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Good Country People

Introduction

The main character of the story, Manley is an overweight 10-year-old boy with blue eyes that are always watering behind wire-rimmed glasses. For the girl's party, he is dressed in a white suit, but he is also wearing his toy pistols and holster. His escape from the girl's party, destroying her gift of the bottle of perfume, and his attire make his name particularly fitting. He expresses a moment of "manly" rebellion in the face of females who are older (his mother and grandmother) as well as his age (the girl). His thoughts turn frequently to his older brother and his family's fears that Roy Jr. is going "bad." Manley is manly in another way as well—in his struggle with God, he represents the human condition. O'Connor did not comment on whether this Manley may or may not represent a younger version of the character Manley Pointer in a later story, "Good Country People."

Manley Pointer, a Bible-selling con man, is the antagonist in "Good Country People" who affects an awakening in the protagonist of the story, Hulga Hopewell. His comically phallic name suggests his carnal nature, which he conceals behind claims of devotion to a life of "Chrustian service." A prototypical O'Connor grotesque, Manley collects "interesting things" from the women he seduces. To a collection that already includes "a woman's glass eye," Manley adds Hulga's artificial leg. O'Connor commented in an interview that "All during the story 'Good Country People' the wooden leg is growing in importance. And thus when the Bible salesman steals it, he is stealing a great deal more than the wooden leg." What Manley "is stealing" is the symbolic equivalent of Hulga's corrupted soul, rendered lifeless by her nihilistic philosophy, the belief in nothing on which all her actions are founded. When Manley vanishes with her leg, he also takes away the illusions of superiority and invulnerability that her rejection of a supreme being has spawned (Connor, pp. 178).

Among O'Connor antagonists, Manley can be compared to Mary Grace of "Revelation" (1964) and the scrub bull in "Greenleaf" (1956), both of whom force the protagonists into a much-needed self-assessment. O'Connor handles each of these awakenings in a similar fashion, portraying the antagonist as a destructive agent, more villain than savior. Yet, she employs Christ imagery in each case to indicate that the physical assault is a divinely inspired attempt to trigger spiritual awareness. In addition, each protagonist experiences an unexplainable feeling of familiarity with his attacker. Once the symbolic connection with Christ is established, the story functions on two distinct levels, literal and allegorical. Consequently, spiritual significance colors Manley's response to Hulga when she demands that he reattach her leg: "Leave it off for a while. You got me instead."

Character Analysis

O'Connor prepares the reader for Hulga's spiritual encounter during Manley's initial appearance in the story. "He who losest his life shall find it," he tells Mrs. Hopewell, roughly paraphrasing Jesus' words regarding the worldly sacrifice necessary to sustain a spiritual life. Later, while in ...