"Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor: Analysis

Every Masterclass will open with a quote to help you and a quote to close the class after our live discussion via Zoom. Every Masterclass will have a writing experiment and time to do it or think about it—but this free class does not, as this class is not live via Zoom. Here are the q’s from yesterday followed by my analysis, based, to whatever extent possible, on your comments from yesterday’s introduction of the Masterclass. Here’s the pdf I offered yesterday, in case you missed that:

First: Here’re the questions for the second read of “Good Country People” and that I posted yesterday; your answers may be in the comments of yesterday’s post—or here below:

More on this below in a sort of footnote.

closing quote:

Here’s an aside on how O’Connor gets us to that revelatory place: One of the phrases that O’Connor uses in the story is “I am”— Jesus’s well-known words in the New Testament—and so key to Christians; also Abraham’s words in the Old Testament when the angel of the Lord calls out to him (the Hineni prayer in Judaism).

O’Connor gives us that hint on p. 10: “If you can’t come pleasantly, I don’t want you at all,” to which the girl, standing square and rigid-shouldered with her neck thrust slightly forward, would reply, “If you want me, here I am – LIKE I AM.” Mrs. Hopewell excused this attitude because of the leg (which had been shot off in a hunting accident when Joy was ten).

Note on other stories that are “Framed”: A framed story is a story within a story: The Book of Job, The Arabian Nights, The Canterbury Tales.

Love,