Watermarks Naïveté: Assuming Others Are Naïve by Erin Quigley

In "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor skillfully presents a story from a third-person point of view, in which the protagonist, Joy-Hulga, believes that she is not one of those good country people. Joy is an intelligent and educated but emotionally troubled young woman, struggling to live in a farm environment deep in the countryside of the southeast United States, where she feels that she does not belong. Considering herself intellectually superior to the story's other characters, she experiences an epiphany that may lead her to reconsider her assumptions. Her experience marks a personal transition for her and constitutes the story's theme--the passage from naïveté to knowledge.

O'Connor crafts the story so that the plot does not actually begin until insight into the characters has been provided. The limited omniscience persona of the narrative voice alternates between Joy and her mother, Mrs. Hopewell. The exposition provides an understanding of how the characters have developed the personality traits they possess when the drama begins to take place, which is on a Friday evening during the Spring sometime during the mid-1950s. The exposition demonstrates how Joy develops the social and philosophical assumptions that deeply affect the way she sees herself and relates to others.

A view into Joy-Hulga's past reveals why she has so much internal conflict and needs to empower herself through the constant judgment of others. What most strongly sets her apart from others is her prosthetic leg, which she has been wearing since her real leg was shot off at ten years of age in a hunting accident. Enduring teasing and other social hardships caused by her disability has led Joy to become defensive and cynical. She has a "chip on her shoulder" that weighs her down emotionally and physically. Joy has learned to protect herself from feeling ostracized by being critical of other people, which is an immature means of clinging to some form of self-esteem.

For example, she resents her mother for being overly protective and sententious. In exasperation, she criticizes Mrs. Hopewell, yelling, "Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not?" (184). Joy-Hulga is also cynical about the simple-mindedness of Mrs. Freeman, an acquaintance of her mother. Mrs. Freeman's conversation consists mainly of gossip about her daughters, whom Joy condescendingly refers to as "Glycerin and Caramel" (181). Joy defends her assumptions of intellectual superiority with the PhD she has earned, and claims that, if it were not for her heart condition, "she would be far from these red hills and good country people" (184).

It is questionable as to whether Joy truly believes in the intellectual status that she tries to claim for herself. At the same time she stakes out the respect due a scholar, she takes on the identity of a child, which is how she continues to exist in her mother's mind. She intentionally presents herself as a child, "[going] about all day in a six-year-old skirt and a yellow sweat shirt with a faded cowboy on a horse embossed on it... Mrs. Hopewell thought [this] was idiotic and showed simply that [Joy} was still a child" (184).

Joy-Hulga also intentionally makes an atrocious noise as she lumbers around. Neither her limp nor her supposed "weak heart" need to prevent her from pursuing some form of interaction with society (184). She chooses, however, to remain in her mother's home amongst the "good country people" whom she supposedly despises. Under the haughty external presence that Joy creates, she is a frightened woman of low self-esteem, too afraid to admit this to herself or others. Her denial is a form of naïveté.

Joy-Hulga's decision to change her legal name demonstrates how she believes that being in conrol makes her superior to others. To make a statement suggesting her independence of her mother and rejection of her past, Joy changes her name to Hulga, which embodies the ideas of enormity and ugliness. As this is a jab directed towards her mother, Joy is proud of her ability to avoid Mrs. Hopewell's desire to mold her into a pleasant young woman, to "turn her dust into Joy" (183).

The irony of this supposed "victory" over her mother is that it does not empower Joy but clearly reveals her negative self-concept. Considering that the name Hulga reminds Mrs. Hopewell of the hull of a battleship, Joy is using the ship not only to attack her mother, but also to defend herself and her right to remain isolated and formidable. Her behavior demonstrates that, despite her academic knowledge, she is naïve in a social context. Her ideas on how to interact on an adult level are distorted, ideas which become dangerous when tested in an adult situation.

Such a situation presents itself with the arrival of Manley Pointer, a young and seemingly innocent Bible salesman who vists the farmhouse. He is the epitome of a "good country person" from the point of view of Joy-Hulga as well as her mother, making him a target of Joy-Hulga's cynicism. In his Southern country accent, Pointer relates that he is from a large family, tragically lost his father when he was eight, has a heart condition, and wants to dedicate his life to "Chrustian" service. Joy-Hulga rudely ignores Manley during dinner, but agrees to join him the next day for a picnic, more because she can use his ignorance to fuel her own feeings of superiority than because she actually desires his company.

She considers it entertaining to know that Manley has no clue to the deeper meaning of their conversation, for he seems to comprehend words only for their surface value. She spends the night before the picnic envisioning seducing the Bible salesman and then "taking his remorse in hand and chang[ing] it into a deeper understanding of life. She [would take] all his shame away and [turn] it into something useful" (189). This allusion to the way Jesus washed away the shame and sin of his followers demonstrates the way Joy-Hulga views Manley's innocence in contrast to her all-knowing capabilities. The irony is that Joy-Hulga's assumptions about Manley again demonstrate her own naïveté.

Despite Joy-Hulga's intentions, the events that occur the next morning in the barn loft only initially go according to her plan. She entertains herself by watching Manley's reactions to her philosophical views, such as not believing in God. She allows herself to be kissed, but at first the energy surge goes not to her body but her mind; she remains "detached... regarding him from a great distance, with amusement but with pity" (190). Joy-Hulga gradually allows herelf to become more intimate but still remains in control of the situation, proud of her success in seducing the innocent lad. She says that she is actually thirty years old and has numerous academic degrees, an attempt to impress Manley further with what she feels should be respected accomplishments.

Soon the line determining who is seducing whom begins to grow fuzzy. The first sign that Joy-Hulga's mind is not in complete control over her emotions is that she does not realize that Manley has removed her eyeglasses. Then he moves on to something much more personal, her prosthetic, the window to her soul. Joy-Hulga eventually gives in to his request not only to see it but also to remove it. Her lofty feelings of superiority over Manley slip away as she feels herself let go: "[I]t was like surrendering to him completely. It was like losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his" (192).

O'Connor's second allusion to the Bible no longer reveals Manley's innocence, but Joy's. Manley's innocence enables Joy-Hulga to see the truth about herself, which is that her leg makes her different, which of course she knows intellectually but cannot come to grips with emotionally. Joy has been naïve in refusing to acknowledge that her appearance affects her self-esteem. Now she can admit this aspect of her identity, but she remains naïve in that she still does not know the truth about Manley's identity;

Whatever amount of Joy-Hulga's artificial exterior not removed when her artifical leg was removed is now eroded. She is shocked when Manley produces the whiskey flask, condom, and playing cards; her desire for him to be just a good country boy can be heard in the "almost pleading sound" of her voice (193). At first she assumes that is a hypocrite to his Christian faith, but he takes offense to this, claiming, like Joy-Hulga, "I been believing in nothing ever since I was born!" (193). These are the last words Manley speaks to her before he leaves the barn with her precious leg in his Bible-filled valise.

In the final moments of the plot, Joy-Hulga has fallen in her perceived status. Not only have all her social and philosophical assumptions about Manley been proven false, but she has also lost the foundation of her identity, her leg. She is faced with the realization that she has been naïve all along. In her pattern of being quick to make assumptions to build her own self esteem, Joy-Hulga has not used her intelligence in a socially beneficial way.

The results of her shocking experience could be one of many, but considering Joy-Hulga's personality, she is likely to become even more defensive, hostile, and antisocial. She might become less willing to trust others, especially those who come across as "good country people." One would hope, however, that Joy will continue to recognize and admit her own naïveté and to make fewer assumptions about the naïveté of others.

O'Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw, 2002. 181-194.