The short story we are going to consider today is “Good country people”, by southern writer Mary Flannery O’Connor.
To read about this writer’s biography and production, consult the following links:
Your task for today is still related to the assignment you have delivered - highlight the main issues discussed in the short story in relation to the text “The Grotesque: an American genre”.
When I finally though that I was going to ready the best happy ending on my life, story turned over.
That’s so disappointed to see that a romantic, kind, innocent Bible salesman is actually a cheap thief. That’s unbelievable how this character turned out so differently than he appears at first.
Huga who was described since at the beginning as cynical, atheistic, without feelings or expression and who thought to have a superior mind and education that was capable to seduce one special stranger was cowardly deceived by the face of innocence.
It seems that “Good country people” takes place in a small country town, where the people living are naive to the cruelty of the outside world. Flannery O’Connor was very wisdom, when she persuades the readers with the Christian principles and believes that a sweet, charming, trust worthy, incapable to harming anyone Bible salesman was actually the most morally depraved character in the story. In this grotesque story, it reflects a moment of crisis related to religion and though.
“The grotesque, as a genre or a form of modern literature, simultaneously confronts the antipoetic and the ugly and presents them, when viewed out of the side of the eye, as the closest we can come to the sublime.” (O’CONNOR, p. 19)
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It doesn’t take much effort to spot the grotesque features of this SS.
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Joy-Hulga Hopewell is a thirty-two year-old woman who had her leg “literally blasted off” (1) in a hunting accident. Since then, she has been using a prosthetic leg made of wood. She is obsessed with the ugly. She always makes ugly faces, walks noisily on purpose (2), makes herself ugly, changed her name from Joy to Hulga when she turned twenty-one and was proud to have an ugly name. Her mother was a nice person, not as highly educated as Hulga, who had a PhD in Philosophy, but filled with good intentions and sayings. Hulga behaves like a spoiled child slamming doors, being rude for no reason, wearing a “six-year-old skirt and a yellow sweat shirt with a faded cowboy on a horse embossed on it.” and making fun of people’s names “Mrs. Freeman’s daughters, Glynese or Carramae. Joy called them Glycerin and Caramel.” She reads Nietzsche and is so sure about her superiority and about her beliefs – or lack thereof – that she would never expect what was coming her way.
And what was coming her way had the suggestive name of Manley Pointer, an apparently harmless Bible salesman that hid the darkest intentions. He acted like Hulga was the most special girl in the world because that was how she felt it and there is nothing more attractive to people than listening to other people saying what they think about themselves. She resisted for a little while, but he won her over.
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“(…) he asked softly, ‘Where does your wooden leg join on?’” echoing the morbid fascination Mrs. Freeman had for injuries and deformations in general “He was gazing at her with open curiosity, with fascination, like a child watching a new fantastic animal at the zoo.”
Although Hulga claimed her education had “”scraped her shame away””, this is soon contradicted when it’s said that she was the only person who ever touched the leg, and always “in private and almost with her eyes turned away”. It shows that her nihilism had soft spots and Mr. Pointer explored them all.
The pleasure he took on seeing her manipulating that piece of wood that served as her leg is clear. He was eager to play with that woman’s disability. It was his obsession; he had a collection of artificial limbs and parts of bodies of people he seduced. He was the embodied form of her thoughts and then she realized they were not as wonderful as she thought. Seeing her disregard for human life being used against her was not like underlining sentences in a book with deep philosophical words with blue pencil (note that blue was the same color of Manley’s suit, making the relation between those ideals and his actions even clearer).
(1) source
(2) “When Hulga stumped into the kitchen in the morning (she could walk without making the awful noise but she made it – Mrs. Hopewell was certain – because it was ugly-sounding she glanced at them and did not speak.”
