Good Country People

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Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor
The short story, “Good Country People” authored by Flannery O’Connor highlights the severe implications associated with confusing platitudes for actual insights. The story includes three main characters, Mrs. Hopewell, the Bible salesman and Hulga, who possess unique characteristics. By analyzing the unique features of Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter, Hulga (Joy), it becomes easier to comprehend the differences in their ideologies in terms of confusing platitudes for actual insights.
The factor that distinguishes Mrs. Hopewell from the rest is her frequent use of clichés or platitudes. From the beginning of the story, O’Connor illustrates that the life led by Mrs. Hopewell is led by empty narratives. O’Connor states, “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,” (3). Her opinions can be viewed as vague and meaningless to the extent of her not realizing that she spends much time on her clichés rather than on her actual beliefs. Another example is her reference to the Freemans as “good country people”. It can be viewed that she believes that frequently using the phrase, the perspective might come to pass. She also views her daughter, Hulga, in terms of clichés; an aspect that drives Hulga to reject the views.
Hulga also referred to as Joy, identifies herself opposite to the platitudes held by her mother.

She chooses to identify herself as Hulga instead of Joy as a way of annoying her mother. Mrs. Hopewell, however, continues to identify her as Joy. She also rejects the cliché of “good country people” in which she prefers to align with the idea of “people who knew what she was talking about,” (O’Connor 5). Hulga views herself to be above Mrs. Hopewell’s clichés in which her bitter perceptions against the clichés appear meaningless similarly to her mother’s platitudes.
As mentioned earlier, by analyzing the unique features of Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter, Hulga (Joy), it becomes easier to comprehend the differences in their ideologies in terms of confusing platitudes for actual insights. Mrs. Hopewell is led by clichés which deviate her from actual insights. Hulga, however, systematically opposes the clichés but ends up abiding by meaningless beliefs which are similar to her mother’s platitudes.
Work Cited
O’Connor, Flannery. “Good Country People”. Gothic Digital Series, pp. 1-16. Print.