In the story "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor comically describes her opinion of what really religious person is. She questions the commonly accepted picture of a religious person, and draws a line between religion and ignorance. The comic approach she uses, accomplishes her goal much stronger than if she was to go about it the serious way. On the first look it seems as if she is poking fun at Christianity, but reading between the lines it can be seen that she is only pointing out how religion is misused and what it should be. At least one of the issues is reflected through all of the characters in the story.
First and the most obvious example is the Freeman family. They are good country people, which is a "perfect picture" of what Christians should be. Contrarily, they each have a flaw. Mrs. Freeman is ignorant, disrespectful of others and always right. She will not accept anybody else’s opinion regardless of their intellect level.
"As for getting anything across to her when this was the case, Mrs. Hopewell had given it up. She might talk her head off. Mrs. Freeman could never be brought to admit herself wrong on any point. She would stand there and if she could be brought to say anything, it was someth
Mrs. Hopewell is plain out lazy and does not like responsibility. She uses her fake niceness to get other people to do stuff she does not want to do. That is why she could tolerate Mrs. Freeman, even though she did not like her that much.
Example Essays Home
