Hulga And Good Country People Analysis

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Chelsey Olauson September 26, 2015 Honors English Looking Back Question Number Four Arrogance is an interesting emotion. It stems from an overabundance of fortunate happenings in one’s life, and one begins to think they caused them. Fortunate happenings don’t have to occur in sports, as they can also pertain to academic pursuits. Just as people make up all types, arrogance has many different facets. Since Arrogance is never considered to be one’s redeeming characteristic, it can safely be assumed that it is not a virtuous trait. Both Hulga (from Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People) and Young Goodman Brown (from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown) have their own brand of arrogance, yet are similar in some ways, such as their consequences,…show more content…
Yet, they don’t think of it in that light. To them, because they are having those thoughts and ideas, that sets them apart and makes them untouchable to the taint of the crowd. However, the thought that has overreached their minds is the fact that crowds are made up of individuals, who do not all kowtow to the same way of thinking. Hulga and Young Goodman Brown are individuals that do not consciously consider themselves to be better than others, but it is the unconscious that lays the groundwork for arrogance. Thinking “why wouldn’t I?’ instead of ‘I was just lucky; anybody could have done it had they been in my place’ is the true downfall of arrogant people. Hulga and Young Goodman Brown are also similar in their consequences: Because of their startling revelations, they are shocked by the disclosure that people do not always behave as Hulga and Young Goodman Brown believe they should. The main characters will live out their lives behaving as though existence has gone gray, and is therefore not worth deigning to participate with others of the great rat race called…show more content…
Their genders are opposite, their appearances contrasting (Young Goodman Brown has all of his limbs and Hulga does not), and their settings are quite different (Young Goodman Brown is set years previous to Good Country People). As far as personal traits, Hulga didn’t care about her appearance, and Young Goodman Brown is a perfect, proper Puritan. Hulga’s method of revenge on society was to withdraw her intelligence except when she could not stand the absurdity of people, and Young Goodman Brown’s was just to withdraw completely. While Young Goodman Brown is a prominent figure in his community, and has the lineage to prove it, Hulga is a sullen, reluctant member of her community. All these differences may harbor many variations of arrogance, and yet, the two end up more similar than different. Mind-set trumps gender, time, and even appearance. Though similar appearances often group together, the odd ones out dispute that theory’s rock-solid clinging ability: Rasputin of Russia comes to mind. Consequences, also, trump differences. A good example is found in jail; specifically, an old Western prison, where the rich and the poor languish together; the horse thieves alongside the disorderly. Though their crime was different, their consequences are the
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