Now that our visit with Faulkner is complete, let's walk a few year's down the time line and meet Flannery O'Connor. First of all, take some time to get acquainted with her. Here is a pretty good short biography of her life:
http://www.biblio.com/authors/74/Flannery_OConnor_Biography.html
Once you have introduced yourself to her, it's time to have a nice long chat with her. So grab a nice tall glass of iced tea, kick back, and read her tale: "Good Country People," another one of my personal favorites. I appreciate authors who laugh in the face of convention and have their say in spite of the society that envelopes and often suffocates them.
So here is the link to the story:
http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/oconnorgoodcountry.html
I hope you appreciate the ironic twist at the end. . . it relies on a kind of twisted humor I think to appreciate it.
So here are your questions for this one:
1. So tell me why this happens to be one of my favorite short stories.
2. Talk about the ending of the story. Did you "see it coming"? Why or why not?
3. Talk about the family relationships. Were they realistic? Why or why not?
4. Talk about the view of religion presented in the story. What's the point she is trying to make? Do you agree or disagree?
5. I'd like to propose that all the characters of the story are "disabled" in some way. In what ways do you agree or disagree with that statement?
6. How is the point of view of the story different from what we've become used to with Faulkner? How does that affect the story?
7. What elements of her life appear in her fiction?
Enjoy your trip with Ms. O'Connor. I'm anxious to see your reactions to the story. Have a super weekend--
Mrs. M
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22 comments:
The ending of the story was TWISTED. I never saw it coming. The boy took her all the way out to a barn and up to the second story to get her leg! He is a sick person, but I guess that some people get off to things like that. The author made the story kind of boring in the begining to me and then like a ton of bricks, dropped that ending to the story. I thought that Hulga had finally found her a good thing and that she was going to become a better person in the end. But, she is going to be even more sour than she was to start with thanks to the boy.
4. The view of religion that the author portrays in the story is that christian people are hipocrits. The character Hulga, is used to show these emotions that many people have. Hulga didnt believe in anything and never found a reason to be happy or even kind to anyone. The real hypocrocy is revealed when the Bible salesmen takes out the whiskey and the cards and tells Hulga that he doesnt believe in anything either. I agree to a certain point with O'Connor's view of christianity through out this story. Christians do good things, like Mrs. Hopewell always being polite. And christians do bad things, like the salesmen stealing Hulga's leg. I think the bigger issue is that christian or not, humankind is easily tempted with hypocrocy.
I had no clue Manley was gonna steal the leg. It seemed as if he just wanted to "spend time with her". Although it did seem odd that he kept asking about the leg. When the story said that he took the briefcase with them I figured he had put lunch in it for them. I kinda thought it was funny when he was running off with the leg, and Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman thought nothing of it.
#5 I agree that everyone in the story has some sort of disability. For example, Mrs. Freeman for example seems to be fond of physical disabilities or illnesses because she is always talking about her daughter vomiting, and always wants to hear the story about how Hulga lost her leg. Mrs. Hopewell didn't want to come to terms with her daughter's accident and continues to see her as a child. Hulga, obviously has a disability because of her leg, but also because of her attitude towards life. She sees herself far more superior than anyone else in the town and doesn't really like to be nice to anyone. The "Bible salesman" was obviously just a sick creep because he liked women's fake body parts.
i think this is story has a "weird" twist.the ending of the story was not exactly like i expected. i thought he was going to kill hulga or something. i had no idea he was after her leg.i guess i should have seen it coming by the way he was wanting to know how to take it on and off.the family relationships seemed kind of real. i can see how mrs. hopewell and joy did not really get along. but i dont understand why she changed her name to ulga. i guess i can agree that maybe all these people were someway disabled. the boy is surley mentally diabled. how can you suduss a woman to steal her leg. also, mrs.hopewll because she still see`s her 30 year old daughter as a young girl. i am not to sure about the mental ability of mrs. freeman. it would appear that she had some mental disability to because she had some issues with "human dealings". like faulkners story`s, this leads you to believe that one thing is gonna happen and then all of a sudden it takes a twisted turn.