OH my God I’m sorry but I thought this story was hilarious! I mean the idea of someone stealing someone’s wooden leg to me was already the worst thing you could ever do to someone, although tragically hilarious! But not only that, the way it is written is wonderful, I mean, Mrs Hopewell and Mrs Freeman are sooooo like people in my family, from the country. And in the midst of people like those we cannot help but feel like Joy – Hulga, one of the best characters ever! But in the end we find that we are just as ignorant. How about the guy Manley Pointer, so freaky! HE is the personification of the grotesque, the crazy sonovabitch! ‘Ooo last time I got a woman’s glass eye.’ What the hell was that???
Ok, seriously though, wow, what a story…after I read that I read ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ many hilarious moments but much more disturbing as well….Flannery O’Connor rules! I mean, what sharp perception this woman had! I like the way she characterizes people, by what they think and say, these clichés and popular sayings, it’s so…grotesque and….real! The people in her story are so freaky because they are so identifiable. I think she was able to capture the grotesque South in a better way than Faulkner, at least the pettiness, ignorance and superficiality of the people. Hulga (loooooved the name) seemed to be so grotesque but was actually the most pure and innocent of them all, despite her attempts to make herself a grotesque as possible. Mrs Freeman, Mrs Hopewell, the daughters, and the Bible boy are the grotesque here!
I agree with Carolina that its not difficult to find grotesque aspects in this SS. The author that writes grotesques stories is able to transform the absurd or macabre in a admirable piece of art.
The protagonist of the SS is a strange figure of woman with an artificial leg. She suffers very much inside her own, she is kind of depressive and she always understimated herself. The changing of her name is a hint that if she could, she wanted to change her hole life.
A macabre thing in the begining of the story is Mrs. Freeman’s fascination to diseases and ” (…) secret infections, hidden deformities, assults upon children.” Come on, who can like these things?
Later on I will finish the comments about the rest of the story. rsrs
Only when I’ve learnt more about art do I came to realize that artistic expression spans the widest possible range of human feelings and that not all of these feelings are pretty. Grotesque art, in particular, is never pretty.
Grotesque art has been made in all parts of the world from the most ancient times and it appears in many different forms. To help describe it, some words like scary, weird or even ugly, while others prefer bizarre, fantastic, distorted and absurd.
In fact, in its various forms, grotesque art reflects the meanings of all these words and the feelings that underlie them.
The short story, “Good Country People”, written by Flannery O’Connor, is a story that captivates one by usage of symbolism and theme. The story centers on the meaning of being a good person, in the sense of leading a Christian, pious life, worthy of salvation. O’Connor contrasts mindless chatter about “good country people” with questions about the true meaning of religious faith. There is also a class hierarchy formed that includes stereotypes about “good country people” and literal and symbolic meanings of events, objects, and characters. Through exclusive use of the third person narrator, O’Connor’s narrative style poises a tension between the realistic (characters in typical settings performing natural acts) and symbolic (where names, signs and other common objects represent larger issues). She also employs the technique of the epiphany, where a single moment of illumination “awakens” the character and reveals the deeper meanings of the text. This is happen when
O’Connor describes the story’s characters as distorted versions of humanity, and virtually none are sympathetic in the traditional nature of the hero or heroine with whom a reader might identify.
Joy/Hulga is the dual dimension main character that goes through a complete change throughout the story. She changes her name to Hulga, an “ugly” name, to reflect her feelings about her injured body and self, as the name is the opposite of her real name “Joy”, as is her personality. The significance of Joy remaining conscious even though terribly injured as a child when “her leg was blasted off” indicates that Joy seems to have rejected her own body by choosing a life of intelligence and of the mind.
As with her missing limb, Joy/Hulga’s “weak heart” operates as a symbolic as well as literal affliction. Joy/Hulga closes her heart just as she rejects her body. Joy/Hulga’s mother, Mrs. Hopewell, convinced that Joy/Hulga would have “been better without a useless PhD. degree in philosophy”, has no comprehension of the one true meaning of life to her daughter: “Such is after all the strictly scientific approach to Nothing. We know it by wishing to know nothing of Nothing.” This reference is to nihilistic philosophy, which denies the existence of any basis for truth. It rejects belief in concepts such as religion and morality.
I totaly agree with Carol when she says that this ss has grotesque
features.
