The leg is what she depends on for mobility, and her sense of normalcy. However, the leg is wooden. The wood itself symbolizes something that can be destroyed, or perhaps in time it will decompose, much like her faith. Because of her wooden leg, and her seemingly ugly appearance, it is easy to think of Hulga as somewhat of a freak. Friedman states, "If she is a freak, then she is a freak for one reason only: she has been deprived of the sacraments," (132). He is basically saying that if she is doing anything wrong, it is only because she does not have God in her life. The change of Joy's name to Hulga symbolizes her nihilistic point of view. She wants her name to have no link with "Joy" or "Happiness." Her Ph.D. represents her scientific view on life. She wants nothing to do with faith or believing in something that doesn't exist. .
The barn scene brings to the reader the jolting realization that it is not her virginity that Hulga loses, but something of much greater importance; she loses her faith, her carefully constructed faith in nothing, which all through the story is symbolized by her leg. As the seduction scene in the hay loft proceeds, the reader anticipates some erotic sex scene, but no luck. Hulga declares to the Bible salesman, "We are all damned.but some of us have taken off our blindfolds and see that there is nothing to see. It's a kind of salvation," (O"Connor, 406). This is ironic considering when Hulga and Manly are in the barn, he removes her glasses, as if putting the blindfold back on and reversing her past view of religion. She is fooled by Manly, who makes her think that he is a simple religious country bumpkin way beneath her. But he is .
more worldly wise than Hulga; he seduces her, instead of the other way around. And she is left sitting alone in a hay loft without her glasses or her wooden leg. .
In the loft Manly Pointer takes out a "hollow" Bible.