Nihilism In Flannery O Conner's Good Country People

Nihilism, essentially, is the belief in nothing. There is no intrinsic moral system, nor is there any real point to our human existence. The concepts of “good” and “bad” are all but objective abstract concepts that are not a fundamental part of human nature. A basic understanding of nihilism is needed in the analysis of the main character, Hulga, in O’Conner’s short story, “Good Country People.” In the story, Hulga is a bitter woman in her thirties who lives with two Christian women who, in her opinion, are intellectually inferior to her. She is trapped in this living arrangement due to her “weak heart” and a hunting accident from when she was nine that ultimately gave her an artificial leg. Hulga finds comfort from her physical shortcomings within intellectualism and by adopting a simplistic nihilistic worldview; she develops a sense of intellectual superiority which ultimately coerces …show more content…
Unable to see what Manley truly is, Hulga states, “that for the first time in her life she was face to face with real innocence.” (199) Hulga sees Manley as something she can mold. The night before their rendezvous, she exhibits her arrogance and her somewhat malevolent intentions as she, “… imagined that she seduced him…. True genius can get an idea across even to an inferior mind. She imagined that she took his remorse in hand and changed it into a deeper understanding of life. She took all his shame away and turned it into something useful.” (196) Under her misconceptions about Manley, Hulga believes she can rob him of his innocence, both spiritually and physically. She hopes to destroy his good Christain worldview and replace it with her own cynical outlook on life. This highlights Hulga’s manipulative and condescending