What ways do you expect Hulga or Joy to change after her Manely P. experience?

When Manley Pointer steals Hulga's leg, he steals her
identity, her beliefs and part of her soul. The wooden leg has been what has made her
unique, but also one of Flannery O'Connor's characteristic "grotesque" characters.
Hulga's belief system, however, has been very negative - she firmly believes in
"Nothing" so the irony of Manley Pointer stealing her leg is that he steals "Nothing"
from her. That leaves a clean slate for her to accept grace, to replace "Nothing" with
something positive. Hulga has placed so much of who she is in that wooden leg, but so
much of who she is, is a negative young woman full of pride, who thinks she is better
than everyone else. With the stealing of the leg, Manley Pointer is actually doing her a
favor. Now that she no longer has the basis of her belief in "Nothing" she is open to
believe in something, and this would be grace and
love.

O'Connor's Catholic faith taught her that mankind had
to be humbled and had to get rid of pride before being redeemed, and often she brings
her characters to the point of death before they realize this (like the grandmother in
"A Good Man is Hard to Find") but in this story, Hulga is not killed, but she comes face
to face with her sin, and she has the chance to be redeemed. She has a chance to choose
JOY over the other ugly name she chose for herself,
HULGA.

When Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman see the Bible
salesman leaving in the distance, they both say that he was simple. Mrs. Hopewell says
"He was so simple, but I guess the world would be better off if we were all that
simple." O'Connor was a Bible student, and she knew that in the Bible, Jesus tells
everyone that if they want to enter the kingdom of heaven, they must be like little
children, i.e. "simple" and "innocent". When Hulga has her leg stolen, Pointer forces
her to revert back to this state, and she now can start over again if she
wishes.

Do you think she WILL change? Ah, that is a
rhetorical question and I have given you some background so that you can answer this
question for yourself. My view, which is purely extrapolating, is that Hulga has not
died, and she is going to have to rely on people to get her down from that barn loft
where Manley Pointer left her. She is helpless, so let's hope her experience WILL change
her, will humble her, and turn her back into JOY. O'Connor probably would have hoped for
the best for Joy, so we can, too. We can pretend her mother finds her after several
hours, and while she is up in the barn loft, she will reevaluate her life and realize
what a stinker she has been. Then, she will become Joy Hopewell ("hoping" to be "well"
again).