What is the thesis statement for Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor?

Answer 1

- By including stereotypical gender roles in the story "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor depicts the oppression of the patriarchal Southern society.

- Flaws are taken advantage of by society, whether these flaws are physical or ideological. In "Good Country People," these flaws include an artificial leg, and a belief that country people are moral, and therefore trustworthy.

- The symbolic use of names in "Good Country People" aids the reader in understanding the story's characters, for their names define their facades.

- In Flannery O'Connor's story, it is clear that "good country people" are those who are believed to be devout Christians. Ironically, the characters in the story are better examples of the hypocrisy of religion, and how people can use a façade of piousness to feign superiority, and also to take advantage of others.

- In Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People," the outside world is depicted as a dangerous and evil place, and conversely, the isolation of the home has protective power.

- Joy/Hulga affects a cynical façade, claiming not to believe in anything. (As she tells Manley, "I don't have illusions. I'm one of those people who sees through to nothing.") Yet by the end of the story, Joy/Hulga's carefully constructed façade is shattered; through the dramatic irony in her absence of self-awareness to the situational irony pervading the final scene, O'Connor ultimately reveals Joy/Hulga as an innocent who is shocked when she witnesses the beliefs she once espoused as embodied in Manley Pointer.