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Dramatic Irony
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
“Good Country People” is a short story that belongs to the Southern Gothic genre. Southern Gothic literature—popular from the 1940s to the 1960s—featured macabre, grotesque, and uncanny elements that captured the unsettling nature of life in the American South.
The Gothic nature of “Good Country People” comes across best in the climactic scene when the Bible Salesman reveals that he is not a Bible salesman at all, but a nefarious con man, and refuses to give Hulga her artificial leg back after removing it from her body. The following passage captures the dark and unsettling nature of this moment:
“Give me my leg,” [Hulga] said.
He pushed it farther away with his foot. “Come on now, let’s begin to have us a good time,” he said coaxingly. “We ain’t got to know one another good yet.”
“Give me my leg!” she screamed and tried to lunge for it but he pushed her down easily.
“What’s the matter with you all of a sudden?” he asked, frowning as he screwed the top on the flask and put it quickly back inside the Bible.
Here, the Bible Salesman proves to be the perfect Southern Gothic antagonist who, under the auspices of being a “good country person,” seduces a desperate-for-love woman before revealing his devious nature. The juxtaposition of the Salesman’s calm energy in this scene (he responds to Hulga “coaxingly”) with Hulga’s screams of panic contributes to the unsettling Gothic mood.
Related Themes:
