Good Country People Questions and Answers
Good Country People
What does Mrs. Hopewell mean by the phrase "good country people"?
Mrs. Hopewell describes "good country people" as people who are "not trash." She repeatedly says they are the "salt of the earth." It becomes clear as the story unfolds that she considers people...
Good Country People
In "Good Country People," why does Joy change her name to Hulga?
Interestingly, O'Connor's selection of names for her characters works to establish their significance in the story. Joy Hopewell has changed her name to the ugly name of Hulga because she perceives...
Good Country People
Analyze the relationship between Mrs. Hopewell and Joy in "Good Country People." How does this relationship...
Written in the mid-1950s, this short story features an uncharacteristically strong female character. Mrs. Hopewell has "divorced her husband long ago," which was certainly atypical of women in this...
Good Country People
Through the encounter with the bible salesman, what does Hulga learn about herself and other people?
In "Good Country People," Hulga learns that despite her belief in her own worldliness and sophistication, she is naive about evil. She takes Manley Pointer for one of the "good country people" he...
Good Country People
What makes the title "Good Country People" ironic?
"Good country people" is a phrase that is echoed several times throughout this short story, and the connotation is that "country people" are honest, hardworking, and genuine souls who are in high...
Good Country People
In "Good Country People," why is it significant that Mrs. Hopewell's daughter has two names?
The two names represent separate identities residing in the one person. Joy is no longer joyful, having had her life ruined by an accident that caused permanent disability. As far as she's...
Good Country People
What characteristics of grotesque are used in "Good Country People"?
The term grotesque in literature refers to writing about the physically or morally ugly, distorted, and repellent. In "Good Country People," O'Connor makes Hulga a grotesque. Hulga has an...
Good Country People
Compare and contrast the characters and personalities of Joy (Hulga) and the Bible salesman in "Good Country People"...
Two of the primary characters in Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People" are Joy Hopewell and Manley Pointer. Joy has renamed herself Hulga, the ugliest name she can think of, and...
Good Country People
Is O'Connor trying to make a point about formal education through the story "Good Country People"? Explain your...
Hulga Hopewell has a PhD in philosophy and reads books so abstruse and technical that her mother regards them as "some evil incantation in gibberish." However, she is easily deceived and robbed by...
Good Country People
What is the conclusion of "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor?
Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People" examines human nature and blind acceptance (based upon one's similarities with another's ideology). Short stories are broken down into five...
Good Country People
What did Hulga/Joy and Manley Pointer have in common?
Hulga and Manley are both quite fake people. Both use false names. Both dress strangely. Both have heart conditions which reflect their ill souls. Both planned to seduce one another as part of a...
Good Country People
What do you think of Hulga's conviction that intelligence and education are incompatible with religious faith?
O'Connor shows Hulga to be limited and blinded by her view that intelligence and education are incompatible with religious faith. Her belief in her own intelligence is a form of pride and...
Good Country People
What is Manley Pointer's motive for humiliating Hulga?
Manley Pointer evidently has a fetish for objects related to disability, specifically for parts which have been tooled to replace what has been lost. He has a compunction to collect such objects...
Good Country People
In Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People," what is the tone of the piece?
The tone of the story is ironic and mocking. As she often does, O'Connor simply gets inside the head of her main character or characters and conveys their thoughts in a deadpan, mocking, scathing...
Good Country People
In the short story "Good Country People," how do the names of the characters symbolically represent thematic...
Mrs. Hopewell's last name represents her optimism, Christian beliefs, and good faith in people. She seems to barely perceive that evil exists in the world or that Manley Pointer is anything but the...
Good Country People
What does Hulga learn about herself and about other people through her encounter with the Bible salesman in "Good...
Joy-Hulga has an incredible sense of superiority over everyone around her. She is college educated with a degree in philosophy and that alone makes her different and "better" than her mother Mrs....
Good Country People
What statement is Flannery O’Connor trying to make by having Manley hide sexual items behind the cover of a Bible?
This is a critique of a particular type of person who identifies as being Christian. There are many Christians who embody the beliefs of Christ and who demonstrate the Biblical "fruits of the...
