Good Country People Flannery O Connor Analysis

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Flannery O’connor once said “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” O’connor views life through the lens of a christian realist. She says it like it is, and does not bother to hide the flaws that she observes in society. O'connor's writing reflects these views, and is often said to have a sort of sarcastic, ironic, and cynical view. However, if asked she says that ‘“Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one … Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic”’(need to cite). O’connor believed that Southern writers had a penchant for writing through the realist lens, instead of romanticizing life and the struggles within it. Her literary works speak to this statement in a …show more content…
O’connor references Malebranche, the philosopher, and The Holy Bible throughout her work. The references to Malebranche serve numerous purposes. They show us how educated Hulga is, and how sophisticated her way of thinking has become. They also serve as a reminder of how different she is and how her mother will never understand her and what she wants out of life. “Malebranche was right: we are not our own light!” Mrs. Hopewell had no idea to this day what brought that on. She had only made the remark, hoping Joy would take it in, that a smile never hurt anyone”(O’connor, 370). Mrs. Hopewell is trying to encourage her daughter, yet she does not know how to reach her. Hulga is suffering in her own right, she has no academic equal to talk to, instead she is stuck with good country people. When Mrs. Hopewell calls good country people the salt of the earth, she is alluding to the Bible, and the biblical reference used to describe Christ's early followers (Pietka
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