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Eng- 105 - 033 Science Wishes to Know Nothing of Nothing 1 The short story Good Country People (1955) by Flannery O' Connor tells the story of a young highly educated woman Joy, who was compelled to live at the farm in the rural country in the company of her mother and hired helpers whom she deeply resented for being simple and uneducated. The meeting with the con artist taught her the lesson of real life and completely changed her judgment of people around. Joy gained personal experience through her own mistakes and she lost her mental innocence. Joy was a very difficult person. At the hunting accident Joy lost her leg, which alienated her from other people: she was as sensitive about the artificial leg as a peacock about his tail. No one ever touched it but her.
She took care of it as someone else would his soul, in private and almost with her own eyes turned away. (Good Country People, p. 146) Obviously, Joy was both resentful about her trauma and fascinated with her leg, because it emphasized her difference from another people. Joy also had a Ph. D. degree in Philosophy, but she could not become a lecturer because of the week heart. Joy could not escape the people around her because of her health and she could not communicate with them, since she considered herself very different, and very educated.
Joy tried to find the way to proclaim her difference and decided to behave ugly and noisy, to dress ugly, to make ugly comments, and on top of it all to call herself an ugly name Huge. This attitude became her protest against her mother, Mrs. Freeman and all other country people. Joy tried to make people notice her, recognize her difference, even if in ugly manner. The situation, in which Joy put herself, made her ignorant of life and people around 1 OConnor, F. A Good Man is Hard to Find.
Harvest Books, 1977. her and she adopted her mothers views, who thought that all people in the country were naive and simple: good country people are the salt of the earth (Good Country People, p. 139) the world would be better off if we were all that simple (Good Country People, p. 147) When Joy met young salesman Manly Pointer, she assumed that she would easily rule him and seduce him with her educated mind: she imagined, that things came to such a pass that she very easily seduced him True genius can get an idea across even to an inferior mind. (Good Country People, p. 140) Joy imagined herself a scientist who observed the simple species crawling at her feet. The author not accidentally portrayed Manly Pointer as the seller of Bibles. Joy became very proud of herself, and the Bibles signified her imminent punishment for her pride. Manly Pointer appeared not the good country people that Mrs. Hopewell and Joy imagined.
Manly Pointer pretended to be the simple young countryman, but in reality he was a con artist who tricked Joy into giving him her artificial leg. Manly Pointer completely seduced Joy by proclaiming her special, which responded to her own perception of herself. At the end Manly Pointer appeared to be the biblical Serpent who stole Joys innocence and experience came crushing to her. Manly Pointer broke Joys shell and left her naked in the outer World. Joy was different, but not in the way she thought. She was not superior to other people, but rather inferior, because her scholar knowledge gave her no power to resist people like Manly Pointer.
Joy finally realized, that good country people existed and they were not as simple, innocent and ignorant as Manly Pointer pretended to be, but as simple, difficult, gossiping, nosy, kind and supporting as Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman were. Flannery O' Connor in her story showed the importance of life experience and its advantages over scholastic knowledge. The author showed how the main character was assaulted with experience and her scale of values collapsed. The author highlighted, that no book would help the person to overcome the obstacles of life, but only personal experience and common sense.
Flannery O' Connor resented self-complacency of scholars and showed that their knowledge did not give them experience and could not help them to survive. Bibliography OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. Harvest Books, 1977. Feeley, Kathleen.
Flannery O'Connor: Voice of the Peacock. New York: Fordham UP, 1982.
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Research essay sample on Good Country People Good Man Is Hard
