Literary Analysis of “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor
Gothicism and the Grotesque in “Good Country People”
Gothicism is an art form that was originally from Europe, but Southern writers adopted it to focus on the darker aspects of human nature and to expose the moral decay and depravity of society through the use of the grotesque, which is usually seen through physical deformities and mental illness. These themes can be seen throughout Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” as characters such as Mrs. Freeman and Manley Pointer are obsessed with deformity, and Mrs. Hopewell is obsessed with her daughter’s presentation because she so desperately wants the people around to see her in a positive light. “Good Country People” uses Gothicism to create a social commentary on the state of the South, poking fun at people for judging others based solely on presentation, knowing they are hiding behind facades of their own. She also uses the characters’ moral failings and grotesque obsessions to emphasize their depraved nature, further contributing to the themes of Gothicism in the story.
Although Mrs. Hopewell’s character may not seem like a clear example of depravity at first glance, she certainly paints a perfect picture of the typical Southern woman; she is hyper-concerned about how she comes off to others, and she projects this responsibility to maintain a good appearance onto her daughter, who couldn’t care less. One of the first things the audience learns about Mrs. Hopewell is that while “she had no bad qualities of her own” (O’Connor 2), she was able to help others put their flaws to use, and she saw this quality in herself as the primary reason for her having kept the Freemans as the help for so long, after another family had complained about Mrs. Freeman’s nosiness. The audience can also examine this same constructive attitude towards her daughter, Joy/Hulga, however, she approaches her daughter with harsher judgment, as she resents her choice to pursue multiple degrees because most respectable women only went to college for one; “there was no more excuse for her to go to school again” (O’Connor 5), and even though her mother knew that academics were her only passion, she never expressed pride for her daughter’s hard work and dedication, only resentment because she didn’t follow the path she felt young women were meant to take. She knows that this path is not her daughter’s though, yet she continues to judge her daughter’s decision to take another one, even though that path seems to make her happy, and this is what makes Mrs. Hopewell’s character depraved. Without taking the time to examine Mrs. Hopewell’s behavior towards her daughter, it’s very hard to indicate where her character’s depravity lies, but when we take a closer look at she interacts with her daughter, it’s clear that while she can certainly see the flaws in others, she seems to have a blind spot for her own, which allows her character to represent the larger collective attitude of the South.
In addition to her resentment of her daughter’s choices, she also judged her appearance heavily throughout the story, further displaying her character’s depravity. At one point, Mrs. Hopewell says she could imagine Joy/Hulga teaching in a classroom “looking like a scarecrow and lecturing to more of the same” (O’Connor 5), which surely doesn’t sound like something one would say about another as a compliment. However, in many cases, she appears less blunt as she tries to pass off her harsh projections as constructive criticism, in an attempt to hide her depravity from those around her. One example of this can be found as she watches Joy/Hulga and thinks to herself that “if she would only keep herself up a little, she wouldn’t be so bad looking” (O’Connor 4). Her obsession with optics is evident throughout, and another character that highlights this is Manley Pointer, as he arrives and is described as “not bad looking … though he had on … yellow socks that were not pulled up far enough” (O’Connor 6), which sounds vastly similar to the critical statement made about Joy/Hulga. However, her demeanor towards him quickly changes after he makes her feel personally convicted by pointing out the lack of a Bible in her parlor and insinuating that she was prejudiced against him because he was poor, so naturally, she needs to prove that this is untrue by taking on the role of host and inviting him in to stay for dinner. After having a long conversation with him that she did not enjoy, she goes so far as to tell him “she [will] always be happy to see him” (O’Connor 9), lying to maintain her sweet, but fake demeanor. Her constant obsession with how others perceive her is very characteristic of the American South, and her character serves to represent this society’s depraved thinking, which gives them a constant bend toward believing those who present themselves as good Christian people and make fun of them for their hypocrisy as they judge their neighbors and still feel the need to lie, to hide their flaws from them.
This obsession with image and presentation can be seen throughout, and Mrs. Hopewell’s character is not alone in her struggle to maintain her facade, as Manley Pointer routinely uses his good country demeanor to trick people into thinking he’s a Bible salesman, before letting him in so that he can steal from them, which clearly illustrates depravity and moral decay because of his lies/sinful nature and use of the Bible to scam people. He creates a detailed backstory about his father who died a gruesome death and his mother who did everything she could for her kids and made sure “that her children went to Sunday School and that they read the Bible every evening” (O’Connor 8), and this lie works for him here, as it always has. Then, after a dinner of ignoring his obvious interest, Joy/Hulga decides to give him the time of day for long enough to make plans to meet up with him the following evening, and she ends up spending a lot of time fantasizing about how she could seduce him when they see each other again. This is why while his character brings in more of the same depravity found in Mrs. Hopewell’s, he also serves to contribute to the exposition of moral decay, as he and Joy/Hulga share a lack of Christian faith, and they begin interacting inappropriately before the more grotesque aspect of the story comes into play.
