Flannery O’Connor “Good Country People” Post Modernisms

Introduction

Post modernism can be described as a set of critical, strategic and rhetoric practices which employs concepts such as difference, repetition and trace so as to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity, historical progress, certainty and meaning. For instance in the scene where a bible salesman named Manley Pointer, visits the family and is also invited for dinner despite Hopewell’s lack of interest in buying bibles. Mrs. Hopewell believes that Manley is good country people. While living home Pointer invites Joy for a date the next evening and she ironically seduces the innocent bible salesperson.

The author, Flannery O’Connor describes post modernism in the scene where by Hulga is deceived by Manley so fast that she falls in to his traps. Manley is only imposing himself to be selling bibles while in real sense he is not even a Christian. He portrays himself to be a poor Christian boy but in real sense he is only pretending to be. Mrs. Hopewell is moved so fast to a point where she invites this bible salesman for dinner while in real sense she knows that her daughter does not love bibles. Despite the fact that Mrs. Hopewell knew that her employee Mrs. Free man is nosy, she still went ahead and employed her. It is the job of Mrs. Free man to know all the things taking place in the whole household. Hulga was born Joy but her mother cannot call her by her legal name since she chose it for its ugliness but on the other hand Mrs. Freeman likes calling her by that name since she loves hearing ugly things. Post modernism is portrayed in the above sentences since given concepts such as differences and repetition is portrayed.

In this short story, the main theme can be sadness and deception since Manley takes advantage of Mrs. Hopewell’s kindness and taking that as a chance to invite her ailing daughter out for a picnic date. He lies to Hulga that he too suffers from a heart condition and by that he gains the trust of Hulga who now knows that someone else lives with a similar condition. Mrs. Hopewell believes in the so called bible salesman and when she learns that Manley is just a simple country boy she answers “why! Good country people are the salt of the earth”. She learns that all along those were just but misconceptions. The theme of disgust is clearly portrayed in this story especially where Mrs. Hopewell remembers that they are very few good people like Manley remaining in the world which is of cause not true.

From the above it is clearly realized that through critical thinking and decision making, one should not generalize when judging people. Post modernism should be applied correctively. Eyes are a very important symbol. In this case they are used to reveal that the people trusted by Mrs. Hopewell are not of that sort especially Manley and Mrs. Freeman. It is clearly seen that Hulga does not believe or have faith in God unlike her mother. She believes in people and that’s why she is manipulated and deceived by Manley who takes advantage of the fact that she is handicapped.

 Conclusion

From the above point of view, it is clear that post modernization is clearly portrayed in showing off the differences portrayed in the household of Mrs. Hopewell. Deception and misconceptions are clearly seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

O'Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977.