Good Country People
In O'Connor's "Good Country People," why are the characters' names significant?
Many of the names in this story can be interpreted ironically: for example, Mrs. Hopewell wants to see the good in people, such as Manley, but she tends to allow her sense of her own superiority to...
Good Country People
In what ways do Mrs. Freeman’s descriptions of her daughters contribute to the theme of the story "Good Country People"?
In Flannery O’Connor’s story, Mrs. Freeman is one of the people that Mrs. Hopewell labels with the title phrase. The author uses the two mothers, their relative social positions, and their...
Good Country People
Why does Hulga agree to meet with Manley Pointer? What does this say about Hulga's philosophy?
Hulga Hopewell of "Good Country People" is an unusual character in Flannery O'Connor's fictional world. Hulga Hopewell’s loss of her leg at the age of nine from a gunshot determined her bitter...
Good Country People
What religious values are in "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor?
Sin is one of the critical themes of Christian teaching, and if we look towards Roman Catholic theology, we can observe the categorization of the seven deadly sins. I'd suggest that, thematically...
Good Country People
In "Good Country People," why does Joy feel that changing her name to Hulga is her highest creative act?
Joy's mother suspects that the name Hulga is selected because it is the ugliest name that Joy could find. According to Joy/Hulga this is exactly the case. Joy/Hulga is a somewhat bitter young...
Good Country People
Hulga and Manley in "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor are never honest with each other. Why?
“Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor features two characters who hide behind their names. Joy Hopewell believes that no man will ever be interested in her because she has a prosthetic leg....
Good Country People
Is it significant that the story begins and ends with Mrs. Freeman? Why or why not?
The story opens with Mrs. Freeman, Mrs. Hopewell's hired help, wearing a "neutral" expression. She won't reveal herself to others. We learn, too, that Mrs. Hopewell is condescending to Mrs....
Good Country People
What is the central conflict of "Good Country People"? What is the resolution?
I agree that the central conflict in the novel is between Hulga and Pointer Manley. Hulga and Pointer both believe they are superior to the "good country people" all around them. Hulga, who has a...
Good Country People
What is the purpose of the last two paragraphs and explain how it contributes to the story's themes. The last two...
Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" focuses on the story of a girl named Joy-Hulga Hopewell, who thinks that she is intellectually superior to those around her. Eventually, though, she is...
Good Country People
Explore why and how Manley Pointer is able to be so successful in his misadventures as a traveling salesman in “Good...
Manley Pointer is successful in his misadventures of "Good Country People" because he taps into the weaknesses of the people whom he exploits, pretending to commiserate with them on their beliefs....
Good Country People
Who does O'Connor admire and satirize in "Good Country People"?
In "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor satirizes certain qualities in human nature such as pretension, and she admires "a sense of being" achieved through a redemptive experience. "Foolishness...
Good Country People
What lessons do the characters in "Good Country People" and "The Lesson" learn?
In the short story "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor, the characters, particularly Joy, are taught the lesson that their pride in their own knowledge has blinded them to the lessons that...
Good Country People
Does the story have any admirable characters or heroes in the conventional sense? Explain.
No, because all the characters are seen to be odd in some way. For example Joy is seen to be very rude and awkward and endowed with a monstrous intellect at the expense of feeling, and given to...
Good Country People
What is the significance of the title "Good Country People"?
The significance of the title "Good Country runs throughout the story. The title appears all through the story. Yet, each character has faults that demonstrate they are not “good country...
Good Country People
Why does Hulga go on the picnic with Manley Pointer in "Good Country People"?
Hulga is Mrs. Hopewell’s only child. She is thirty-two years old and is highly educated. She has a PhD in Philosophy, and most of the villagers find her attitude quite incomprehensible. Mrs....
Good Country People
"The point is, that nobody likes having salt rubbed into their wounds . . .even if it is the salt of the earth.” How...
Country people are supposed to be the salt of the earth: God-fearing people whose innate sense of goodness can always be relied upon. That's the theory, at any rate. And that's certainly the...
Good Country People
In "Good Country People," does Mrs. Hopewell's character explain her daughter's character in any way?
