Thia essay chiefly concerns itseld with "Good Country people,"" by Mary Flannery .
O'Connor, but will also seek to draw parallels with "A Good man Is Hard To Find,"" and .
The Holy Bible. .
The story begins in medias res, morning preceding Hulga's pre-arranged rendevous with Manley Pointer. The exposition delays our learning of that event while O'Connor fleshes out the characters 9some more than others) through a combination of flashbacks and present-time conversation. ( ) The first character we're presented with (Mrs. Freeman) seems to project and alomsot passively evil aura which puts her in person-to-person conflict with the nearly excessively positive Mrs. Hopewell. ( ) .
In direct with both of the previously mentioned characters (who's view of the world seems to eb more external in nature) we have the much more internally oriented Hulga. "Woman! Do you ever look inside?- she asks her mother "Do you ever look inside and see what you are not?- ( ) If Hulga's outlook on life wasn't clear to the reader by that point, it becomes abundantly so when her mother (Mrs. Hopewell) recounts the following highlighted passage from her (Hulga's) book: "Science on the other hand as to assert it's soberness and seriousness afresh and declare that it is concerned solely with what is. Nothing- how can it be for science anything but a horror and a phantasm? If science is right, then one thing stands firm: science wishes to know nothing of nothing."" ( ) Not only is Hulga the picture of human vs. supreme being conflict (as evidenced by the previous passages), but she also puts herself in direct opposition to the world around her by deliberately devaluing that which appears unattainable -she didn't like nice young men."" ( ).
It can hardly escape the reader as ironic then that a "nice young man- is precicely what upsets the sense of order in Hulga's world. .
Although Hulga's and her mother's worldviews seem to cover both ends of the spectrum, Manley seems to use them both to his advantage.