Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” describes the life of Joy and how she gets deceived by the people around her and herself. The story takes place on a farm in Georgia that is owned by Joy’s mother. Joy has a PhD and a false leg which is thanks to a hunting accident when she was ten. Joy is badly injured emotionally almost as she is physically, and tries to pay, Joy becomes a smart person, but this adds to her loneliness/irritation because it enables her to imagine herself as better than others. In fact, she wants to make herself as unpleasant as possible, stomping about and being rude to everyone. She is offended by her mother not only because of her mother's simple views of life but also because her mother does not accept her for whom she is. She meets Manly Pointer who see believes to be a good country person, and try to but later finds out he is the complete opposite, for he takes her leg from her. "Good Country People" is an example of how people fool themselves and each other.
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She is offended by her mother not only because of her mother's overly-simple view of life but also because her mother does not accept her for whom she is. "If you want me, here I am--LIKE I AM. (pg. 483)" Hulga angrily and uncooperatively tells her. Changing her name shows this hatred and provides a way of reinventing herself. "One of her major triumphs," the narrator says, " that her mother had not been able to turn her dust into Joy, but the greater one was that she had been able to turn it herself into Hulga." Unlike her mother Hulga does not "hope well" because her accident, in taking away her leg, also took her faith and hope. Mrs. Hopewell's inability to see life as anything but simple also prevents her from understanding her daughter for the complex person she
She is offended by her mother not only because of her mother's overly-simple view of life but also because her mother does not accept her for whom she is. "If you want me, here I am--LIKE I AM. (pg. 483)" Hulga angrily and uncooperatively tells her. Changing her name shows this hatred and provides a way of reinventing herself. "One of her major triumphs," the narrator says, " that her mother had not been able to turn her dust into Joy, but the greater one was that she had been able to turn it herself into Hulga." Unlike her mother Hulga does not "hope well" because her accident, in taking away her leg, also took her faith and hope. Mrs. Hopewell's inability to see life as anything but simple also prevents her from understanding her daughter for the complex person she