Joy-Hulga is a woman who had her leg blasted off in an accident. Then,
she has been using a prosthetic one made of wood.
It is grotesque because it doesn’t cause a good impression.
Another characteristics she has is that she was obsessing for the ugly
and she used to make ugly faces. She was also pround of have an ugly
name.
She was really a rude person.
I quit. I’ve just wrote ths huge thing and It just vanished… Can I just say that, so far, the comments were great?
Will repeat what I’ve quoted before: “In fiction, characters are usually considered grotesque if they induce both empathy and disgust.” Isn’t that the most proper thing to say about all this “good country people”?
Firstly, Joy/Hulga, who tries so hard to be most bizarre wooden-legged walking creature. I guess she does so to escape being victimized, for her accident. Her has herself in such a high pedestal that being turned into the “poor little legless girl who even has an Phd but it is still a pitty what she went through” she assumes the role of the outcast, marginalizing herself, what will certainly give her the feeling of “special separation” she needs in order to fell superior. In doing so, the willingly inspires digust, but also empathy, for it is impossible not to feel sorry/sympathetic for her and her sad ending…
Secondly, Manley Pointer, who was even more bizarre while playing the “I’m only a good humble bible salesman”, once in that present society there was no place for such character anymore. When he turns out to be a thief – of the most ackward kind – he reveals his “anormality”, his decadence… And that was way too weird, unexpectable!
I guess the idea that all those characters were absolutely not good old-style country people is what enforces the most the idea of the grotesque… All of them were in no way the usual country people, but decadent caricatures of those… They represent what was society like in those changing times, full of obscure and bizarre character, hidden by façades of stereopytes…
In this story, Hulga fits perfectly in the Grotesque genre as she contrasts stereotypes of southern culture where she was born being highly educated, arrogant and cold. When she has the opportunity to go away from home, she does so. She makes lots of efforts to avoid returning to the South. However, she is forced to return home because of the accident she suffered. Although Hulga´s personality is grotesque, the most striking aspect of her character is the physical deformation in which she is subject to. She is both bitter and unwilling to feel regret for deed, so the author punishes her for her sins with physical attributes. So, in this story we can see that the grotesque does not refer to the mood or the quality of the story. It does refer to the type of character defined by either physical or mental deformity suffered by Hulga.
Insofar, I can’t help but directly relate these American short stories to Hollywood plots in the making. These surprise endings, almost sensationalist, plot-centered stories seems to be the tradition in American story-telling in many ways.
The grotesque aspect has everything to do with this, because we cannot predict how the human being behaves, and behavior is probably the most important manifestation of the grotesque. An “abnormal” person does abnormal things. Mrs. Freeman, especially, and Mrs. Hopewell are examples of predictable and real “good country people”. Their dialogues are scripted and so are their reactions and behavior. So they only do what is expected by society. But Joy/Hulga has transcended this blind, unconscious way of living, she has gone to school, she read the great philosophers, so she sees beyond. This is symbolized by her abnormal physique, she is crippled, ugly, ill-humored, etc. She is the grotesque in a more shallow read. She is the “obvious” grotesque character.
The Bibly boy, though, is apparently normal. He is charming, good country folk, nothing apparently grotesque about him. When we see him in his true light, he is actually the real grotesque, for his “abnormality” is such that he lacks moral sensitivity, he is the grotesque in each and everyone of us, our dark side.
O’Connor explores the Nietzchean concept (Para além do bem e mal), in which the human being is not predictable at all, there is no good and evil, it depends on what side you perceive things. Hulga believes clarity, consciousness and frankness her “happiness”, it is her niche, whereas her mother believes that that is her “unhappiness”. This idea also comes up when Hulga and the Bible boy discuss believing in God or not.
All of this to say that the grotesque is inside all of us, we can choose to expose it or not, and this is not related to the almost of “grotesqueness” you have.