7. What elements of her life appear in her fiction? I think that Ms. Flannery O'Connor uses elements of herself in the role of Hulga. They both lived in the country on a farm. Ms. O'Connor had no known love affairs and we learn from the story that Hulga was 32 before she got her first kiss. They both were physically deformed and lived a simple life. Neither of them had father figures in their life as Ms. O'Connor lost her father when she was a teenager and Hulga's parents were divorced. So it seems to me that Ms. O'Connor gave many of her own characteristics to Hulga.
There are several facets from O-Connor's biography written in the story. For one, Hulga obviously had a physical deformity beacuase of a missing leg, and O'Connor suffered from lupus. In O'Connor's writings, she speaks heavily of religion, displaying people's ignorance in it and their contradictions. Hulga also believed in religion, although she was not Chrisitian, she too mentioned how people were very inconsistent between their beliefs and actions. O'Connor grew up sheltered and lived on a farm. Hulga also lived on a farm and was treated like a child. Hulga's parents were divorced and her father did not have much part in her life and O'Connor's father died when she was young. Also, Hulga was not well oriented with people just like O'Connor did not like to have much contact with others. In her biography, O'Connor owned several peacocks which she alluded to in the story. "But she was as sensitive about the artificial leg as a peacock about his tail. No one ever touched it but her." I feel that O'Connor could relate herself to the sensitivity of the peacock and Hulga because she probably did not want people to become very intimate with her.
The point of view of this story is far more different than Faulkners. O'Conner portrays christians as hipocrits and shows that everybody has their own disabilities. What we've become used to with Faulkner is him relating his life and much of what was happening in the south in his stories. In a way both authors present some type of message about the worste of humanity. The way they go about it is very different. In this story O'Connor, it seems out of no where she dropped that ending with the boy running off with her leg. In Faulkners stories he had a lot of subtle hints of what was to come. I liked this story better but it took a long time to get to the point but i think that's what gives the affect better because you never saw it coming.
2. Well that was interesting -and odd...
When Pointer was first introduced in the story, I found him to be shady and suspicious. He seemed to be too good to be true, I guess. But I would have never thought that he would take her leg... that was just weird! When he was telling Mrs. Hopewell of his past, I could almost feel how dishonest he was. And when he told her all over again, what happened to him as a child, I felt he was just wanting her to pity him. I expected something bad to happen when they were heading for the barn but didn't think about Pointer taking Hulga's leg until he just wouldn't give it back to her.
I didn't see the end of the story coming. If it were reality, it would be sad, but in the story it was kind of funny. I wonder if he goes around and lulls women into a false sense of security just to steal strange objects from them. I thought that she was going to fall in love with him and that he was infatuated with her. I did sense that there was going to be some twist, but not that.
This story was crazy! I never saw it coming. At first the story seemed normal. I felt bad for Hulga (JoY) and i thought that the bible salesman was going to be a good guy for her and that the story would be a happliy ever after ending...but i was definitley wrong. Why would a guy want to steal a girls wooden leg...and her mom (Mrs. Hopewell)and Mrs. Freeman just let him walk away with it! He really seemed like a nice christian guy..i had no clue. This story was very weird and the ending was very much unexected.
The ending of the story completely shocked me. I didnt think that there were any clues to give away the end of the story in this one. Then when she met the "bible salesmen" I figured that they would get married and live a happy life and that she would change her ways. THEN the ending came! This author is definitely twisted!
Also I'm going to agree that she made it sound that christians are hypocrites. I mean she made the person ,who was supposively getting people to believe in God and know him through his word, be a theif and someone who actually didnt believe himself. This was definitely a CRAZY story!!!
2. When Manley first came in the story selling bibles i thought he was a nice southern boy. I didn't see Hulga being interested in him at all when they were all eating together or even when she was walking him to the gate. I was shocked to read that she was meeting him at the gate at a later time. I thought everything was sweet as they were walking along until they started talking about her not believing in God. After she says that she doesnt believe he kisses her. If he was such a christian as he says he was than he wouldnt be "turned on" by that. It was also weird how he wanted to take her leg off. I also noticed that while they were kissing he took her glasses off. I guess he had a plan the whole time and people arent always what they seem.
When manley kept asking about the leg i thought that he was just trying to talk, and nderstand what it was like to be here and have to live with a fake leg and all. Never did i see the ending of him taking the leg! That was very much a surprise to me.
