Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People is a short story written in 1955. Considered southern Gothic, it features Hulga, formerly Joy, who at age ten lost her leg in a hunting accident.
She earned a philosophy degree, but at 32 lives on her mother’s farm. A Bible salesman visits and her mother, Mrs. Hopewell invites the man for dinner. Hulga believing herself to be superior to the simple man, agrees to a date seemingly out of rebellion, and maybe amusement or a diversion from her everyday boring life.
They go to a barn a distance from the house and in the loft he reveals his true self as he tricks her into taking her leg off. Exposed he explains he is not so simple and has no faith or cares. She won’t be able to find him – none of the others have.
Leading up to the barn O’Connor doesn’t give much reason to like Hulga, but at the same time, the reader feels bad for the circumstance she has put herself in. After the loss of the limb, the wooden one, it is hard not to feel for her.
The story ends with her mother and their boarder spotting a man with a suitcase in the distance and they notice it appears to be the nice Bible salesman and comment on the good of country people.
A door to door salesman would likely be strange to a reader today, especially one selling Bibles. Inviting a stranger to dinner even more so. The description of the home and surrounding area gave the necessary description of the rural nature of the home and its grounds.
I’m not sure how this would translate to today’s reader or how it could be updated and told contemporarily with the same effect.
It was well written with interesting characters and a nice twist as the reader was leaning into whether or not their tryst would lead to something ‘improper’, which it did.
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