Good and Evil in Good Country People Essay example -- people

Good and Evil in Good soil People In Good Country People by Flannery OConnor, the masked justice is reflected unequivocally through the reality in the story, its equal counterpart. For every good or evil thing, there is an antagonist or opposing force. Each grammatical case has a duplicate personality mirrored in someone else in the story. In the story, the names and personalities of the characters clash. The name is the mask covering the personality, which is representative of the reality sight of each character. When Mrs. Hopewell named her daughter Joy, she was hoping for all the joy that comes with raising a child and watching the child develop a life of its own. What Mrs. Hopewell received was a incapacitate daughter who lived miserably at home and was the antithesis of everything her mother believed. The name Hulga is also a mask. When Joy changed her name to Hulga, Mrs. Hopewell had made up her mind that Joy had conceit and thought until she hit upon the ugliest name in any language (OConnor 299). Although Joy-Hulga chose the name because of its ugly sound and how well it suited her, she secretly desired an inner ego that was beautifully unique (Bloom 99). The name Manley, the Bible salesman, has similar implications. The name Manley includes the word man, but he is constantly revealed through his child- alike(p) acts such as his mumbling was like the sleepy fretting of a child (OConnor 307). OConnor also refers to him as having sweet breath like a childs and his kisses were sticky like a childs (307). The beginning of the story, Good Country People, is misleading. At first, the story points to Mrs. Freeman and Manley Pointer as being good country people. According to Mrs. Hopewell t... ... the story. Flannery OConnor portrayed both the good and the evil side of gentleman nature. She also explored religious issues that are prevalent in todays society. The struggle between good and evil and real and hidden truths build the foundations for G ood Country People. whole shebang Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Flannery OConnor. New York Chelsea, 1986. Humphries, Jefferson. The Otherness Within Gnostic Readings in Marcel Proust, Flannery OConnor, and Francois Villion. Baton Rouge Louisiana State UP, 1983. May, John R. The Pruning Word The Parables of Flannery OConnor. Notre Dame, IN U of Notre Dame P, 1976. OConnor, Flannery. Good Country People. Literature Reading, Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert DiYanni. New York McGraw-Hill, 1994. 297-310. Walters, Dorothy. Flannery OConnor. New York Twayne, 1973.