Manley Pointer’s character is obsessed with stealing the fake body parts of the disabled, which not only communicates his depravity but also his obsession with the grotesque. After meeting Joy/Hulga the night after making plans, he kisses her on the walk over to the barn and helps her up to the second story loft of the barn where they begin to kiss more passionately, and he begs for her to say that she loves him and to prove it by showing where her wooden leg attached because “it’s what makes [her] different” (16). This line about wanting to see what what makes her different further proves his obsession with disability, making his contribution to the grotesque in the story more obvious to the audience. Joy/Hulga eventually decides to trust him, shows him where it’s attached, and he convinces her to remove it, acting as if it’s something he will be able to do for her in the future. However, this was all just a scam to attain her wooden leg for his disturbing collection, which also featured a glass eyeball he acquired in the same way. The act of stealing represents his character’s depravity, but what he is stealing is the key to making his character a good example of how the gothic manifests itself through the grotesque, which in this case can be examined through his fetishization of the fake body parts of the disabled in the story.
Just as Manley Pointer has his issues with obsession in regard to the grotesque, Mrs. Freeman has her own as well, and although she doesn’t have the same propensity for stealing, her attitude towards the grotesque shows her character’s depravity, as she finds pleasure in hearing about others’ injuries or other physical struggles. O’Connor writes that Mrs. Freeman “[has] a special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children” (4) and even goes so far as to say that “she [prefers] lingering or incurable” (4) diseases, and she could listen to Mrs. Hopewell recount the gory details of the hunting accident that “blasted off” (4) Joy/Hulga’s leg any time. This area not only highlights the details of Joy/Hulga’s physical deformity but also draws attention to the potential concern for mental illness in both Mrs. Freeman and Manley Pointer, as they both have a fascination with the grotesque that goes far beyond normal, and Mrs. Freeman’s eagerness to listen to gory details also helps to display her character’s depravity.
Just as these characters’ obsessions with the grotesque help to emphasize the themes of Gothicism in the story, much of the humor sprinkled throughout the story serves to satirize the behaviors of Southern society for the greater purpose of communicating the sense of moral decay and depravity. One of the first ways O’Connor adds humor into the story is by having Joy change her name to Hulga, purely because it was an ugly name, and she knew her mother would hate it. Her mother, indeed, hates the name and never calls her by it, but this doesn’t stop Hulga from doing things to upset her mother, purposefully from Mrs. Hopewell’s perspective. O’Connor goes on to write that “she could walk without making the awful noise but she made it… because it was ugly-sounding” (4). She resents her daughter’s disability so much so that she doesn’t have any remorse left for her; she just thinks everything she does is to act out in ugliness, which may be true to some extent, however, considering how she’s been raised, it would make sense. Mrs. Hopewell’s constant blind spot when it comes to her own depravity is satirized often through the judgment towards her daughter and others in the story, but the end of the story brings an extra added layer of irony to add to the overall humor as she sees Manley Pointer walking off into the distance and says how she “[guesses] the world would be better off if” (O’Connor 19) there were more simple people in the world, like him. This irony at the end of the story adds to the overall critique of Southern society, by showing that their constant favoritism towards those who kept up appearances only makes them more vulnerable to the antics of more knowledgable conmen.
O’Connor uses Gothicism to draw attention to Southern society’s moral decay by creating characters that illustrate depravity, either through the judgment of others, or through the obsession with the grotesque. By using Mrs. Hopewell to illustrate the obsession with presentation and using Manley Pointer and Mrs. Freeman to illustrate the obsession with the grotesque, O’Connor is able to critique and draw attention to the depravity/moral decay of Southern society at the time. Although there are many obvious aspects of Gothicism to be found and discussed in Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” it is in the more subtle actions and behaviors of the characters that some of the most interesting social commentary occurs.
Work Cited
O’Connor, Flannery. “Good Country People.” O’Connor: Collected Works. Edited by Sally Fitzgerald, The Library of America, 1988.