I’m here again. rsrs
So,
The part that catch my attention is that the narrator describes the salesman’s seeing Hulga as if she was a exotic animal: “He was gazing at her with open curiosity, with fascination, like a child watching a new fantastic animal as the zoo(…)” p.613
Another interesting part is when they are having a datting and he asks about her leg: “Where does your wooden leg join on?”. It is not a comment anyone could do at this situation, it is very strange, it is part of the grotesque atmosphere of the SS, like when he asks for a proof of love: “Show me where your wooden leg joins on” …
I think the most grotesque or bisarre part of the SS is the end when we realize that the Bible salesman not only take Hulga’s leg but he had stolen a glass eye of another woman the same way he did with Hulga, through seduction.
He pretended he was “good country people” but in reality he was a crazy guy that loves to take artificial parts of the body from people that needed that in some way.
The grotesque is characterized by bizarre distortions, especially in the exaggerated or abnormal depiction of human features with freakish caricatures of people’s appearance and behaviour. That`s why Jorgeane got so disappointed with the end of the story which eveybody usually expects to be happy.
As Verônica said the author who writes grotesques stories can turn the absurd or macabre in a admirable piece of art and that`s very interesting and clear to notice in Good Country People. So, we think we know the characters`nature very well, but throughout the story , their masks fall and the author reveals thei real faces.
“The grotesque affronts our sense of stabilished order and satisfies, or partly satisfies, our neeed for at least a tentative, a more flexible ordering.” I agree with Veronica and when she says that it is easy to find aspects of the grotesque in the SS. and as this assertive above corroborates what Priscilla said before ” the author who writes grotesques stories can turn the absurd or macabre in a admirable piece of art and that`s very interesting and clear to notice in Good Country People”
“The grotesque is the ‘poetry of disorder’” explains Irving Malin “It arises when traditional categories disintegrate.” (Malin 108) http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/546889/the_grotesque_in_relation_to_flannery.html?page=2
Hulga in “Good Country People” is an example of the grotesque in this SS. Hulga was born in South and she is educated so she contrasts the stereotypes of southern culture.
The fact that she changed her name is something incredible. It shows that she changed her own identity and that she didn’t want to be related to her mother land (the South).
The author is portraying the South through the physical deformations of this character I mean, Mary O’connor wants to show a bad society that she lives.
Well, if the story would count only with Mrs. Hopewell and people like her, it would not be grotesque at all. But then the author introduces Hulga (previously Joy) with her wooden leg and sour humour. Add the cheesy Pointer and it is complete!
But I agree with Barbara when she says it is hilarious. I don’t know if it was because I read an essay about the story before reading the story (something I’ll never do again) but I didn’t see beauty on it. It was just bizarre and funny, but not really interesting.
And, after reading it, all I could think was of this motto for the story: “Love is stronger than reason”, which was something really stupid, I admit, but it totally fits! So that is another reason why I didn’t like this short-story. It didn’t make me think beyond it.
Oh, my God! I’m tunring into bitter and cynical Hulga!!
turning into
I meant “this moral for the story”.
Mel, don’t feel ashemed of doing that. I also prefer read the characteristics before reading the SS., Because it’s possible to notice and find the main aspects when you have contact with the SS. I confess, sometimes, I do that.
So, O’Connor develops several themes. one of them is problems behaviours. In the grotesque aspects we see that Hulga has never really grown up. She’s acting like a rebellious teenager, stomping around the house, slamming doors, accusing her mother of being stupid, wearing a grungy old skirt and a sweatshirt with a cowboy on it.
I also considered this SS hilarious!Hulga is so ridiculous that he gets funny. Can u understand me?
I agree with Bárbara when she said that “Manley Pointer is the personification of the grotesque because the idea of someone stealing someone’s wooden leg is the worst thing you could ever do to someone.” He is the most evil, being totally false.
Convincing Hulga to take off her wooden leg, he stole it and her glasses without guilt, and also says that it is not the first time he does this atrocious action:
“I’ve gotten a lot of interesting things,” he said. “One time I got a woman’s glass eye this way. And you needn’t to think you’ll catch me because Pointer ain’t really my name. I use a different name at every house I call at and don’t stay nowhere long”
He pretends to be virtuous, but his suitcase contained “a pocket flash of whiskey, a pack of cards, and a small blue box with printing” inside a Bible.
