Verified Document

Irony And Metaphor In Good Country People Essay

Related Topics:

Good Country People: Metaphor and Irony Joy Hulga is the main character of Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People." She represents the proud, young educated student who has renounced any faith in Christ. As her mother Mrs. Hopewell puts it to Manley Pointer, the Bible salesman, "My daughter is an atheist and won't let me keep the Bible in the parlor" (O'Connor 278). Manley turns out to be both Joy's double and foil -- atheistic like herself, but also seeking to seduce her for her false leg (he is a collector of oddities), even as she seeks to seduce him to show that she does not believe in sin. The great irony is that proud Hulga falls for Manley -- only to be rejected. For O'Connor, a Roman Catholic, sin is the absence of good -- and the absence of any good whatsoever at the end of the story is what acts as the real blow to Joy Hulga, leaving her high up in the loft without assistance, her pride taken away from her and only the reflection of her own need of salvation staring back at her from the distance. This paper will show how in "Good Country People" O'Connor uses irony and metaphor to convey a sense of the gulf that exists between "enlightened" but ignorant Hulga and "humble" but informed Joy.

Mrs. Hopewell's daughter Joy is a college graduate whose education has been so good that she is no longer qualified to do anything but look down her nose at everyone around her -- after all, O'Connor ironically notes, one cannot say that "my daughter is a philosopher,"...

Hopewell ruefully observes (O'Connor 276). In other words, Joy Hulga has received a doctorate but can do nothing with it other than sit "on her neck in a deep chair, reading" and looking "at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity" (O'Connor 276). Part of Joy Hulga's problem is that she has a weak heart -- otherwise, as she likes to tell her mother, she would be away lecturing at a college. Because her heart is no good, however, she is confined to her mother's home in the country. O'Connor is using irony and metaphor here -- Joy Hulga hasn't the heart to be a good philosopher and hasn't the simplicity and joy to be a good country person. She is good for nothing -- and that is why she believes in nothing. In fact, she hates her mother -- which is why she legally changed her name from Joy to Hulga: it was an act of revenge against her mother, much like Milton's Satan seeks to destroy God's creation -- Adam and Eve -- in order to get back at his own Creator.
Joy uses her wooden leg to further annoy those around her: O'Connor states that she can walk quietly but chooses not to -- she enjoys unsettling those she despises and deliberately seeks to be ugly (which is why she chose the name Hulga -- it sounds bruising to the ears). In the Bible salesman, she sees her perfect prey: an innocent (so she believes him to be) whom she can corrupt/convert to her own belief in nothingness. Since she cannot lecture nihilism and atheism to college students,…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Travel in Another Country Has
Words: 2277 Length: 7 Document Type: Essay

In describing a photograph of musicians dressed in borrowed formal wear he is presenting a "reading" that is not unintelligent, but is hardly "native." (And hardly compassionate.) He writes: Their suits deform them. Wearing them, they look as though they were physically misshapen. A past style in clothes often looks absurd until it is re-incorporated into fashion. Indeed the economic logic of fashion depends on making the old-fashioned look absurd.

Pessimism in Poetry Pessimism in
Words: 16260 Length: 50 Document Type: Term Paper

" The point made by the poet is similar to the poem above. The reference to John, The Father of our souls, shall be, John tells us, doth not yet appear; is a reference to the Book of Revelations, at the end of the Bible. That despite the promises of an Eternal life for those who eschew sin, we are still frail and have the faults of people. We are still besought by sin

Dead Body in War Poetry
Words: 3686 Length: 10 Document Type: Essay

Dead Body in War Poetry Analysis of Poets War Poetry War is a brutal reality on the face of history. Thousands of lives have been wasted in the name of battles and millions of people were affected by it. Poet is a rather sensitive part of our society and feels the brutality of war more than a normal individual. During World War I, the world went through havoc during which millions of

Postmodernist Literature Discuss the Representation
Words: 3083 Length: 9 Document Type: Term Paper

Yarbrough quotes Ihab Hassan, who describes postmodernism as the "literature of silence" in that it "communicates only with itself," a reference that initially astounds the rational mind. Then, reading further in Yarbrough, Hassan is quoted as saying the term postmodernism applies to "a world caught between fragments and wholes, terror and totalitarianism of every kind." In Vonnegut's novel, characters reflect the deconstruction of American society in the 1950s, during the

Marketing and Economics Agricultural
Words: 18779 Length: 68 Document Type: Term Paper

Origins, History of the IMF The International Monetary Fund was first conceived between July 1-22, 1944, at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference was attended by representatives of 45 nations, which were called together in order to plan and lay the groundwork for a cooperative economic framework to solve global financial crises before they occur. One key reason for the conference was to

Ernest Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River
Words: 977 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

His silence is not only related to the fact that there is no one else to talk to, but also to the fact that talking is a human trait that is practiced in civilized society. Nick's sojourn to the heart of the country surrounding Seney removes him from civilization, so talking and engaging in practices that are appropriate for civilization are not appropriate where he is. The following quotation

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now