Hope in a Hard Place

“Hope is a waking dream,” says Aristotle. Emily Dickinson writes, “[hope] sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” Flannery O’Connor joins the list of literary and philosophical giants to address the power of hope in Good Country People. Though the story seems rather an un-hopeful one on the surface, the narrative evokes a deeper meaning in which the most seemingly despondent character is the one with the most hope. Despite her unfortunate situation, her professed atheism, and her distaste or distrust of everyone in her life, Hulga Hopewell is still the most hopeful of them all. Flannery O'Connor ingeniously uses Hulga Hopewell to illustrate hope can be found even in the most unlikely places.

One of the first details the reader learns about Hulga Hopewell is that she has an artificial leg. Hulga's impairment illuminates her motives and character throughout the story and presents the contrast of her gloomy demeanor and surprising hope in a meaningful way. She has dealt with life without a leg since she was ten years old, and Mrs. Hopewell blames Hulga's temperament on the disability (274). Although Hulga is thirty-two, her mother still views her as a young, naive child--in many ways projecting her simplemindedness onto her daughter, but she does so because of the deformity. Hulga, however, embraces life with an artificial leg undaunted; her stubborn nature, even in the face of tragedy, suggests the characteristics her mother loathes had been within her all along. When the accident occurred all of those years ago, Hulga "never lost consciousness," a detail O'Connor extends to the reader to reveal the inward strength the girl has always had (275). With that strength in mind, Hulga's remark "if you want me, here I am--LIKE I AM" is all the more profound and indicative of her character (274). While Mrs. Hopewell adversely views Hulga's deformity and uses it as a means of holding Hulga back, Hulga does not share the sentiment. Instead, Hulga elects to educate herself and take walks notwithstanding her situation, revealing a deep hopefulness (276). After all, what is hope if not gallantly pursuing one's path regardless of hardship?

Another notable detail respecting Hulga Hopewell is her atheism. She reveals to the Bible salesman that "[she doesn't] even believe in God," a fact that educates the reader as to why Mrs. Hopewell was initially astonished to see Hulga speaking to the boy (285). Hulga is not merely atheistic but dogmatically so, and she says, "we are all damned... but some of us have taken off our blindfolds to see that there's nothing to see. It's a kind of salvation" (288). The enlightened view, from Hulga's perspective, is one in which all are equal participants in damnation. However, the belief system she subscribes to does not account for redemption. For a Christian, like O'Connor, any hope for or in Hulga could easily be disregarded, but there is a substratum element of truth in Hulga's analysis. She does not seem to believe the doctrine of many atheists--who have more nihilistic tendencies, saying there is no higher being, so there is no damnation or sin. Instead, Hulga recognizes everyone requires salvation. She is simply misguided as to how to attain said salvation. The distinction in Hulga's beliefs draws attention to the hope she clings to, no matter how obscure.

The last of Hulga's features where subtle glimpses of hope can be found is in her outward distaste for the people in her life. Despite her mother's insistence that Mrs. Freeman and her two daughters were "good country people," Hulga made jest at the girls' names and was constantly angered by Mrs. Freeman (272). With her dislike for the Freemans, Hulga disliked her mother far more. Hulga went so far as to change her given name, Joy, to the "ugly sound[ing]" Hulga (275). In a very literal sense, Hulga took her mother's joy when she changed her name, and Hulga considers it "one of her major triumphs" (275). Throughout the story, Hulga projects bitterness towards all. In many ways, her attitude is due to either their treatment of her or to their simplistic mindset contradictory to her more educated ethos. The bitterness associated with her character makes Hulga's reception of the Bible salesman still more interesting. Though her initial reaction to the boy is less than positive, Hulga eventually opened herself up to him. She walked him to the gate and made plans with him for the next day; at first, she saw "it as a great joke," then "she had begun to see profound implications in it" (283). How she responds to the salesman is makes cogent the hope hidden within her because she sees true innocence in him, unlike the false innocence she sees around her. The perception of the Bible salesman allows Hulga to reveal vulnerability within herself for the first time. To the Bible salesman, she divulges that she may die, lets herself be kissed, puts herself in a physical place that could be straining, and allows him to remove her synthetic leg. Hulga becomes wholly vulnerable to him despite her generally closed-off nature--a fact telling of her inner hope and longing for more than her current situation. 

The flashes of hope the reader can see in Hulga are not only indicative of hope's ability to be found anywhere but share the theological implications in O'Connor's work. Despite the burdensome life Hulga has had, the professed atheism, and bitterness towards people, Hulga opens at the first chance of something beyond that. The young Bible salesman, to Hulga, represents faith. Although, in the end, he is not what he seems, what he means to her is intrinsically tied to a sense of hope for her salvation. When opening herself up to previously unexplored possibilities and opening herself up to him, she feels as if she is "losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his" (289). The statement is a revelation of O'Connor's Christian meaning in the text. The Christian mode of salvation Hulga denies is the very same principle she mistakenly places in the Bible salesman; redemption through Christ requires the loss of one's life so that it is found again in the life of Christ. 

In Good Country People, Flannery O'Connor crafts a character who is extraordinarily hopeful, but that hope is misplaced. She artfully places immense hope in a character with little place for it on the surface to show how Christ can transform anyone in any circumstance. The depths of the story reveal how powerful hope is and the necessity of placing that hope in the right place--in Christ alone.