Like Verônica said, another “macabre thing is Mrs. Freeman’s fascination to diseases and secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children.” Although tragically, it’s hilarious!
Well, it is so difficult to make comments after almost everybody has done it!
Let me try…
Taking into account Jorgeane’s comment: “That’s unbelievable how this character (the Bible salesman) turned out so differently than he appears at first.” (Comment 1)
- The grotesqueness can be achieved through the use of characters with hidden burden or through the mystery.
What is expected of a young girl in terms of religion?
To believe in God, of course!
However, one of the most shocking sentences (for me) was when Hulga declared:
“I don’t even believe in God.”
- She is a typical O’Connor’s protagonist – oppressed by her religious worldview and by her physical deformity: totally grotesque!
Barbara’s observation “I thought this story was hilarious!” (Comment 3) opposed to Mel’s (Comment 15) “And, after reading it, all I could think was of this motto for the story: “Love is stronger than reason”, which was something really stupid, I admit, but it totally fits! So that is another reason why I didn’t like this short-story” is a good example of how O’Connor makes use of the grotesque combining the serious and the comic in her art.
Both responses (Barbara and Mel’s) are typical reactions the grotesque may arise: some people find the SS funny while others find it horrible, because maybe such vicious conducts offend their moral sensibilities.
Anyway, it is interesting because it “shakes” the reader’s thoughts out of comfortable ways of observing the world and places the individual face-to-face with a drastically disturbing viewpoint and what really calls my attention is this mixture of laughter and repulsion.
Yes, Anderson, I get your point. It seems to exist a thin line between too grotesque and funny, since it escapes so much from reality that we almost cannot identify with the characters anymore.
This short story really jolted me. It’s the kind of story Phoebe Buffay would love to adapt into a song…
Grotesque elements can be found both characters Hulga and Pointer:
Hulga has a desire to be abnormal.
And Pointer, the Bible guy, totally knows how to be frightening. I would even say that he is similar to “Miriam” in some level. (I’m referring to the girl from the homonymous text). They can torture and terrorize their “victims” without having to go extremely far.
(I don’t mean to say that he didn’t go far. He did. But he could have been worse, and the result would be the same: both his victim AND the reader would be shocked).
Correction:
“Grotesque elements can be found IN both characters Hulga and Pointer”
In my opinion what is really remarkable in this SS is that looks can be deceiving as that popular saying states. In addition to the grotesque elements that many people have already pointed out, we can also understand that the stereotypes of naive country people aren’t really true in the real world. And sometimes the person who is apparently the most intelligent and well educated in his/her environment can turn out to be so naive due to their lack of experience in more practical issues.
Hulga, despite her PHD was merely a spoiled child who acted in such grotesque way to protect herself from other people’s prejudice and hypocrisy. She tried to use a good education and even a new name to harmor and disguise her depression and sorrow. On the other hand, the apparently innocent bible salesman did the other way around. He used a nice armor to hide his true grotesque personality, In the end, we readers get to see their true selves without a mask and therefore we become so surprised and sometimes disappointed as Jorgeane said she was after reading this SS
Well, let me just give you some food for thought…
I’d like you to reread Sueli’s comment (#5) and think about the epiphanic moment in this short story.
And I’d also like you to develop some ideas about the characters’ names – after all, Hopewell, Freeman, Joy are not fortuituous choices, right?
So, let’s begin a new round of comments…
Sueli’s comment was great and I totally agree with her when she affirms that “the author” also employs the technique of the epiphany, where a single moment of illumination “awakens” the character and reveals the deeper meanings of the text.”
In fact, the whole text is prearranged for this moment of revelation, surprise, and shock.
Joy-Hulga is constantly trying to get away from the Southern social principles and customs in which her mother and the other country people are immersed. She judges herself superior because of her education with a Ph.D. in Philosophy. It’s clear that she discards any chance of mixing with those people around her.
