— Phillip Rozental
The story, “Good Country People”, was written by Flannery O’Conner and it is about a Christian family who lives in the rural area. I just want to start off by saying that I did take a look at this piece of literature awhile back and it hadn’t really caught my eye and seemed very boring because it included topics that I would lose interest in quite quickly, so I didn’t even make it too the third page. During my semester in Baruch, I attended an English class and throughout the months we have read some pretty interesting literature, until the next one turned out to be a story that I have already familiarized myself with. We had to answer a few questions about it, which meant I had to read the story once more. The second time I read the story it gets more interesting, so I decide to read ahead, passed page three. Going a bit off topic, the questions that we had to answer made the assignment a lot more enjoyable because they made you think and realize that there’s more to the story. After page four, or so, a Bibles Salesman would be introduced, who would be trying to sell bibles to the Freeman family. Other than his selling, he thought that Mrs. Freemans daughter Hulga, was very attractive and wanted to get to know her immediately. After that, the story just gets better and better, until the very end when the author decided to add a twist, making the Salesman look like the bad guy, but also teaching the reader a lesson within all of his doings. The lesson is that this is the reason stories exist, reading something that may seem useless, but at the end teaches you information that would be helpful and certainly relieving because of the amount of work that you put in to acquire said information. This also teaches other lessons, like putting more work into something allows you to come out with a better outcome. Another lesson this story might show is that maybe Manely, the Salesman, was there to teach Hulga an important lesson by taking her leg. That only the people who deny God with the amount of arrogance that she had; would all end up in pain. This whole process that I had, from me never reading it the first time, too loving it the second, should prove to you that this is a great read and that reading in general is important because it allows your mind to get out of the comfort zone and lets it grow. Your vocabulary will be able to reach new heights and levels of words that you will become a sesquipedalian.
