By the end of the Cold War, Americans analyzed each other for traces of communism. When a guilty culprit arose, Americans stripped them of freedom and bound them to life in a cell. Fear of subsisting as one of these guilty culprits crept into the lives of Americans, creating the Red Scare (History.com Staff). The Red Scare dared Americans to strive for distinguishing factors between themselves and communists. Soon Americans used the Christian title to rule out any traces of communism against them. Only one ironic problem remains with this theory, communists can now pose as Christians and cripple America. Flannery O'Connor demonstrates this ironic concept of how communists use Christian clichés and the innocence in belief that Christians only …show more content…
To present the use of Christian clichés, O'Connor introduces the character Mrs. Hopewell. In fact, from the beginning O'Connor presents her favorite sayings. "Nothing is perfect" abides as her first favorite saying, then "that is life", and finally "other people have their opinions too" (O'Connor, 151). Every time Mrs. Hopewell speaks out loud in the story, it forms a cliché. Throughout the entire story, Mrs. Hopewell also holds good intentions to help her daughter. This act creates the persona the people with good intentions speak in Christian clichés. Allowing O'Connor to blind the reader of Manley Pointers evil intentions by creating this persona. In fact, Manley Pointer uses seven Christian clichés before his true intentions are revealed. He uses "He who losest his life shall find it" and "You can never tell when you need the word of God, Hulga" (O'Connor, 157, 161). He also uses Christian clichés of thought. For example, how Christians enjoy walking in nature to see what God made, or giving their life up for Christian service, or trying to save everyone. Every single Christian cliché O'Connor utilizes expertly to blind the reader of Manley Pointers true intentions. This action demonstrates to readers how a communist might blind Americans with their use of Christian clichés to hide their true …show more content…
Mrs. Hopewell holds the title of a Christian in "Good Country People" and Pointer still blinds her of his true intentions. When these two characters first meet, their conversation starts with Mrs. Hopewell claiming the title of a Christian and pushes his way through the door (O'Connor, 155). Mrs. Hopewell impatiently took him into the parlor, despite him pushing into her home and pushing her to buy a Bible. Eventually Pointer manipulates Mrs. Hopewell into welcoming him into her home through claiming people don't like good country people like him (O'Connor, 156). This act instantly changes Mrs. Hopewell's intentions from attempting to get Pointer out of the house so she could eat dinner, to inviting him to dinner. His manipulation changes her perspective and she believes he could not commit a bad act. On the contrary, she believes her atheist daughter Joy could commit a bad act. Pointer takes Mrs. Hopewell's innocent belief between good and evil to ironically manipulate her to believe he holds good intentions. Communists hold the capability to use this illustration of irony to hide their intentions similar to Manley
Another recurring theme in O'Connor's stories is narcissism or arrogance, which is demonstrated through her characters and their personalities. This is shown through the grotesque type of character that is simply only concerned with themselves and believes that they are above everyone else. O’Connor however incorporated this idea of narcissism into Christianity. “Christianity is necessary for psychological health: the nonbeliever is necessarily narcissistic”(Scheurich and Mullen 548) This implies that Christianity is better and the ideal in her
In Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, O’Connor utilizes the relationship of Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter, Joy, or Hulga, as a representation and critique of the lack of self-awareness in society. To do so, O’Connor presents the sense of superiority each character possesses over the other, resulting them to not question their own self. In doing so, O’Connor challenges the common perceptions of society in never questioning one’s self, leading hypocrisy to become rapid amongst individuals. Through examining the relationship between the characters of Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga in regards to: both characters viewing themselves to be dissimilar, their sense of superiority over the other, the ironic similarity they share, and their hypocrisy,
O’Connor’s tone is overarchingly ironic, and this plays out in “Good Country People” by rebutting the idea that Manley Pointer is a wholesome religious
In a news article published during the Red Scare, the author describes the Communist red flag as symbolizing “defiance of law, order, and constitutional government. It is an insult to the stars and stripes.” It also states, “There is no room in this country for any flag but our own.” (source) The article goes on to say that the federal government must do whatever it takes to eradicate any forms of communism.
During the Cold War, hysteria in the U.S. ensued over the perceived threat of Communism. This mass hysteria became known as ‘The Red Scare’ due to Communist’s loyalty to the red flag. These fears were not totally unfounded, as the USSR had been spying inside America for a long time. The Red Scare became influential to world history by causing leaders to pass acts that would not have been passed otherwise that reduced the Communist Party to a shadow of its past self..
Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Good Country People,” is effective in showcasing distortion through its characters’ attributes. In the story, O’Connor gives the readers “normal” characters who later on take away their masks to reveal their true, deceiving intentions. First, is the distortion of Christianity vs. Atheism with the characters Joy and Manley Pointer. Joy is an Atheist as said in the story, “My daughter is an atheist and won’t let me keep a bible in the parlor” ( pg. 446). Meaning, Joy does not believe in a religion such as christianity.
Sarah Paroya D period I hate MUSH The end of World War II should have marked a period of relief in America but instead, it lead America into a completely different type of war called the Cold War. The Cold War was an ongoing state of political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. This constant state of tension and fear had been embedded deep in the American public.
During his speech addressed to the UN general Assembly given on September 25,1961, John F. Kennedy stated, “Conformity is the Jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” In other words, if we all accept the circumstances and go with the flow like dead fish, how can we know what we are capable of accomplishing-how much we can grow, especially as a nation? Conformity can be defined as the compliance with standards, rules, or laws or the moment you willingly chose to fit in when you’re meant to stand out. In the 1950s, a flood of social conformity washed over the country and had people leading similar and stereotypical lives. Many, at the time, strived for the comfort and simplicity depicted in TV shows such as “Father Knows Best” and “Leave it
In Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor, Manley Pointer a young unassuming Bible salesman successfully dupes Hulga Hopewell an unattractive yet prideful atheist with a PhD into giving him her false leg. Pointer is a man who exploits the weakness of other in order to achieve his goals. He often does this by sympathizing with other people’s conditions in life or allowing them to believe they have the upper hand. Hulga and Manley first meet when he tries to sell Mrs. Hopewell, Hulga’s mother, a Bible.
Good Country People written by Flannery O’ Conner has symbolism and metaphors that are used and that reinforce the major ideas of the story. O’Conner uses Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter Joy and her name change as a symbolism. A few others that add to the main idea is Joy’s wooden leg, her last name Hopewell, the Freeman’s, Manly Pointer, his briefcase, the hollow bible, and even the gate to the Hopewell’s house is symbolic to the story. Metaphors that take place are Mrs. Hopewell’s saying Good country people are the salt of the earth and many other sayings that Mrs. Hopewell believes to be true about life.
Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People, written in southern gothic style is both dramatic and shocking. The complexity of a simple life is nuanced with themes of betrayal and nihilism. O’Connor’s use of symbolism is liberally evidenced throughout the story, with the character’s names seemingly a misappropriation; Mrs. Freeman, is not free, nor does Mrs. Hopewell, hope well. Indeed, it appears the entire short story is based on misnomers; with each of the characters proving that they are not good country people.
In Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, the Bible salesman’s motive for wanting to get Hulga to fall in love with him was solely to steal her wooden leg. It is originally believed that Pointer likes Hulga for who she is. He is very persistent in trying to get her to love him. Readers are led to believe that Pointer is a Christian because he is going around selling Bibles.
“Her characters, who sometimes accept and other times reject salvation, often have a warped self-image, especially of their moral status and of the morality of their actions” (Hobby). This addresses how some of the important lines in the story describe to the reader about the extreme exaggeration and the psychological realism of the church, which O’Connor wanted to express within her story. The extreme use of exaggeration and how the use of the characters bring a sense of an uncanny feeling of good and evil within each character, portrays how deep the meaning is seen in this short story. “the story is filled with dark, grotesque humor created largely by the story 's many ironies” (Hobby). The author of this source highly emphasizes that O’Connor creates this dark humor for her characters to build on her meaning in the story and uses irony to create the distortion within her
In “Good Country People”, Flannery O’Connor uses unique symbols to represent each character’s personality. This allows the reader to gain a better understanding of the key points throughout O’Connor’s writing. Joy Hopewell, the protagonist in this short story, and Manley Pointer, the antagonist, possess physical abnormalities that reveal their person characteristics. Joy’s disabilities represent her weaknesses which contribute to her attempted seduction; however, Manley’s disabilities represent his distorted intentions and demoralizing actions which contribute to his success.
When reading a few of Flannery O’Connor’s stories, one cannot help but make a connection with her intensive stories and those of a television show. Both take mostly everyday people and exaggerate them into an absurd nature. Her stories and television shows use shock factors to draw in readers and viewers, respectively. While television shows tend to vary in themes and messages, Flannery O’Connor’s short stories tend to be focused on a few limited messages and themes. Television shows are mostly mindless channels of entertainment, Flannery O’Connor uses her characters not only to entertain, but to also cause readers to reflect inward and think.