Pointer’s appearance in her life is a great disestablishment. She thinks that she is manipulating him, but in fact he is the one who is manipulating her. He knows her weak point: her complex of intellectual power and control. And she just lets down her guard because she feels in such great control and powerful… and when she becomes relaxed with Pointer, he shows his real and evil character.
So, when Joy-Hulga becomes aware the good country boy is nothing more than a villain, an epiphany occurs – She realizes her misjudgment.
This important turn of events occurs in order to astonish the reader – that really surprised me!!!
The characters’ names, like Carla said, are not fortuitous choices.
In “Good Country People”, Flannery O’Connor chose the names of the characters and these names were incorporated in the theme of the story. Manley Pointer was named because “Manley” stands for manhood and “Pointer” refers to a man’s sexual organ, which represents power. Manley Pointer, the Bible salesman, was a symbolic meaning of power.
In the story, he steals Hulga’s leg and in doing so steals her power. “’Give me my leg,’ she said. He pushed it further away with his foot. ‘Come on now, let’s begin to have us a good time,’ he said coaxingly. ‘We ain’t got to know one another good yet.” Later on, he admits he isn’t a “good country” person and that he has been cheating people in the past. “The boy’s mouth was set angrily. ‘I hope you don’t think,’ he said in a lofty indignant tone, ‘that I believe in that crap! I may sell Bibles but I know which end is up and I wasn’t born yesterday and I know where I’m going!’…I’ve gotten a lot of interesting things,’ he said, “One time I got a woman’s glass eye this way. And you needn’t think you’ll catch me because Pointer ain’t really my name. I use a different name at every house I call at and don’t stay nowhere long.”
Flannery O’Connor gave cues earlier in the story that Manley was not to be trusted. When he referred to the word Christian he pronounced the name falsely just like how he was playing a false act and was really not a Christian at all even though he went door to door trying to sell Bibles. He pronounced “Christian” as “Chrustian” – and the important meaning of the word Christian is Christ not “Chrust”. “’Lady,’ he said, ‘for a Chrustian, the word of God ought to be in every room in the house besides in his heart. I know you’re a Chrustian because I can see it in every line of your face.”
I liked the points on characters’ names!
Great!
Great, girls, you’re doing fine!
Yeah, I know I’m late #1…
1st to higlight: The naive behaviour of Mrs. Hopewell, she thinks country people are always to be trusted, naming the SS after that. Her name is quite interesting too, Hope + Well, she truly believes Joy/Hulga would “wake up” to reality one day.
2nd one: The Bible salesman: His description is grotesque! How someone in a “bright blue suit and yellow socks that were not pulled up far enough” cannot be ridiculous?! “I’m just a country boy.” Bah! He’s full of second intentions.
3rd one: The protagonist, the tall stupid woman, who thought she could challenge anyone in any subject and make fun of them….naive just like his mother, and atheist just like the country guy. She is grotesque in every sense of the word, there’s no “salvation” for someone like her, too late for that.
The epiphany is in the ironic title, according to Mrs. Hopewell, they’re “good” as long as you don’t face them.
Another thing, according to the story Joy suffered no pain nor lost her consciousness when her REAL leg was blasted off, but when Pointer ran away with her artificial thing, she was hopeless, cool isn’t it? the mother is hopewell and the daugther is hopeless.
Definitely this one was the best story till now! This is my kind of story.
I have no more to add, I think the most important issues had already been well presented.
This SS has achieved the most pure grotesque style. I liked Paula’s comments about it and I agree with her. I also liked what Ana Carolina MONITORA said: “her nihilism (Hulga) had soft spots and Mr. Pointer explored them all”
That’s it.
Maybe later I come back here and say something meaningful.
Life sucks sometimes!
One thing the caught my attention was the fact that everything in this story is a contradiction and on this matter I found some interesting grotesque characteristcs…
On the characters:
Hopewell is a contradiction herself. She is the one who behaves really “understanding” with everything in life and at the same time she doesnt know how to handle with her daughter.
Joy/Hulga- Is a niilist and a believer- She claims that she is a skeptical person but in the end she surrenders herself to trusting Manley Pointer ( what a falic name!!!)
