Good Country People

Flannery O'Connor is the author of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People." She is best known for her southern gothic style of writing. The characters in her stories are grotesque and twisted people who often do heinous things. She was a very religious person, which is a reoccurring theme within in her writing. Out of both stories, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a better story based on the way the theme is presented, how the characters develop throughout the story and the tone.
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the author talks about a typical American family that gets on each other’s nerves. The story then takes a dark turn when a criminal captures them all in the woods. The story uses an arrangement of rhetorical devices
The identity struggle is clearly displayed among the characters during the beginning to middle of the story. In Hulga it is shown through her superiority complex; with her mother, Mrs. Hopewell, it is her perception of her employees. The story touches on a larger social issue through the position of Mrs. Hopewell’s character as a rich landowner who looks at her employees as either "trash" or "good country people". The author shows Mrs. Hopewell clearly when she says "The reason for her keeping them for so long was that they were not trash. They were good country people... [and that] She had plenty of experience with trash. Before the Freeman's she averaged one tenant family per year." (O'Connor, "Good Country People" 1-2). The quote shows her perception of people in the lower class and the way that she dehumanizes them by placing them into two general groups in her mind. Hulga is guilty of the same behavior in the way that she judges other people as being inferior based on their level of education. She does this with Manley when she sees him for the first time. Both Manley and Hulga are looking at the possibility of love, but that ends up taking a bad turn. O'Connor shows us that Hulga has another side to her. "During the night she had imagined that she seduced him. She imagined that the two of them walked on the place until they came to the storage barn.” (O'Connor, "Good Country People" 6). In this moment, Hulga’s identity is
Both seem to be uplifting and make the reader believe that the plot will be about something good happening; however, they both take a turn for the worse very quickly. Religion appears with both the Grandmother and Hulga, showing O'Connor's religious beliefs. In "Good Country People", she elaborates on the theme when Hulga struggles to identify who she is since her accident. There is humility in both the stories. The Grandmother is the main character that develops this theme in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and Hulga in "Good Country People". "Good Country People" uses humility in its story more clearly than "A Good Man is Hard to Find". An example of this is when Manley Pointer takes Hulga's artificial leg. This allows the reader to develop some genuine sympathy for Hulga in this situation that O'Connor has purposely put her in. Both stories written by O'Connor are very good, but "Good Country People" is stronger in its use of identity to show the struggles the characters