In "Good Country People," Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell
share an idea of who and what are good country people, while Joy/Hulga has a different
idea, and Manley Pointer still another.
For the two older
women, good country people are people just like them. They have a simplistic view of
people and divide them into categories, or dichotomies. Those that come from areas like
theirs and share the same values are good country people, and others are not. Theirs is
an either/or view of people: very simplistic and narrow. Their view is debunked when
they judge Manley to be even more of a simpleton than they are, when in fact he's not
"good" at all, and certainly doesn't share their values.
To
Helga, good country people are unsophisticated and simplistic and unknowing--they are
country bumpkins. They do not know her truth--that nothing matters. They think belief
in God still matters, while she knows better. Her view is debunked when Manley, a
person without her education and sophistication, knows, too, that nothing matters and
believes in nothing. His nihilism comes from experience, while hers comes from
reading. Her belief in nothing is also debunked by Manley's evil. Evil does exist in
the world, and Manley is proof.
To Manley, good country
people are what could hold him back. But he tells Hulga that he doesn't believe in any
of that crap, and, again, that he doesn't believe in anything. He acts like good
country people to earn a living and to get what he wants, but he doesn't really believe
in any of it. His view is debunked by his obvious grotesqueness and evil, although he
"wins" in the story. His grotesque act does lead Hulga to an epiphany, however, as she
has an opportunity to see her intellectual bias and understand that evil, and therefore
good, do exist in the world.
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