She becomes exactly what she judges about Christian people: a paradox.
The narrative itself behaves like that:”the story’s tone shifts from trust and innocence to panic and alarm.”
Its already grotesque by the way it is told.
Im not sure if this story has a real purpose… but it doesnt really need to have one … cause this is point in itself : sometimes life balances itself and sometimes is completely unbalanced… We as readers contradict ourselves while reading it… First we believe Joy is a ‘bitch’ .. and then she becomes Hulga – the victim – we feel her pain, still it is a little funny though cruel.
*one more late-comer to the group*
I see many different things and concepts in this ss, although I think the most present issue is the eternal conflict between good and evil. I’ve read this in many places and for most obvious it may appear I think it proceeds absolutely.
The question is who’s evil and who’s good, and that’s where the grotesque goes… along with all this idea of the country and the South itself. So in the end, it’s all about being careful with whom you trust. It brings this realistic sensation of never knowing people’s true nature. Appearance, social labels, breeding, origin… nothing’s ever enough to make us trust someone nowadays, and I think the story brings a lot of this modern jungle we’re living in bog cities and stuff. Cliché I know… but that’s true I think.
We can see the grotesque in this ss in many levels:
The attitude of writing about a girl with a wooden leg and all this thing of being deceived by the “God guy” who sells bibles is grotesque in itself. Joy is grotesque. Stealing a leg is grotesque. Having an artificial leg is grotesque (in a sense of being different).
Concerning the names, I’d like to call attention to Joy’s sisters:
“By the time Joy came in, they had usually finished the weather report and were on one or the other of Mrs. Freeman’s daughters, Glynese or Carramae. Joy called them Glycerin and Caramel. Glynese, a redhead, was eighteen and had many admirers; Carramae, a blonde, was only fifteen but already married and pregnant.”
Glycerin and caramel (everybody sticks in them?)… one had many admirers the other was only fifteen and was married and pregnant.
I was wondering, also, if couldn’t we relate this plot with a conflict between North and South… I don’t know, perhaps the lesson Joy takes out of what she passed through is the same lesson the South took (or still takes) out of what it passed through (or still passes) in the past. I mean, it’s oppressed background and stuff.
Anyway, mates.
That’s it.
Cheers.
Well, let´s develop some ideas about the characters’ names based on the SS:
Mrs. Freeman>
We can think that such name stands for a woman who had few ways of expressing herself (only three) – so she was plain:
“Besides the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings”.
It stands for a woman who was noisy and reacted instantly when displeased:
“(she) was the nosiest woman ever to walk the earth. She’s got to be into everything”.
It also stands for a woman who came from the countryside, who lived a simple life, “free” from the bonds established by the modern society. If we consider these aspects, we may see her as a free woman: who seemed to feel free to speak, to react, and to behave.
“Mrs. Freeman always managed to arrive at some point during the meal and to watch them finish it”.
Mrs. Hopewell>
This name alludes to the idea of someone who seems to expect good thingd from others. A person who is able to see good in bad. For this purpose, one has to be patient.
“(Mrs. Hopewell) she was a woman of great patience”.
Although Mrs. Freeman´s daughters didn´t seem to be the model of good girls, Mrs. Hopewell used to say good things about them. Despite being from the countryside, Mrs. Freeman was pointed as a lady by Mrs. Hopewell.
“(Mrs. Freeman’s daughters) Glynese, a redhead, was eighteen and had many admirers; Carramae, a blonde, was only fifteen but already married and pregnant (…). Mrs. Hopewell liked to tell people that Glynese and Carramae were two of the finest girls she knew and that Mrs. Freeman was a lady and that she was never ashamed to take her anywhere or introduce her to anybody they might meet”.
Therefore, Mrs. Hopewell behaved in a surprinsing way for she believed in or accepted things that people would reject. She was optimistic.
“Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people’s in such a constructive way that she had kept them four years (…). Mrs. Hopewell said that people who looked on the bright side of things would be beautiful even if they were not”.
At the same time, she was a realistic person.