I knew something bad was going to happen with Hulga and Pointer. For some reason though I thought that Hulga was going to be the one to either beat him up or leave him for dead in the woods. So I saw something coming but not leading her all the way out there just for a wood leg. I really enjoyed this one.
I agree that the ending of the story was very twisted. After the last two stories we read i expected something crazy to happen at the end but i did not expect him to take her leg. When i was reading the story i thought either they were going fall in love and get married or he would kill her. I missed all the foreshadowing leading up, to this like when he wanted to take her leg off. I was totally shocked at the end.
Ken Hertzler #6
The point of view O'Conner uses to construct her story, Good Country People, is from third person, rather than Faulkner's first person. Through this method, the reader is able to witness all the actions as they take place and is offered insight towards each individual character; Faulkner's approach was different as it limited the reader's knowledge to the given accounts of only one character. O'Conner's point of view also allows the reader to better form his/her own opinion of each character without the bias present in Faulkner's writing. Also, several elements of irony are achieved in O'Conner's method that would have been less successful through first person - I especially enjoyed the dramatic irony in Mrs. Freeman's closing statement, "Some can't be that simple...I know I never could." Ultimately, third person allows this story to be more complete, in the sense that little is left for readers to assume other than their own feelings towards the characters.
I found the ending surprising. I thought Mr. Manely really liked Helga. I mean they were walking in the fields and I thought maybe they were leaving together. But when he suggested that they go to the barn I was thinking okay Mr. Bible sells man is a little kinky but still I never thought that he would be a little sicko! He kissed her then asked to see her leg and she lets him. He takes it off then puts it back on then takes it off again. I was wondering why he kept taking it on and off again. Then he sets it aside takes out some dirty playing card and a hollowed out bible with a flask in it. If I was Helga I would be really creaped out right about now. She asked for her leg back but then he grads her fake leg and his stuff, puts it all in his brief case and runs away. What I thought was really funny was that Helga’s mother saw him running away from the barn and she thought he was just selling bibles to the black people in the woods.
This story was very well written, and the foreshadowing, what little there was, still didn't give away the end of the story. I had no idea that he would steal her leg!! At first he seemed like a simple country boy who was infatuated with a girl, though I didn't understand why he would be interested with Hulga. I was suspicious when he was so eager to kiss her and take her into the loft, but I still figured that they would end up falling in love, and he would change her outlook on life and religion. I can definitely see O'Conner's dislike for religion showing through both in Hulga's attitude and the hypocracy of the "Bible seller."
Given the fact of what you have given us to read I should have seen the end. This end was even stranger than most other stories. I knew something was going on with the boy from about the point were he seemed a little to interested on how the leg came off. This story defiently had a twist. I still want to know exactly what he does with his retrieved body parts. At the end of the story he tells Hulga he stole a glass eye this way. I know there is something to the boy I still have not figured out.
#2 In a way I knew the ending would have some kind of twist in it but I didn't think the boy would steal the girls leg. I think it was kind of ironic that Joy/Hulga had been so rude to everyone and then when a boy is nice to her he ends up hurting and leaving her. When the story first said that he had taken his bag with the Bibles with him, was making advances towards her,and taking out the flask that he was just pretending to be a Christian boy and was going to take advantage of her; I had no idea he would take her leg. The ending does make sense since he kept asking about her wooden leg and wanting her to take it off. I think that Mrs. Hopewell should have known that something was going on when her daughter was talking to the boy outside but maybe she didn't know she had went off with him and her daughters leg was in his bag. But altogether I enjoyed the story even though the begining was somewhat boring.
The ending of the story was very surprising and kind of odd. I never would have thought that that would happen. I thought that he was going to take her out to the barn as a "romantic" type of situation.
Stealing Hulgas leg was a very sick and twisted thing to do. I mean why you would want to do that to a person who is already bitter with herself and the world.
She even asked him “Aren’t you just good country people?" and he said "ya but that ain't held me back none. I'm as good as you any day of the week." I wonder what he meant by that and why he said that to her. Even in the story he made it clear that this was not the first time he has done such a thing. He even stated that he has taken a woman’s glass eye before. The ending of the story definitely through me off a lot, I just cant believe what happened really. I had to read it again to make sure I read it right!
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