— Anonymous
I think Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” is a Great Work because it is a high-concept story exposes human arrogance and hypocrisy. We all have our inner self that is against every outward behavior moment, and O’Connor uses Good Country People to imitate all of us. An example from the book, Mrs. Hopewell is full of homespun truisms which she keeps saying “everybody is different,” and “nothing is perfect. That is life!” She despises her daughter’s differences and urges her daughter to change, yet, she get fooled by Manley Pointer’s con art and exposed her character is full of self-righteous, false sympathy and hypocritical. Mrs. Freeman represents the type of people that they ware vain and bored, and delight in peeking into other people’s privacy and chewing on their pain. As described in the book, “Mrs. Freeman had a special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children. …. Mrs. Freeman could listen to it any time as if it had happened an hour ago.” Therefore, Mrs. Freeman also plays the role as a bully. She is insidious and brutal. Which reveals the spiritual loneliness and violent relationship between people. I believe violence is happening around us on daily and it is ubiquitous, both mentally and physically. I find the truth value in the ending of the story, where Hulga realized Pointer is a con artist, the author is trying to tell us that after experienced in a violence relationship may not only destroys people both mentally and physically, it could also rediscovers one’s self and make us understand the true nature of life. We will learn a lesson in a hard way and understand more about ourselves. This story is still relevant to modern society in 2020. Manley Pointer is like those cyberbully anonymous abusers who gives disgusting comments on the internet. They will go against others while completely defying logic and common sense. They are everywhere, and no one knows who they really are, so they can be brutal to other people if they like. In the end, they just want to gain people’s attention and reveals the modern people’s spiritual loneliness. In addition, we live in New York City, a place with the prevalence of money worship and egoism, the relationship between people and people are gradually lean toward competitive position, which reflected in spiritual estrangement, alienation, and hostility. I was reading Flannery O’ Connor’s Good Country People before I went to sleep, and it made me reflect on myself. I remembered there were a girl in my middle school got bullied. I don’t know the reason why she was bullied but there were a times that people in my class was spreading rumors of her and laugh at her. I was sitting there and listen to them talking and being careless to the situation. Like Mrs. Freeman, we are laughing at someone’s pain and we all were part of the bully. Every time I recall this memory, I regret that I didn’t stand up to speak for her. If there is a time, I can meet her again I would apologize to her in person.
