ELEMENT OF LITERATURE

Elements Of Literature

Elements Of Literature

"Good Country People" deals with a woman named Hulga, who, because of her experience and her degree in Philosophy, feels she is intellectually superior to everyone in her surroundings. She has been physically handicapped since the age of ten and has not led a "normal" life; because of this she alienates herself from her environment. The author uses Hulga to demonstrate how alienation and intellectual superiority can damage relationships, stunt intellectual and emotional growth, and blind one to reality.

Due to her handicap she has become a very isolated and spiteful person. Hulga despises her situation and believes that she is mentally above those around her; therefore, she has no need to develop relations with them. She would rather spend her days reading Philosophy than talking to her mother or Mrs. Freeman, the hired women. (Robert 2007) I see a symbolic connection between her "weak heart" and her lack of emotional attachments. She resents the heart condition cause it is the only reason she is still with her mother instead of getting a lecturing job at a university, and she punishes her mother everyday by being rude. She does nothing to hide the disgust at the ignorance of her mother and the unsophisticated, country behavior of her mother's friends. It seems that she has no interest in men. According to her mother she looks at them "as if she can smell their stupidity". With this attitude, no wonder she fails to establish emotional ties with family, friends, and lovers.

In order to mature emotionally and intellectually it requires a willingness to learn from the experience and knowledge of others as well as one's own experiences. Hulga feels that the people around her are inferior and cannot offer her anything morally or intellectually, she has blocked out any wisdom that her mother or anyone else tries to enlighten her with. The only thoughts she invites into her mind come from philosophy books she reads everyday. Her favorites are "good country people are the salt of the earth" and "it takes all kinds to make the world". I believe if Hulga saw the truth behind such cliches instead of dismissing them she might have learned how to relate to others and grown to understand life. Perhaps her mother instinctively realizes when she thinks of her thirty-two year old daughter as "still a child" (175), Hulga's growth has been stunted why else would she go around the house stomping, slamming doors, and wearing a six-year-old outfit. (Robert 2007)

Since Hulga assumes that her first opinions of others are correct, she is blind to the reality that any mature person recognizes: people, even "good country people" are not always what they seem. It is better to no someone underneath than just what they reveal from above. For example, Hulga underestimated Manley Pointer, the Bible salesman. On the surface he seems to be like any other country boy: blindly devoted to God, ignorant, and basically ...