"Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor

Study Questions

Despite her claim, "I don't have illusions" (287), and declaration, "I don't even believe in God" (285), what illusions does Hulga have? Far from being a true non-believer who believes in nothing, what does she, in fact, believe?
Consider the disabilities associated with Hulga. She is first described as lame, having an artificial leg (271). Later she is described in terms of being blind, having "the look of someone who has achieved blindness by an act of will and means to keep it" (273). On one hand she has an artificial leg, on the other she has achieved artificial blindness. Which of her capabilities are real, which are illusory? Which of her handicaps are given, which are made? What deformities or abnormalities does she see in herself or impose on herself? How do they affect other people's perceptions of her and how they treat her?
What role do names have in the story?
Who are "good country people" and who are bad?
Why is "good country people" almost a derogatory term as used by Mrs. Freeman, and certainly by Joy-Hulga?
If "good" is derogatory, what is bad?
What does "Bible salesman" evoke? Why is the term funny? Ironic? True?

Joy Hopewell, Hulga – "a large blonde girl who had an artificial leg" (271); her leg was "shot off in a hunting accident when Joy was ten" (274); 32 years old (271); atheist (278); has a Ph.D. in philosophy (276); has her name changed from Joy to Hulga at twenty-one (274); blue eyes (273); "spectacled" ();

Mrs. Freeman – mother of Glynese and Carramae (272); has been working for Mrs. Hopewell for four years (272); "Her forward expression was steady and driving like the advance of a heavy truck" (271); "Mrs. Freeman could never be brought to admit herself wrong on any point" (271); "'the nosiest woman ever to walk the earth'" (272); black eyes (271);

Mrs. Hopewell – mother of Hulga (Joy) (271); landowner (273); "divorced her husband long ago" (274)

Glynese Freeman – called Glycerin by Hulga (272); "a redhead, was eighteen and had many admirers" (272)

Carramae Freeman – called Caramel by Hulga (272); "a blonde, was only fifteen but already married and pregnant" (272); married to Lyman (281);

Harvey Hill – goes out with Glynese (281); "goes to chiropracter school" (281)

kitchen – "They [Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell] carried on their most important business in the kitchen at breakfast." (271);

seven o'clock – "Every morning Mrs. Hopewell got up at seven o'clock and lit her gas heater and Joy's." (271)

Links

Criticism

Joyce Carol Oates, "The Parables of Flannery O'Connor" (2009)
Donald E. Hardy, "Politeness in Flannery O'Connor's Fiction: Social Interaction, Language, and the Body," Style 44.4 (2010)
C. Hugh Holman, "Detached Laughter in the South," Comic Relief: Humor in Contemporary American Literature (1978)
John Hawkes, "Flannery O'Connor's Devil," The Sewanee Review (1962)
Note on the Texts

O'Connor, Flannery. Collected Works. New York: Library of America, 1988. Print.

O'Connor, Flannery. The Complete Stories. 1971. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995. Print.