Flanner O'Conner's writing Similarities
             The main characters and surrounding flat characters are comic in that they are inferior characters whom the reader judges as deserving a comeuppance of some kind. In "Good Country People," Joy- Hulga "[believes] herself to be of superior intellect" which leads her to be scammed by Manley Pointer, the bible salesman (Magill 382). Although she is thirty-two years old, Joy continues to live with her mother, Mrs. Hopewell. Mrs. Hopewell is a very optimistic, peerky woman. Her daughter's name contasts her true identity. She is rebellious and stubborn " with the look of someone who has achieved blindness by an act of will and means to keep it" (O'Conner 391). Mrs. Hopewell treats her like a young child because of her prosthetic leg. In spite of her mother, Joy changes her name to Hulga. Along with the unruly attitude she shows towards her mother, Hulga considers herself better than everyone else because of her PhD in philosophy. When she meets Manley Pointer, she believes that she is much smarter than he and she can seduce him with her intellect. She sees him as a simple man. In fact, she realizes that "she had seduced him without even making up her mind to try"(O'Conner 402). She senses that she is in control of everything and she can get whatever she wants out of him. When Manley asks to see her wooden leg, she is astounded. She is extremely sensitive about her wooden leg and denies his inquiry to see her leg. Her leg is her weakest spot, the one thing that keeps her unique. When he figures her out and tells her that " it's what makes you different" and that "[she] ain't like anybody else", she succumbs to his request, feeling that she has made a connection with him (O'Conner 402). He gets extremely excited and asks to see how to put it on and take it off. He becomes very proud of himself when he learns to do it all by himself. By now her weak heart has been exp...