Good Country People

Religion is a big theme in “Good Country People” by Flannery O’ Connor. In this story the daughter Joy who has renamed herself, Hulga is an open atheist. Her mother on the other hand claims to be a Christian. When Manley, a man selling bibles, who also claims to be christian comes to their house to sell bibles, Mrs. Hopewell invites him in. Manley and Hulga hit it off and go out together. Manley takes Hulga up to the loft of the barn and Hulga we soon find out who Manley truly is. Manley being a Christian is a lie. We learn this when he opens his bible and it is hollow inside and filled with dirty pictures, booze, and condoms. In the end Manley ends up stealing Hulga’s fake leg and confessing to her that he actually doesn’t believe in anything and does the Christian act to get what he wants.

         Knowing the authors background, of how she was a devoted catholic, I think helps understand the role of religion in this story. I think it’s kind of ironic how she brings out the worst of religion. This shows that people can claim to be something but you don’t really know what’s in their heart. I think she wrote this to get people to want religion in their life. She shows how Hulga does not have religion in her life and what the outcomes of her situation.

         In the text we can see where there is a contradiction in Mrs. Hopewell’s religion. The text says, “ My daughter is an atheist and won’t let me keep the Bible in my parlor”(p.1345). Mrs. Hopewell really keeps her Bible in the attic, meaning she doesn’t think it’s important to have around. She may not be an atheist like her daughter, but this shows that religion isn’t a big part of her life. We can definitely see where Manley misuses Christianity. “ He was now nineteen years old and had been selling Bibles for four months. In that time he had sold seventy-five bibles..”.(p.1346) Even though Mrs. Hopewell and Joy do not have religion in their life Manley still wants to convince them that he is a devoted Christian. He knows they will be more trusting of him. He says things to build up his convincing belief in Christianity. Hulga asks Manley why he brought his bibles with him and he replies, “ You can never tell when you’ll need the word of God..”(p.1349). That line makes it sound like he wants the bible with him everywhere he goes, which makes him sound like a devoted Christian. But when we observe why he really wants his bible with him everywhere he goes, we can see how easily it is to be fooled by what someone presents and what actually is their motivation or what’s inside.

         Overall I really like this story. I liked the message of the story and it was not only relatable to a religious perspective but it was also relatable to other aspects of life. You truly never know what is in a person’s heart. I think this shows the dangers of giving people the benefit of the doubt. Also it shows how you should not pretend to be someone you’re not. If Mrs. Hopewell would stop pretending religion is a big part of her life and have been more forward to Manley about how they’re not interested in religion and wouldn’t have invited him in then Hulga wouldn’t have gotten into the situation she got in.

A streetcar named desire

In a streetcar named desire there is a theme of women being dependent on the men. We can see in the text that both Stella and Blanche have a dependency in men but in their own different circumstances. I think both Blanche and Stella think that the way to be happy is to have a man. In the text Blanche sees how Stanley treats Stella and gets her sister to see she would be better off without him. What she really means by this is not that her sister should be without a man but instead leave him for a different wealthy man that could financially support her. Stella does not listen to her sister and remains and relies on the man in her life, Stanley, on whom she is dependent. Blanche on the other hand, thinks that marrying Mitch will be a way out of her poverty and she sees him, being a man, someone to depend on. Blanche thinks that marriage to a man is the only way to secure her future. When Mitch rejects her, Blanche moves onto the next prospect, the wealthy man she tried to get her sister to leave Stanley for. Because she thinks that a man is the only way to help her, she is blinded by how she can try to help herself.

     Being from modern times, I can see how blinded these women were back then on their dependency on men. They thought of their only means to having a stable life was to have a man. Now days, women are and know they can be independent and they don’t need a man to financially support them. I can’t imagine feeling like finding a man to marry is my only means to having a secure future. Before reading this I knew it was the man’s role to be the head of the household back then and that women were the homemakers. I knew that women were dependent on the men, but this story really highlights that aspect of our history.

     We can see in the text that Blanche flirts around with men to try to find a husband and there is a tone of desperation. In scene three when Blanche and Mitch are talking he describes them as a rough bunch. Blanche responds, “ I’m very adaptable-to circumstances”(p. 1136).  Blanche has shown herself to be someone that would look down on lower class. This text suggests that Blanche is so desperate to find a man to depend on that she would stop caring about what she seems really concerned about: social class. Blanche also seems like she is dependent on Mitch for compliments. We can see her fishing for compliments when she calls herself an old maid schoolteacher. Purposely fishing for compliments is her way of trying to flirt with men and to get them to make her feel better about herself. Fishing for compliments makes her look very insecure, which in fact she is insecure about her future and also about her age.

     Although woman didn’t have power and they depended on a man, Blanche still has a little power. The power she can use is manipulation. She tries to manipulate the men to try to fall for her. I think the reason she is so desperate is because of her past. She had lost her relatives and her home. She also had been married before and that ended tragically. There is a pattern in her life of loosing things. She wants someone to depend on and keep her grounded. I think that is why Blanche seems more obsessive in depending on a man than Stella seems to be. In the end Blanche gets sent away and will in the end be alone. Her desperate actions didn’t give her a good outcome. Maybe if she wouldn’t have been manipulative and shady she would have gotten a better outcome. It’s a nice feeling to have someone to depend on, but Blanche went about it in the wrong way.