Firstly, I feel very sorry for Hulga because nobody understands her even her mother. “When Mrs. Hopewell thought the name, Hulga, she thought of the broad blank hull of a battleship. She would not use it. She continued to call her Joy to which the girl responded but in a purely mechanical way.” Mrs. Hopewell doesn’t call her daughter Hulga represents that she doesn’t accepts her today’s daughter. Mrs. Hopewell still regards her daughter as a child. …show more content…
Then she gradually falls into his trap. At this process, the sales man makes use of Hulga’s so-called pride and sense of self-esteem. That is when they arrived at a large two-story barn, “the boy pointed up the ladder that led into the loft and said, „it‟s too bad we can’t go up there. He deliberately says that to lead Hulga into his trap. Then finally he steals the artificial leg successfully.
Thirdly, let us see the irony in this article. I think the biggest irony is the “good country people”. Not including the title, it appears eight times in the whole article. Mrs. Freeman is a country people and Mrs. Hopewell thinks country people are good people. So they think Manley Pointer is good country people. Actually he is not. The characterization of both Mrs. Hopewell and Joy/Hulga creates irony, which begins with theirs names. “Hopewell”, she hopes everything will be well, but in fact nothing goes well. Because joy/Hulga won’t talk with her, treats her politely and brings her no pride. It is obviously showed in article. Such as “To her own mother she had said –without warning, without excuse, standing up in the middle of a meal with her face purple and her mouth half