Throughout the course of this paper, I plan to look at the characteristics that make up Hulga, in Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”. She can be seen as an aggressive and cold person, but ends up loving and being betrayed by Manley Pointer, who she thought cared about her like no one else had done. I want to look more at the things that make her act the way she does and the events that led up to her deception by Manley Pointer.
Flannery O’Connor was born March 25, 1925; in Savannah, Georgia to Edward Francis O’Connor and Regina Cline. She used three characteristics to describe herself, “a Catholic, and a Southerner, and a writer” (….). When she was thirteen, O’Connor moved to Milledgeville, Georgia where she was able to fit in as a …show more content…
Manley Pointer is supposed to be a bible salesman that comes off as a righteous person. He has bad intentions, however, and he shows Hulga the attention she has never had to get her to step outside of her comfort zone. Hulga begins to see Manley as someone who cares about her and despite her being a smart woman, she is unable to see him for who he truly is. Manley notices that Hulga is blind to a world outside of knowledge obtained from books and degrees, and he takes advantage of that. The author states “her eyes have the look of someone who has achieved blindness by an act of will” (…). She does not feel like there is anything else in the world to look at and care about other than …show more content…
She could not change the fact that her leg was shot off, and that she now has to wear an artificial leg. She could however control her faith, which seemed to be lost along with her leg and she goes on to say, “I do not believe in God” (Book 381) as her and Manley make their way to the barn. She looks at her artificial leg like a reason to create a fake belief and her leg becomes her soul. “She took care of it as someone else would his soul, in private and almost with her own eyes turned away” () Her leg was the final thing Manley used to gain Hulga’s complete trust. She had already told him she loved him, but when she let Manley take off her leg, that was her also giving him her whole trust. She did not have a faith before this event, but she then began to believe in him as if he was a faith in himself. She would do anything he wanted her to and that was exactly what he was working towards the entire
Flannery O’Connor was born March 25, 1925; in Savannah, Georgia to Edward Francis O’Connor and Regina Cline. She used three characteristics to describe herself, “a Catholic, and a Southerner, and a writer” (….). When she was thirteen, O’Connor moved to Milledgeville, Georgia where she was able to fit in as a …show more content…
Manley Pointer is supposed to be a bible salesman that comes off as a righteous person. He has bad intentions, however, and he shows Hulga the attention she has never had to get her to step outside of her comfort zone. Hulga begins to see Manley as someone who cares about her and despite her being a smart woman, she is unable to see him for who he truly is. Manley notices that Hulga is blind to a world outside of knowledge obtained from books and degrees, and he takes advantage of that. The author states “her eyes have the look of someone who has achieved blindness by an act of will” (…). She does not feel like there is anything else in the world to look at and care about other than …show more content…
She could not change the fact that her leg was shot off, and that she now has to wear an artificial leg. She could however control her faith, which seemed to be lost along with her leg and she goes on to say, “I do not believe in God” (Book 381) as her and Manley make their way to the barn. She looks at her artificial leg like a reason to create a fake belief and her leg becomes her soul. “She took care of it as someone else would his soul, in private and almost with her own eyes turned away” () Her leg was the final thing Manley used to gain Hulga’s complete trust. She had already told him she loved him, but when she let Manley take off her leg, that was her also giving him her whole trust. She did not have a faith before this event, but she then began to believe in him as if he was a faith in himself. She would do anything he wanted her to and that was exactly what he was working towards the entire