Good Country People

“Good Country People” first appeared in Flannery O’Connor’s short story collection A Good Man is Hard to Find in 1955 and is widely regarded as an exemplary work of Southern Gothic literature. Like many of O’Connor’s works, “Good Country People” contains a critique of the American South and religious hypocrisy rooted in O’Connor’s worldview informed by her Catholic faith. This study guide uses the 1988 Library of America edition of Flannery O’Connor’s Collected Works.

The story begins by describing the daily routine at the Hopewell house: Every morning, Mrs. Freeman, who is hired help, comes over to visit with divorcee Mrs. Hopewell while Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter, Hulga Hopewell, ignores them. (Hulga was born Joy Hopewell but legally changed her name; throughout the story, she is referred to as Joy by her mother). Hulga is 32 years old and has a PhD, but she is still treated like a child in her home, and she is described as unattractive due to her weight and the fact that she has an artificial leg. Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman gossip, and Mrs. Freeman relates information about her daughters, Glynese and Carramae, who are more attractive than Hulga, though one of them is pregnant already at 15.