Interpretation Of "Good Country People" By Flannery O'Connnor Through Imagery/Symbolism.

In Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People" Flannery shows and teaches us, you cannot judge a book by its cover, not even a bible. Though Hulga seems as if she has a heart as cold as ice, you learn how vulnerable she is. You also encounter a character named Manley Pointer. Who puts on a facade of being a good country boy, and a Christian who sells bibles. Symbolism plays a major role in the way that these characters are seen through out the story and how they perceive themselves.

Multiple objects' presented in the story initially may be props. The reader soon discovers these props to be extremely important, and necessary to how the story unfolds. These props symbolically represent the personalties of the characters who possess and use them. One such object is the wooden leg of Hulga. When the wooden leg is introduced into the story, you feel compelled to feel sympathy and pity for Hulga. Due to the circumstances requiring the wooden leg. The leg briefly mentioned, with little description that the leg was "literally blown off, "(Flannery O'Connor pg. 139) in a hunting accident. This sounds horrible, and is tragic but what is worse, is the way the leg is used.

Hulga uses the leg as a tool for manipulating situations to suit her. One example is shown she stomps through the house, deliberately making a loud "ugly-sounding"(pg. 137) noise. Why does she do this? To inform everyone that she is up, and miserable with everyone in the world? Hulga's physical disability, and use of the wooden leg, symbolizes her. More specifically, the leg is strong but is what makes her weak. When Manley Pointer steals her leg, it is revealed how vulnerable and weak she is. It is then, when she is left helpless with no one to insult that Hulga faces her weakness. David Havird wrote an article, "The Saving Rape: Flannery O'Connor and patriarchal religion," that was in The Mississippi Quarterly in 1993. He stated "Certainly none of O'Connor's women- neither Mrs May nor Mrs. Turpin nor Joy/Hulga Hopewell- invites assault. Still it is the author's strategy in " Greenleaf," "Revelation,"and "Good Country People" to knock these proud female characters down a notch - for Mrs. May that notch is death itself - by forcing upon them, in a sexually humiliating and often violent way, humbling knowledge that's there are after all women."

Hulga, who had grown cynical and cold as she grew up with only one leg, and a heart ailment. She creates an image that she is better and smarter than the rest of the characters in the story. Her education and self absorption seemed to instill this attitude in her. Her weakness is the feeling of power she believes she gained from her studies. When in fact as educated as she is, Manley Pointer has blinded her with his ways. She calls herself a person who "sees through nothing."(pg. 144) Little does she know that she is stating her greatest weakness by saying this. Her hidden desires and fantasies cause her several problems later in the story. After years of education and self absorption, Hulga felt that she had no weakness, though she was biologically flawed. Her line of thinking turned out to be another symbolism and a weakness. Her weak heart symbolizes her emotional problems. She does not love anyone therefore, she thinks she is incapable of being hurt or having a weakness when it comes to people. This is obviously refuted when she gives into to the manipulation of Pointer Manley.

I am not the only one who sees these connections with her physical disparities and her emotional weakness and strengths. In a published document out of "The Explicator" titled "O'Connor's Good Country People" by Kate Oliver she boldly states that she sees the same connections. She states the following:

"Flannery O'Connor's Southern landscapes are populated by freaks, misfits, shrewd con artists, murderers, and sometimes just plain ordinary country people. All her characters are flawed in some way-most are spiritually and morally corrupt. However, the greatest flaws can be found in those characters with physical impairments; bodily handicaps symbolize the greater disabilities of the intellect, the heart, the soul."

"Joy-Hulga's physical afflictions-her heart condition, her poor eyesight, and her artificial leg-symbolize her emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairments."

Manley