In the story "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor comically describes her opinion of what really religious person is. She questions the commonly accepted picture of a religious person, and draws a line between religion and ignorance. The comic approach she uses, accomplishes her goal much stronger than if she was to go about it the serious way. On the first look it seems as if she is poking fun at Christianity, but reading between the lines it can be seen that she is only pointing out how religion is misused and what it should be. At least one of the issues is reflected through all of the characters in the story. .
First and the most obvious example is the Freeman family. They are good country people, which is a "perfect picture" of what Christians should be. Contrarily, they each have a flaw. Mrs. Freeman is ignorant, disrespectful of others and always right. She will not accept anybody else's opinion regardless of their intellect level.
"As for getting anything across to her when this was the case, Mrs. Hopewell had given it up. She might talk her head off. Mrs. Freeman could never be brought to admit herself wrong on any point. She would stand there and if she could be brought to say anything, it was something like, 'Well, I wouldn't of said it was and I wouldn't of said it wasn't,'." (Good Country People, pg. 2020).
The two daughters were exact opposite of what Christian girls should be like. They are so bad that joy gives them nicknames which sound like stripper's or porn star's artistic names. .
"Joy called them Glycerin and Caramel. Glynese, a redhead, was eighteen and had many admirers; Carramae, a blonde, was only fifteen but already married and pregnant. She could not keep anything on her stomach." (Good Country People, pg. 2021).
The admirers in this case does not mean guys who see her as a potential good wife, but a girl who is easy to talk into sex with no string attached, Hence the nickname Glycerin.
