Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor - Summary

Mrs. Hopewell is the focalizer mainly but this shifts sometime, slightly to Joy or to Mrs. Freeman.

Every morning, Mrs. Freeman comes over to the Hopewells' to "carry on business". They speak of the Freeman daughters, Glynese and Carrramae, while Joy, Mrs. Hopewell's 32 year old artificial-legged daughter, is in the bathroom. Mrs. Freeman works for Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Hopewell is not ashamed because the Freemans are not trash. Mrs. Hopewell was told that Mrs. Freeman was extremely nosy, but she was the only applicant. So, Hopewell decided to hire the Freemans anyway as tenants and land workers and put her in charge so that her nosiness would be put to good use.

Mrs. Freeman would never admit she was wrong. She thinks a lot of herself and expresses this notion frequently. She frequently intrudes on the Hopewells' privacy but Mrs. Hopewell keeps her because the Freemans are good country people and those are rare. She has had much experience with trash.

Joy lost her leg in a hunting accident when she was ten. She changed her name to Hulga. Her mother refuses to refer to her as Hulga. MRS. Freeman, however, takes pleasure in using the name. Hulga rejoices in the ugly sound of her new name, but feels that Mrs. Freedman's speaking the name is an intrusion upon her privacy. Then Hulga realizes that Mrs. Freeman is fascinated with deformities. Hulga goes to lengths to be unattractive.

Hulga has a PhD in philosophy. She is bright, her mother knows, but sad and refuses to socialize. She laments her weakened physical state and were it not so says she would be teaching in a university.

A bible salesman comes over. He tries to guilt her into buying a bible. There is no bible in the parlor because Joy is an atheist. He is a believer. He stays for dinner and the two seem to have a covert interest in one another. When he leaves they engage in conversation. She lies and says she is 17 years old (he's 19). They arrange to meet for a picnic, and she imagines that she seduces him and turns his resulting shame into a deeper understanding of the truth of life.

They go out. He is excited and bought a new hat for the occasion. He asks about her leg and she turns hostile and says she does not believe in god. He kisses her. She is glad to discover there is nothing special about kisses. She maintains firm control. Even though it is her first kiss she feigns normalcy. Nothing turns him off, even more conflicting theological banter. They find a barn and climb to the second story. She confesses her age and that she has degrees, and he coaxes her with a country dialect and kisses to tell him she loves him, and then to prove her love. She thinks he means sex and is happy she succeeded in seducing him. But he asks to see her wooden leg. He says that that is what makes her different from everyone else.

She is completely shocked. She feels that for the first time, someone discovered the truth about her, via instinct. She feels born again through him. He unrolls her pant leg. She shows him how to take it on and off and allows him to try. He takes it off. She orders him to put it back on but he refuses, telling her that she has got him instead. She feels entirely dependent on him. She is overcome with emotion and thought abandons her, and this is foreign to her. She asks for her leg back.

He takes a pillbox, a flask of whiskey and pornographic playing cards out of a hollowed bible. He offers her a swig. She is shocked. She tries to get her leg but he pushes her down, angry that she has misled him. She is incredulous, and blames him for being a hypocrite like all Christians. He says he does not believe, indignant at her expressed superiority.

He grabs the wooden leg and puts it in his valise and leaves her. The story ends with Hopewell's and Freeman's conversation about the simplicity of country folk.

Flannery O'Connor