Mrs. Hopewell's character does explain her daughter's character to a point. Joy/Hulga, is an angry, resentful individual, who although very smart, does not participate in life according to her...
Good Country People
O'Connor frequently addresses hypocrisy in religion. How does she do so in "Good Country People"?
Set in what Flannery O'Connor called the "Christ-haunted South" her stories find religion as part of several dimensions of the narrative. In "Good Country People" the characters resonate with...
Good Country People
In Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People," what ironies does Joy/Hulga not realize about herself?
Within "Good Country People," Joy (or Hulga) exhibits a great deal of intellectual pride. She holds the people around her in contempt, viewing herself as their intellectual superior on account of...
Good Country People
Explain each character's ways of manipulation in "Good Country People."
Mrs. Hopewell is extremely skilled at manipulation; in fact, having been warned about the nosiness of Mrs. Freeman, she has a plan in place to mange her before she even hires her and her husband as...
Good Country People
What could be a thesis statement for the short story "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor?
You will have to decide what position you would like to take in your thesis, but here are a few ideas. Flannery O'Connor's short story, "Good Country People," focuses on a mother/daughter...
Good Country People
In "Good Country People," what did Hulga hope to steal from Pointer when he stole her leg and glasses?
By the time that Pointer steals Hulga's leg and glasses, I think Hulga has lost all illusions of actually taking anything from Pointer. By that point, Hulga has begun to realize exactly how deeply...
Good Country People
What does Mrs. Hopewell mean by "good country people" in the story "Good Country People"?
Mrs. Hopewell uses this term to describe people who are uncomplicated and uneducated. "Good country people" are characterized also by possessing what Mrs. Hopewell considers good values. This...
Good Country People
What is the importance of family in "Good Country People"?
One aspect of family that is important appears in the way Hulga interacts with her mother. Because she has an education, she feels that she is far superior to the "country folk" family from which...
Good Country People
Why do you think Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell are introduced before Hulga?
By introducing the two older women first in the story, the author allows us an opportunity to understand Mrs. Hopewell's desire for her daughter Joy/Hulga to have a normal happy life. Mrs....
Good Country People
What are three common themes between the short stories "Petrified Man" by Eudora Welty and "Good Country People"...
Some common themes that "Petrified Man" and "Good Country People" share are superficiality and predation, among others. In Eudora Welty’s short story “Petrified Man,” superficiality is arguably...
Good Country People
Why did Flannery O'Connor title her short story "Good Country People"?
Flannery O'Connor's choice of the title "Good Country People" for her short story about religious small-town people in rural Georgia is considered entirely ironic. As the eNotes biography of...
Good Country People
How does O'Connor view Southern women in "Good Country People"?
It would appear as if she sees them as very true to their faith, simplistic, and narrow-minded. This is especially true of Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman. However, Joy, or Hulga, as she prefers,...
Good Country People
Compare "Petrified Man" by Eudora Welty and "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor using three quotes from each...
The stories are alike in that are part of the American Southern genre of the grotesque, they deal in secrets and hypocrisy, and a character everyone looks down on, Billy in the Welty story and...
Good Country People
Why does Manley Pointer refer to Christians as Chrustians in "Good Country People"?
Initially, we believe as readers, as do Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell, that Manley Pointer says "Chrustian" because he is a simply an ignorant country hick who has been taught to pronounce it that way....
Good Country People
How is "Good Country People" related to Marxist criticism?
According to Lois Tyson, "[Marxist critical theory] attempts to reveal the ways in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate source of our experience." Marxist critical theory often...
Good Country People
What clues in the story hint at Freeman's identity? Provide details from the story in your explanation.
The “Good Country People” in Flannery O’Connor’s story include the Freemans. They are a married couple who work for Mrs. Hopewell as tenants on her farm. Mrs. Freeman appears often in the story,...
Good Country People
In "Good Country People," how does O'Connor use situational irony to show the motivations of the characters?
Situational irony is a literary device in which the outcome of a character's actions or circumstances is the opposite of what is expected. In "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor, this tool...
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