In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People,” disability is portrayed through Hulga (or Joy), who has a prosthetic leg. While this is just a part of Hulga, all the other characters in the story see her as less capable due to this disability, and ogle at her wooden leg. The three most prominent characters in the story Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Freeman, and Manley Pointer all view her leg differently. How they view the leg is a reflection of who they are.
Hulga is the 32 year old daughter of Mrs. Hopewell, a traditional woman who doesn’t seem too fond of her daughter. Mr. Freeman (who is only mentioned) and Mrs. Freeman have worked for Mrs. Hopewell for the last four years, the longest Mrs. Hopewell has kept anyone. Manley Pointer is a travelling bible salesman, who manages to snag a date from Hulga, but is later revealed that he is a con artist that is after her wooden leg.
Mrs. Hopewell is brokenhearted over her daughters lost leg. Mrs. Hopewell does not like the leg at all, and hates it when Hulga purposely walks louder than necessary with it. Throughout the story it seems that after 20 years she is still grieving Hulga’s accident, as proven by the line “it tore her heart to think instead of the poor stout girl in her thirties who had never danced a step or had any normal good times,” (O’Connor 274). It is said she thinks of her daughter as if she is still a child even though she is 32 and more educated than her. She is unable to see her as anything but her disability even though she has proven herself to be more than that. Mrs. Hopewell is brokenhearted over her daughters lost leg, because to her Hulga losing her leg may as well have been Hulga losing her life. This tells us that she is a old fashion woman, who thinks that if a woman cannot be perfect, then she has no true purpose.
Mrs. Freeman is fascinated by the concept of Hulga’s wooden leg. She constantly asks to hear the story from Mrs. Hopewell, and it is said that she “could listen to it any time as if it had happened an hour ago,” (O’Connor, 275). She finds a sense of pleasure from Hulga’s disability, and compares her own daughters to Hulga. Both Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell think of her daughters as some of the finest girls ever, and tend to be the center of conversations more than Hulga. Mrs. Freeman is fascinated by Hulga’s wooden leg, because it gives her a sense of superiority over the family she’s working for. This tells us that she is insecure about her life, and feeds off tragedies of others to validate herself.
Manley Pointer wants the prosthetic leg, and this is shown two different ways. At first the want is metaphorical. It’s not that he wants to take it for himself, but that he wants someone who is strong enough to keep fighting through the pain. To him, the leg means that she was “so brave and all,” (O’Connor 285). Later though, it is revealed that the persona of “want” he puts on was not metaphorical, but literal. By revealing he was a con artist, the leg in his is view became a prize to be won. It didn’t matter to him who the person was, the leg itself was the jackpot. Manley Pointer wants the prosthetic leg literally rather than metaphorically, because he collects prosthetic parts from disabled people. This tells us that he is, for lack of a better word, a total asshole.
Word Count: 607
I pledge: Molly Avery
