Good Country People Story Summary

The story begins with Mrs. Freeman, who has three facial expressions: "neutral," "forward," and "reverse" (1), like a machine on a road.
Neutral is the facial expression she uses when she's by herself, forward works for most human interactions, and reverse is what she uses on the rare occasion she has to take something back.
When this happens, she basically disappears from whatever situation she's involved in.
Mrs. Hopewell knows that no amount of talking will get Mrs. Freeman to actually admit she's wrong—instead she'll make small talk.
Mornings in the kitchen, during breakfast: that's where and when Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell conduct their "most important business."
At 7:00 AM Mrs. Hopewell rises, lights her heater, and then lights Joy's.
Joy is Mrs. Hopewell's daughter. She is thirty-two years old and has an artificial leg, as well as a big education.
From the bathroom, Joy can hear Mrs. Freeman coming into the kitchen and talking to her mother.
When Joy gets to the kitchen, the two women are usually talking about Mrs. Freeman's two daughters, Glynese and Carramae, who are eighteen and fifteen years old; Carramae, the fifteen year old, is "married and pregnant" (2).
Mrs. Hopewell says really nice things to people about Glynese, Carramae, and their mother.
They have been wonderful employees for the past four years and are definitely not "trash" (3)—rather, they are "good country people" (3). Ahem: Title alert, Shmoopers.
Mrs. Hopewell almost hadn't hired the Freemans.
According to the last farmer they worked for, Mr. Freeman was "a good farmer," and Mrs. Freeman is "the nosiest woman on earth" (4).
Since no other families had applied, though, Mrs. Hopewell decided to "put [Mrs. Freeman] in charge" and therefore use her nosiness for "constructive" (3) purposes.
Mrs. Hopewell is big on sayings like "Nothing is perfect" (5), and "well, other people have their opinions too" (5).
Joy listens to the two women talk at breakfast and is always irritated.
Mrs. Freeman is also fond of such sayings, but hers all make the point that she knows everything, and knows it first. A favorite of hers? "'I always said so myself'" (6).
Joy has these kinds of sayings, also known as platitudes, all three meals of the day.
Mrs. Freeman shows up at every single meal, which is very hard on Mrs. Hopewell, even though she is "a woman of great patience" (11).
But, she consoles herself with the knowledge "that nothing is perfect" and that at least the Freemans are "good country people" (there's that title again…) and not "trash" (11).
Until the Freemans, the tenant families Mrs. Hopewell hired usually only lasted about a year.
(Tenant farmers raise crops on another person's land for a—usually quite small—share of the profit.)
Anyhow, Mrs. Hopewell is divorced and she needs a non-trash woman to walk around with her while she supervises the fields and such.
She used to get Joy to walk with her, but Joy had such a bad attitude about it that Mrs. Hopewell stopped asking.
Mrs. Hopewell lets her get away with this because of the fact that, since she was ten, Joy has been missing a leg.
Her leg, it seems, was "shot off in a hunting accident" (13). Oops.
Mrs. Hopewell has trouble thinking of her daughter as a grown woman who has "never […] had any normal good times" (13). Seems understandable.
When Joy was twenty-one she changed her name to Hulga.
Her mother thinks she found the ugliest name possible. She legally changed it without even telling Mrs. Hopewell first, and now Mrs. Hopewell still calls Hulga Joy anyway.
When Mrs. Hopewell isn't paying attention, Mrs. Freeman calls Hulga Hulga.
For a time, Hulga noticed that Mrs. Freeman seemed intrigued by her, though she couldn't figure out why.
Finally, she understood that Mrs. Freeman was interested in her false leg.
She can tell that Mrs. Freeman loves hearing the story of how Hulga lost the leg.
In the mornings, Joy, making noise with her false leg, grumps into the kitchen and boils her eggs without speaking to the other two women.
Mrs. Hopewell looks at her daughter and thinks that her face would be fine, if only it had a happy look on it.
She also thinks that if only Joy didn't have a Ph.D (in philosophy, no less), she could go back to school and have something to do.
But then again, Mrs. Hopewell doesn't think Joy could go back right now anyway: According to the doctors, Joy has heart problems and probably won't live past forty-five.
Joy has let her mother know that if she didn't have a heart problem, she wouldn't be here at home; instead she'd be teaching at some college.
Mrs. Hopewell can picture her daughter doing just that, wearing her childlike clothing.
As the years go by, Joy gets more and more different than other people—specifically, she gets meaner and ruder.
She also says weird stuff for no reason, like "Malebranche was right: we are not our own light. We are not our own light!"
(Nicolas Malebranche was a French philosopher in the 1700s and 1800s. The quote above, from Hulga, refers to his idea that God is the cause of "light" or vision, and visibility. Read more here.)
Mrs. Hopewell can't tell people, "'My daughter is a philosopher'" (19).
