Good Country People Themes

"Good Country People" looks at the ways the characters identify themselves and others. Mrs. Hopewell sees her employees as either "good country people" or "trash" (3), and herself as above both of...

"Good Country People" doesn't exactly seem suffused with love. The characters have incredibly tough exteriors and seem bent on annihilating rather than loving each other. Yet, we would argue that a...

This theme presents an interesting counterpoint to the theme of religion in "Good Country People." For Mrs. Hopewell, existence rests in having, as her name suggests, a hopeful outlook on life. Hul...

Flannery O'Connor said, "I write the way I do because I am a Catholic." "Good Country People" sets up an opposition between believing in God and believing in nothing, which is only halfway playful....

Hulga, the protagonist of "Good Country People" has, at thirty-two, spent most of her life in school. She had a doctoral degree in philosophy, but her poor health keeps her living on a rural farm s...

"Good Country People" looks at class and social divisions in the southern United States in the 1950s (or thereabouts). Mrs. Hopewell is a wealthy landowner who sees her employees as beneath her bec...