Good Country People - Essay Example

The story “Good country people” portrays a number of aspects that are crucial to the development of the plot in the story, as well as bringing out the meaning. The aspects include perspective, conflict and the tone used in the story, which this paper seeks to bring out in an analysis of the story The story brings out a feminist perspective owing to the characters used in the book (O’Connor 1). This is following the Hopewell family composition and the family of Mrs. Freeman, where in the two families, there do not exist male elements, as either sons or parents.. As a result, the story follows the lives of the women found in these families, with the main character being Joy, the daughter of Mrs. Hopewell. Feminist is also portrayed by the presence of the strong educational background that Joy, also known as Hulga, has.

This is by having a college education all through to Doctoral degree, which shows the power that a woman holds provides she has an education. This is due to her tendency to dissociate with other members of the society due to her pride. In addition, the story also brings out the conflict between science and religion. This is in relation to Joy’s atheist and nihilistic point of view towards the world and people, where she practices her atheist beliefs on a young Bible salesperson (Bosco 284).

This is as portrayed by her intentions on the second that the couple goes on after Manley asks Joy out. There is also the case where Manley steals Joy’s prosthetic limb due to his fetish for artificial body pars belonging to women. This is unbecoming behavior of a person expected to be of upright moral standing. As a result, this serves a means to broaden the conflict between religion and science, as well as social issues. She denies the existence of God, but she still works towards finding some form of spiritual enlightenment by going out with Manley.

In addition, the conflict of morality and ethics is also brought up in the story. This is following the deception of Manley in order to get to Joy, by pretending to be a bible salesperson and deceiving Mrs. Hopewell that he is poor and getting her to take pity on him. This shows how far moral degradation has gone to the point where religion can be used for personal gain. The above is portrayed by Manley when he opens his case to reveal two fake bibles, a flask of whiskey and a park of cards among other things.

Moreover, the whole story is written from a third person’s point of view, who in this case is a narrator. For this reason, the story is based on observation and not on the experience of the narrator meaning that, the story may bear a bias due to the nature of the narrator. The narrator tells of the events that take place in the lives of the women in the two families, moreover, their lives are portrayed as monotonous. As a result, it focuses on the nature of life for women in a society where tradition is embraced as a social norm, and those that are go against it are labeled as ingrates who are ungrateful for the same values that helped raise them.

This is as the case of Joy or Hulga who views her mother as a backward person, as she lives as per traditional conventions as shown by her dressing. The tone used is that of disgust or anger directed towards the nature of the earth at the time of writing the story. This is owing to the prevalence of lack of honesty among country people, which is brought out by the fact that Manley is a swindler in Mrs. Hopewell’s house (O’Connor 15). Disgust is also shown following the open disadvantage at which Joy is following the relations that she has with Manley.

At the point that Manley takes Joy’s foot, the tone is brought out clearly following the state that Joy is left, vulnerable. This shows anger at the world for its unfair practices especially where they are least expected, from a religious person, Manley. In addition, it shows anger at the discriminative practices directed at people with disability due to Joy’