“Nothing is perfect. This was one of Mrs. Hopewell’s favorite sayings. Another was: that is life! And still another, the most important, was: well, other people have their opinions too (…). “Everybody is different,” Mrs. Hopewell said”.
… to be continued …
…
Joy/ Hulga>
We may consider this name Joy a paradox, because the one thing this woman didn´t seem to have was joy. She dedicated her life to her studies. Indeed, she gave much value to her inteligence, to her “brain”.
“Joy was (Mrs. Hopewell´s) her daughter, a large blond girl who had an artificial leg (…) she was thirty-two years old and highly educated (…). She was brilliant (…). The girl had taken the Ph.D. in philosophy (…)”.
Or maybe she didn´t know how to achieve joy once she had a physical problem.
“The poor stout girl in her thirties who had never danced a step or had any normal good times”.
These facts seem to be the reason for having changed her name to Hulga, a name that gives us quite the opposite idea. It gives an idea of something hard, strong, and ugly. That is, something not feminine, then not attractive.
“Her name was really Joy but as soon as she was twenty-one and away from home, she had had it legally changed. Mrs. Hopewell was certain that she had thought and thought until she had hit upon the ugliest name in any language (…). When Mrs. Hopewell thought the name, Hulga, she thought of the broad blank hull of a battleship”.
Nevertheless, her “sterile” condition had started to change since she was first kissed by Manley Pointer, who stands as the symbol of virility that could take Hulga from her emptiness and make her have/ become Joy. Then, her mutation was consecrated when Manley takes off her artifitial leg. Hence she couldn´t see things with the aid of her brain anymore.
“The kiss (…) produced that extra surge of adrenalin in the girl (…), in her the power went at once to the brain. Even before he released her, her mind, clear and detached and ironic anyway, was regarding him from (…). She had never been kissed before and she was pleased to discover that it was an unexceptional experience and all a matter of the mind’s control”.
So, until then she was too skeptical, denying her feelings and using her mind to hold “the unknown” behind. From now on, without her artifitial leg, she has lost her self-control.
“Her mind, throughout this, never stopped or lost itself for a second to her feelings (…). Without the leg she felt entirely dependent on him. Her brain seemed to have stopped thinking altogether and to be about some other function that it was not very good at”.
The characteristics of the grotesque genre that can be found in Flannery O’Connor’s short-story are:
– Joy/Hulga wooden leg and her obsession with the ugly; also there is her superiority/inferiority complex. Her name could represent positive values, but her changing it is significant in the opposite way.
– Manley Pointer is a bizarre stealer of prosthetic devices, disguised as a bible salesman; as said in comment #27, his name could be a reference to manhood and falic symbols (which would be antagonistic towards Hulga superior behavior).
– “Good country people” can be either naive (in reference to country people in general) or presumptuous (related specifically to American Southern people) and even deceivers (as Pointer).
– At first, we tend to think bad of Hulga, but in the end there is almost sympathy for her destiny.
Joy is a very soft name related to a wooden leg obssessive girl, it is natural that this label would change.
Such figure atracted an even bizzarre character:Manley Pointer ( really grotesque character).
+ planned stealing Hulga’s wooden leg.
+ stole her glasses
+ pretends to be virtuous, but his suitcase contained “a pocket flash of whiskey, a pack of cards, and a small blue box with printing” inside a Bible.
This is a very very nice story. It starts off a little slow, no big expectations, but then things start to change into an interesting story and ends up being amazing.
The grotesque tends to print some very strong images on our minds, doesn’t it? How strong is scene when Mr. Niceguy removes Hulga’s leg and hits the dust? It is genious. There’s no other time in the SS when Hulga is so “Hulga” and not “Joy” as she is at the end.
To sum it up some funny blatant naïveté. Feels like “humor negro”. You know it’s not very nice, but it’s also kind of hard not laugh when the people around you at the moment of the joke are not affected by the subject. Even harder not laugh if we try to imagine Mrs. Hopewell’s face when saying “the world would be better off if we were all that simple”.
Fantastic SS.
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