Good Country People Aren T Always Good

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Good Country People Aren’t Always Good In “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, the story takes place in a rural farm somewhere in Southern Georgia, where Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Joy (later renamed as Hulga) reside along with a few other women. A Bible salesman, supposedly named Manley Pointer, pays the household a visit and is reluctantly invited for dinner which later sparks the attention of Joy/Hulga. Reciprocating the interest, Manley proceeds to ask her out on a picnic, which results in teaching Joy/Hulga a valuable lesson. As she opens up to Manley, her physical and emotional weaknesses become apparent, allowing Manley to take advantage of Joy/Hulga to benefit himself and steal her prosthetic leg to sell. Through the…show more content…
She believes she is the one with ulterior motives yet is unable to foreshadow Manley’s intentions. Moreover, Hulga is under the impression that luring Manley into sleeping with her would be easy, as she believes that a “true genius can get an idea across to an inferior mind”. The reader can sense a spark of skepticism in Hulga when Manley’s valise does not appear as heavy as it did the previous day mentioning that he “even swung it”, assuming that it is empty - still, Hulga ignores this sketchy observation. Once they reach the barn, Manley tricks Hulga into telling him that she loved him back and challenges her response with a “prove it” remark. By doing so, Hulga grants Manley the permission to remove her prosthetic leg and once the profitable prize is in his hands, he carefully constructs his words to buy some time. Immediately, Hulga is alarmed, and demands Manley to put her leg back on. He tries distracts her by kissing her and pulls out a flask of whiskey motioning her to “take a swig.” Once Hulga begins to realize Manley is not who he projected himself to be (a nice, southern Christian Bible seller), she begins to panic, and before she could even blink, Manley disappears with her leg. All along, Hulga thought she was the smarter one, the one who would be getting what she wanted. In fact, the ending reveals that Hulga was actually outsmarted by the same person she thought was weak-minded. She believed every word out of his mouth, and didn’t question his strange behavior. Her inexperience played a role in Manley’s deception, for her own ignorance and self-delusion is to blame for her artificial leg being

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