As I read Flannery O"Connor's "Good Country People" the response that I felt was pity. The character that made me feel that was Joy/Hulga. The basic theme of the story is to not make conclusions about a person's character before you really get to know them. This is exactly what happens with Joy/Hulga in this story. Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Freeman and Manley Porter all treat Joy/Hulga in a manner that can evoke feelings of pity. We assume that Joy/Hulga is a very negative person and not very likable, but in the end we realize that she is just like her mother in that she truly believes in "good country people.".
Joy/Hulga's mother, Mrs. Hopewell is the first person to do something that causes the feeling of pity for Joy/Hulga. She treats Joy/Hulga like a child. In the following statement from the story, "Mrs. Hopewell thought of her as a child though she was thirty-two years old and highly educated," we learn early on how Mrs. Hopewell feels about her daughter. Mrs. Hopewell also like telling people that Mrs. Freeman's daughters, "Glynese and Carramae were two of the finest girls she knew." That had to cause Joy/Hulga to have feelings of worthlessness and probably contributed to her acting the way she did.
Mrs. Freeman's fascination with Joy/Hulga's artificial leg is the next thing that causes a feeling of pity. She enjoyed hearing the details of the hunting accident that caused her to lose the leg. It would seem that her artificial leg is something Joy/Hulga wants to keep private and doesn't want everyone talking about it over the kitchen table.
As we reach the middle of the story Manley Porter enters Joy/Hulga's life and seems to be the biggest cause for pity. Joy/Hulga believes that Manley is a Christian Bible salesman with a heart condition. Manley and Joy/Hulga arrange to meet the following day. All the while Joy/Hulga is planning to seduce Manley and then she will be able to console him afterwards because she is sure he will be upset.
