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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Good Country People:
The title of “Good Country People” is an example of verbal irony. This is because, while many characters in the story are described as “good country people,” none of them actually are. As readers learn over the course of the story, all of the characters treat one another with condescension or cruelty (or, at the very least, think unkind thoughts about one another), making them far from simple and “good” country people.
The following passage—in which the Bible Salesman reveals to Hulga that he is a seedy con man—captures the irony of the phrase “good country people” being applied to him:
The boy was unscrewing the top of the flask. He stopped and pointed, with a smile, to the deck of cards. It was not an ordinary deck but one with an obscene picture on the back of each card. “Take a swig,” he said, offering her the bottle first. He held it in front of her, but like one mesmerized, she did not move.
Her voice when she spoke had an almost pleading sound. “Aren’t you,” she murmured, “aren’t you just good country people?”
Here, the Bible Salesman drinks from a flask, pulls out pornographic playing cards (making sure that Hulga notes their pornographic nature), and tries to get Hulga to drink with him. In response, Hulga speaks in a “pleading” voice, asking him, “Aren’t you […] aren’t you just good country people?” Hulga’s disbelief here demonstrates that, because of the Salesman’s lower class position and lack of formal education, she has judged him to be a simple “good country person” and cannot accept that he is a complex and able to manipulate her.
The verbal irony of the title comes at many points in the story, but this moment is perhaps the most obvious. O’Connor encourages readers to internalize the lesson along with Hulga that they should let go of their condescending and simplistic views of poor and working-class people in rural communities and see them, instead, as fallible equals.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Hulga Lying About Her Age:
In an example of dramatic irony, Hulga tells the Bible Salesman in their first conversation that she is 17 years old, while readers know that she is 32. The irony comes across in the following passage:
“How old are you?” [the Bible Salesman] asked softly.
She waited some time before she answered. Then in a flat voice she said, “Seventeen.”
His smiles came in succession like waves breaking on the surface of a little lake. “I see you got a wooden leg,” he said. “I think you’re real brave. I think you’re real sweet.”
Here, Hulga lies to the Bible Salesman about her age (so as to appear more desirable to him), and he appears to falls for it, as seen in the fact that he smiles in succession “like waves breaking on the surface of a little lake,” and then tells her that he thinks she’s “real sweet.” Aware that Hulga is lying to the Bible Salesman, readers may feel inclined to view him as innocent and overly trusting here, falling into the trap of viewing him as a “simple” and “good” country person (the way the rest of the characters condescendingly view him). Of course, O’Connor turns this assumption on its head later in the story by revealing the Bible Salesman to be a manipulative con man who was lying to Hulga in much more high-stakes ways than she was lying to him.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Hulga’s Religious Moment:
In an example of situational irony, the educated and atheistic Hulga believes that she will help the uneducated and religious Bible Salesman develop a “deeper understanding of life,” only to herself come to a deeper (and semi-religious) understanding of life during an intimate moment with him.
The following passage—which comes after the Bible Salesman tells Hulga that he sees how she “ain’t like anybody else”—captures the ironic spiritual transformation that Hulga experiences in this moment:
There was nothing about her face or her round freezing-blue eyes to indicate that this had moved her; but she felt as if her heart had stopped and left her mind to pump her blood. She decided that for the first time in her life she was face to face with real innocence. This boy, with an instinct that came from beyond wisdom, had touched the truth about her. When after a minute, she said in a hoarse high voice, “All right,” it was like surrendering to him completely. It was like losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his.
O’Connor’s earnest and romantic tone in this passage sets it apart from the rest of the story (which has an ironic and humorous tone throughout), suggesting that something significant is taking place. The rich descriptions also communicate the spiritual significance of this moment, with the narrator noting how Hulga “felt as if her heart had stopped and left her mind to pump her blood” and how it was as if she was “losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his.”
This last description in particular enters a religious register, as Christians are expected to lose their lives and find them again in Christ. Here, then, Hulga proves that she is not as rational and atheistic as she believed herself to be, and that she is not the one impacting the Bible Salesman on a deep level, but the other way around.
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Explanation and Analysis—“Simple” Bible Salesman:
The end of the story is an example of dramatic irony because Hulga and readers know that the Bible Salesman is a manipulative con man who has stolen Hulga’s artificial leg, but Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman do not. The irony comes across in the final paragraphs of the story, as the two women watch the Bible Salesman walk away from the barn where he has (unknowingly to them) abandoned Hulga:
“Why, that looks like that nice dull young man that tried to sell me a Bible yesterday,” Mrs. Hopewell said, squinting. “He must have been selling them to the Negroes back there. He was so simple,” she said, “but I guess the world would be better off if we were all that simple.”
Mrs. Freeman’s gaze drove forward and just touched him before he disappeared under the hill. […] “Some can’t be that simple,” she said. “I know I never could.”
The dramatic irony here is centered on the fact that Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman refer to the Bible Salesman as “nice,” “dull,” and “simple,” after he has just proved to readers that he is anything but. There is additional irony in Mrs. Freeman’s statement that closes the story—that she could never be as simple as the Salesman—when this moment proves that she is simple, in the sense that she (like Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga) has naively misjudged the man. This is one of the many ways in which O’Connor points out the hypocrisy of these characters, and more generally of people who are condescending toward those of lower socioeconomic classes.
Related Themes:
