Good Country People The characters in Flannery O’Conner’s “Good Country People” hinder their growth and development as characters by accepting a specific identity placed on them by social standing and education, which ironically should have placed them above others in title. Mrs. Hopewell is considered and considers herself as an upper class landowner. She owns a successful farm and is of a high economic class, but she is still considered a hard worker. Everyone below her is divided into two categories: good country people and trash. Even farther she determines their worth on the farm by the class stating “the reason for her keeping them for so long was that they were not trash. They were good country people” (1632). Social standing dictated
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Hopewell’s identity has disappeared behind a “neutral expression that she wore when she was alone” along with “two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings” (1632). This led to her being “no longer there in spirit” despite the fact that she would “stand there as real as several grain sacks thrown on top of each other” (1632). Hulga’s social standing and education led to a stubborn acceptance of a false identity, so much so that “as soon as she was twenty-one and away from home, she had had [her name] legally changed” (1634). She was so sure of her identity that it blinded her to the people around her as well as her own appearance. She sees anyone without a higher education as unintelligent and inferior to herself, despite the fact that her own mother sees her as a lesser woman. Her mother was “at a complete loss” for her choice of degree (1635). To her “that was something that had ended with the Greeks and Romans” and had no standing as a real job, unlike “teachers,” “nurses,” and “chemical engineers” (1635). Her identity as a higher educated woman not only lowers her in her mother’s eyes, but also leads her into trouble with Manly Pointer when she assumes him less intelligent when he actually knows more of the world, because Hulga “sat on her neck in a deep chair, reading. Sometimes she went for walks but she didn't like dogs or cats or birds or flowers or nature or nice young men” …show more content…
Manly Pointer, however, transcends the assumed boundaries of being a “good country” person. Pointer states “it ain't held me back none. I'm as good as you any day in the week” (1644). Despite his cruel nature, there is something to learn from Pointer. His constant name change symbolizes his ability to learn new things and grow as a person. With each name change he won a prize making his collection better than it was the day before. The other characters remained who they were, because they stopped learning and did not adapt. Hulga believed herself to have the highest education possible, yet she is the most blind and stupid to those around her. With the competitive human nature, the goal is to be better than you were yesterday, which Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell have forgotten. Mrs. Hopewell’s lack of identity connects her name to her future. There is still hope for her in the end, but Hulga’s future is as ugly as the name she has
Hopewell’s identity has disappeared behind a “neutral expression that she wore when she was alone” along with “two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings” (1632). This led to her being “no longer there in spirit” despite the fact that she would “stand there as real as several grain sacks thrown on top of each other” (1632). Hulga’s social standing and education led to a stubborn acceptance of a false identity, so much so that “as soon as she was twenty-one and away from home, she had had [her name] legally changed” (1634). She was so sure of her identity that it blinded her to the people around her as well as her own appearance. She sees anyone without a higher education as unintelligent and inferior to herself, despite the fact that her own mother sees her as a lesser woman. Her mother was “at a complete loss” for her choice of degree (1635). To her “that was something that had ended with the Greeks and Romans” and had no standing as a real job, unlike “teachers,” “nurses,” and “chemical engineers” (1635). Her identity as a higher educated woman not only lowers her in her mother’s eyes, but also leads her into trouble with Manly Pointer when she assumes him less intelligent when he actually knows more of the world, because Hulga “sat on her neck in a deep chair, reading. Sometimes she went for walks but she didn't like dogs or cats or birds or flowers or nature or nice young men” …show more content…
Manly Pointer, however, transcends the assumed boundaries of being a “good country” person. Pointer states “it ain't held me back none. I'm as good as you any day in the week” (1644). Despite his cruel nature, there is something to learn from Pointer. His constant name change symbolizes his ability to learn new things and grow as a person. With each name change he won a prize making his collection better than it was the day before. The other characters remained who they were, because they stopped learning and did not adapt. Hulga believed herself to have the highest education possible, yet she is the most blind and stupid to those around her. With the competitive human nature, the goal is to be better than you were yesterday, which Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell have forgotten. Mrs. Hopewell’s lack of identity connects her name to her future. There is still hope for her in the end, but Hulga’s future is as ugly as the name she has