Once, Mrs. Hopewell peeks into a book of Hulga's. She reads an underlined passage that talks about "science" being the study of "nothing" (20).
(The quoted passage is from a book called Being and Time by Martin Heidegger, an influential and controversial philosopher. More on this idea over in the "Themes" section.)
In any case, the passage seems like some kind of bad spell written in "gibberish" and it creeps Mrs. H out.
Today, when Hulga enters the kitchen at breakfast time, Mrs. Freeman is talking about (as usual) Carramae's morning sickness.
While Joy cooks her eggs, Mrs. Hopewell watches her back and wonders about her daughter's conversation with the Bible salesman yesterday—she can't figure out what they could have had to talk about.
Yesterday, "a tall, gaunt [thin faced], hatless" (22) young man came by selling Bibles.
He was kind of good-looking, and he wore a blue suit with yellow socks.
Mrs. Hopewell was hungry, and about to eat her midday meal (dinner), so she invited him in reluctantly.
He told her he was selling Bibles and that he noticed that she didn't seem to have one.
She explained that her daughter is "an atheist" (31) and doesn't allow bibles on display; Mrs. Hopewell said she keeps her Bible next to her bed.
Psst: She was fibbing. Her Bible is actually in storage somewhere.
The salesman said he thought that "for a Chrustian, the word of God aught to be in every room of the house" (34).
Mrs. Hopewell tried to get rid of him at that point, but he got a little offended and said he knew that "People like you don't fool with good country people like me!" Again: Title alert, yo.
Now this got to her, and Mrs. Hopewell told the salesman that the world is in a bad state because of its shortage of good country people.
This made him happy, and he introduced himself as Manley Pointer.
She told him to wait a minute, then went into the kitchen to make sure the food wasn't burning.
Joy was in there waiting and listening; she told her mother to ask Pointer to leave so they could eat.
While trying to get rid of him, she learns that he—like Joy—has a heart condition.
So she asked him to dinner, even though she didn't really want to. His heart condition, he explained, is what prompted him to devote his life to spreading the word of God.
Joy, of course, was rude to him all through the meal.
To make up for her daughter's rudeness, Mrs. Hopewell was super-nice to Manley, and pried his life story out of him.
He has eleven siblings, and his father died when he was eight; he is currently nineteen, and his Bible salesman career has gone on about four months.
Manley also told them that he has sold seventy-seven bibles so far.
All through dinner he kept looking at Joy, and after, he stayed for two more hours, talking to Mrs. Hopewell.
Joy was in the road when he left.
He stopped and they had some kind of conversation.
Mrs. Hopewell couldn't believe it when she saw Joy walking with him to the gate.
Of course, she can't ask Joy what they talked about, though.
This morning, Hulga is glad Mrs. Freeman is here talking about her daughters—she hopes this will keep the conversation off Manley, which is where she knows her mother wants it to go.
Sure enough, she raises the topic with Mrs. Freeman.
Apparently Mrs. Freeman saw him, but she reveals the information slyly, as if she and Hulga have a secret.
The platitudes fly at this point, and Hulga abruptly leaves the table, making lots of noise.
She is actually supposed to meet Manley today at 10:00 AM.
Helga remembers the conversation she had with him the day before: When Manley stopped near her on the road, he looked at her like she was "a new fantastic animal at the zoo" (73)—there was something "familiar" (73) about it, but she didn't know who had looked at her like that before.
He didn't talk to her at first. And when he did he asked, "'You ever ate a chicken that was two days old?'" (73) Which, you know, is one way to start a conversation.
She'd told him that she had, in fact, eaten a chicken of that age, at which point Manley turned red and giggled.
When he asked her age, she said seventeen.
He started talking about her leg and told her she was "'real brave'" and "'real sweet'" (78); then he asked her name, and she told him it was Hulga.
After repeating her name a few times he asked if she was shy.
She said she was.
He told her he was a serious person because he knew he might die soon.
Hulga said she might die soon, too.
Manley said he thought they might have been meant to meet because they had so much in common.
Then he invited her to go on a picnic with him, and she agreed, which is why she's meeting him today.
Last night she fantasized about seducing him, and then helping him transform the "shame" he would feel into "something useful" (90). Ooh la la.
Without her mother noticing, Hulga goes to meet Manley—she doesn't bring any food and wears pants and "a dirty white shirt" (91).
Manley, however, isn't waiting at the gate like he's supposed to be.
First she feels like he's standing her up, but then she sees him rise from his hiding place behind a bush, looking tall.
He's wearing the same suit, but a new hat.
She asks why he's got his Bibles with him, and he says, "'You can never tell when you'll need the word of God, Hulga'" (94).
They walk down toward the pasture. Manley swings his Bible case; it doesn't look as heavy as it did yesterday.
Suddenly, he asks Hulga where her fake leg meets her real leg.
