joy. After dinner Manley flirts with her, admiring her prosthetic leg and inviting her to walk with him the next morning. The next morning Hulga meets Manley at the gate of her house and they begin to walk through the woods with Manley lugging his bibles. Hulga and Manley walk to the barn and Hulga has thoughts of seducing Manley. As the story nears its **climax** they climb the ladder to the top room of the barn. Manley and Hulga start kissing each other and then Manley asks her to show him how to remove her leg to prove her love for him. She gives in and he takes her leg. In a shocking display of **situational irony** Manley admits he is actually an Atheist like Hulga, who uses this routine to steal from others, stating that he stole a porcelain eye from a woman before. Manley leaves Hulga in the barn and walks out of the woods. Mrs. Hopewell sees him walking and assumes he was selling bibles to the ‘negroes’ who live behind the woods. 2. Both stories involve an older woman with her family. They both involve the use of the phrase good people. In both stories there is an **//antagonist//** who tries to create **//conflict//** by harming the **//protagonists//**. In //A Good Man is Hard to Find//, this is the misfit, the escaped criminal. In //Good Country People// the criminal is not apparent until near the end when he steals from the daughter. Both stories have a central **//theme//** around people being cruel and unkind. In //A Good Man is Hard to Find// the criminal once having found the family ignores the Grandmother's request to repent for his actions and then kills her. In this, it shows that the man does not regret his actions or feel any remorse for killing them. In //Good Country People// the salesman is shown to appear like a kindhearted person, but in actuality is nothing more than a liar and a thief. He wins over their affections only as part of his plan to steal from them. In both stories, the main characters show naivety in their actions, which ends up hurting them in the end. In //A Good Man is Hard to Find//, the Grandmother acts naïve towards the misfit at the end when even after this man has just murdered her family she has the nerve to think that he will regret his actions and repent. She also acts naïve in ignoring the warnings about the escaped misfit on the loose. In //Good Country People// both Ms. Hopewell and Joy both show naivety when they are so quick to give their trust towards the Bible salesman that they just met. He is quick to betray them and take advantage of their immediate kindness. A central theme in both is the mistrusting of their instincts. In //A Good Man is Hard to Find//, the Grandmother eventually plans on traveling one place but then changes her mind. This change causes them to run into the misfit and ultimately die. In //Good Country People//, Joy is at first hostile towards the salesman, but after he shows her affection, she turns against her first impression. This causes the man to be able to take advantage of her affection and steal her fake leg. Both stories have **//dynamic characters//** in the Grandmother in //A Good Man is Hard to Find// and Joy in //Good Country People.// The Grandmother at the beginning of the story would likely have nothing to do with the misfit and would avoid him. However, by the end she seems to be concerned for him and begs him to repent. Joy changes from being indifferent towards the salesman to liking him. Once she is invited out for a picnic by him, she starts to change her feelings towards him, only to be betrayed. Another similarity between the stories is the use of characters religious beliefs. In //A Good Man is Hard to Find//, the Grandmother is stoutly religious and her beliefs influence her decision at the end before her death to speak kindly towards the misfit and attempt to get him to repent. In //Good Country People// the salesman uses the cover of being a bible salesman to make the Hopewell family gain his trust. Using this he was able to get close to Hulga in order to steal her fake leg.

3. This image relates to “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” because it involves following one’s instincts, a very important lesson and **theme** throughout each of the texts. This comic features animals following their instincts; for example, the Beaver has the instinct to build a damn and the duck has the instincts to fly south for the winter. This image connects to “Good Country People” because if Hulga/Joy would have followed her suspicious instincts she would not have allowed Manley Pointer to be alone with her in the Barn. Her leg would not have been stolen. Instead Joy an atheist let herself become wooed by a thief disguised as an upright, God-fearing bible salesman. He had outsmarted and used Joy, who, earlier, had thoughts of seducing him. This comic also relates to “A Good Man is Hard” to find inasmuch as the Grandmothers instincts were to stay away from the **antagonistic** Misfit and vacation in East Tennessee. The family decided to ignore her concerns and vacation in the same area as the Misfit. As they were on the road the car wrecked and they **ironically** happened upon the Misfit, who killed them one by one. If they would have headed her instincts the family might still be alive.