Good Country People Character Analysis

Flannery O’Conner has written two great short stories that introduces to the reader very unique and yet similar characters. We have “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, both containing people who have trouble being true to themselves and lying to others. Who says that a good plotline is the most important element for a great piece of literature when you have manipulative and hypocritical characters to cause drama and suspense? The grandmother from “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the salesman and Hulga from “Good Country People” are prime examples of people who exhibit duplicity and untruthfulness. The grandmother is a true testament of what a hypocrite is meant to be. Not only do we see her manipulate her own grandchildren to change the course of the road trip but
O’Conner portrays the grandmother as a southerner who’s still too attached to southern way of living and uncomfortable with how the country is becoming, stating “in my time…, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents” (650). You’d think that with her little speech you will start to appreciate the grandmother agreeing with her “Yes!! Need more respect!!”, but things start to go downhill from there. Manipulation arises from the grandmother to fulfill her own selfish needs “there was a secret panel in this house,” she said craftily, not telling the truth. Of course it does not end there, during the pleading of not getting killed by the hands of the Misfit near the end of the story we come across the grandmother’s biggest showing of hypocrisy. While she is desperately telling the Misfit that he has “good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady...Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady” (658). With this act you would feel confused about the grandmother, for she uses manipulation to get what she wants while having the faith and decency to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will protect her meanwhile her