She turns red, and he apologizes and says God takes care of her.
She tells him she doesn't believe in God.
He seems amazed at this bit of news, and as they walk, he says it's unusual for "a girl" (98) not to believe in God.
Then he kisses her.
This is her first kiss, and she isn't that impressed.
They keep walking.
Manley asks Hulga if she's "saved" (102).
She says that, in her way of looking at things, she is the one who's "saved" and he is the one who's "damned"—then she reminds him she doesn't "believe in God" (102).
He looks at her admiringly, again, as if she's an animal on display. And then he asks if she knows of a place they can go to sit.
Hulga suggests the nearby barn.
When they get in the barn, he says it's sad they can't go up in the loft.
Hulga climbs up, much to his amazement. She beckons him to follow and, lugging his case, he does.
She tells him he won't be needing any Bibles up there, but he says—again—that one never knows when one might need one's Bible.
Hulga lies back and looks at the blue sky through the opening in the barn.
Manley starts kissing her.
He takes off her glasses and puts them in his pocket.
She eventually begins kissing him back.
Even when Manley says he loves her, her mind stays totally clear.
When she doesn't return his declaration of love, though, he tells her she should.
She just looks out the window; the hills look like lakes. She isn't aware that he took her glasses—she doesn't usually notice the scenery.
Manley demands Hulga tell him she loves him, but Hulga says she doesn't use that word. She says: "I don't have illusions. I'm one of those people who see through to nothing" (115).
Anyhow, Manley isn't convinced and still demands that Hulga say she loves him. (Hey Manley—simmer down already.)
She speaks condescendingly to him, saying that it's probably best that he doesn't understand what she does, which is that everything is nothing.
He asks again if she loves him.
She agrees that she does, and tells him they should be honest with each other.
Toward this end, she tells him she's "thirty years old" (119) and that she has "a number of degrees" (119). Um… Hulga? You're thirty-two. Getting closer, yes, but still not telling the truth.
He says he doesn't care about her age, that he just wants to know if she loves him.
Then he kisses her until she says yes.
While she's wondering how she "seduced him" (122) without really trying to, he asks to see where here false leg attaches to her real one.
She freaks out.
Not because she's ashamed—she isn't ashamed of anything, thanks to her education—but rather, she is just really sensitive about the leg, and considers it a very private and special matter.
She tells him she won't do it.
He suggests this means she doesn't really love him.
She gives in and shows him that it attaches at the knee, and asks why he's so interested.
Manley says he's interested because "it's what makes [her] different" (126).
She thinks he's the first truly innocent person she's ever met, and so she decides to show him her false leg.
After she shows him, he wants to see how it's taken off and put back on.
She shows him, and then he takes it off for her, and seems very pleased with himself.
Hulga tells him to put it back on, all the while imagining running off with him, and enjoying it when he takes her leg off at night and puts it back on in the morning.
He says no, that she has him "instead" (132)—when she expresses alarm, he just responds with more kisses. Ew.
Now Hulga's brain isn't working in the way she's used to at all.
Again, she asks for her leg back, but Manley tells her to wait, and he opens the bible case.
He takes out one of the two Bibles inside it, and opens it.
It's been hollowed out, and inside is "a pocket flask of whiskey, a pack of cards" (134) and a box of condoms. Man oh man.
The cards have "obscene" (134) pictures on them, and he offers her a drink from the old flask.
She says she thought he was "good country people" (135). (You see that title shout-out right there? Of course you do, smartypants.)
Manley says he is, but that he hasn't let this stand in his way—he says he's "as good" (135) as she is.
She asks for the leg again, and he continues encouraging her to party with him.
Manley wants to know what the big deal is if she really does believe in "nothing" (139).
Hulga says he's just a hypocrite like all the other Christians she's met.
Slightly offended, he says, "I hope you don't think […] I believe in that crap!" (140)
And then he implies he's going to hell.
(Like Hulga, Manley seems to believe in the ideas of heaven and hell… and not believe in them at the same time.)
Now—urgently—Hulga screams for her leg.
Manley takes his Bible, the stuff that was in it, Hulga's leg, and puts it all in the bible case. Then he exits the loft.
From below he tells her he makes a habit of stealing things in this way, including a woman's glass eye. He also tells her that Manley Pointer isn't his real name.
Then he tells her: "Hulga […], you ain't so smart. I been believing in nothing since the day I was born" (142). Low blow, Manley, low blow.
In a little while, Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell are digging up onions in a pasture.
They see Manley heading toward the highway, and Mrs. Hopewell says he was selling Bibles to "the Negroes" (143) who apparently live in the woods.
Mrs. Hopewell comments on his simplicity, and says it would be better if more people were as "simple" (143) as he is.
Mrs. Freeman says that many people, herself included, could never be as simple as Manley.
And that, Shmoopers, is where our story ends.

Good Country People Story Summary

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