Wednesday, May 29, 2013

In O'Conner's "Good Country People" why are the characters' names significant?

Concerning names in "Good Country
People":


  • Mrs. Freeman's name is ironic because
    she isn't free--she's a tenant farmer.  Mentally, she is anything but free--she's a
    simpleton who quotes platitudes and is dangerous because she's so simplistic in her
    thinking.

  • Mrs. Hopewell's name suggests she sees only
    good in others, as she sometimes suggests.  Yet, she's actually simplistic and
    judgmental, focusing on the difference between "good country people" and trash, which,
    of course, she can't really tell the difference
    between.

  • Joy/Hulga changes her name to the ugliest name
    she can find.  The name fits her grotesque appearance and state of mind, but also is a
    rejection of her mother's way of life. 

  • Manley Pointer
    uses his manly pointer as bait to seduce and trick Hulga.  His name is phallic, of
    course.  He is the source of evil that ultimately leads to Hulga's awakening.  Hulga
    goes to the barn with him because she, too, assumes he is "good country people,"
    demonstrating that she does share her mother's belief.  When Manley tricks her and
    humiliates her, and points out that is doesn't take a Ph.D to be nihilistic and believe
    in nothing, her feelings of intellectual superiority are savagely
    rebuked. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Calculate tan(x-y), if sin x=1/2 and sin y=1/3. 0

We'll write the formula of the tangent of difference of 2 angles. tan (x-y) = (tan x - tan y)/(1 + tan x*tan y) ...