Good Country People

I think some of the names in this story do hold symbolic, yet at times ironic, meaning. As the story opens, the readers meet the two characters, one of which is Mrs. Hopewell. Mrs. Hopewell's name contains the word "hope;" readers see throughout the story that Mrs. Hopewell contains hope. She has hope that her daugher will have a normal life and that everything will go well with her new employees, The Freeman's. She is also rather postive, however, her positive attitude comes with a twist. She does not have hope in the spiritual sense; readers see later in the passage, when she is angered by the persuasion to buy a bible, that she is not all that spiritual. Aside from the spiritual sense of hope, she often lies about her hope. She appears that she is very hopeful, yet longs for her daughter to be as smart and as beautiful others, and longs to be like Mrs. Freeman. Unlike Mrs. Freeman, who is the second character readers meet as the story opens, Mrs. Hopewell is not "free" and is in a constant state of worry for her daughters. Mrs. Freeman is free and does not have to worry about her independant daughters.

Mrs. Hopewell's daughter, Joy, is named for Mrs. Hopewell's hopefulness and denyal of her daughter's true nature. Mrs. Hopewell has named her daughter Joy because she wants her to have a normal, beautiful life and hates that she has a heart condition and a wooden leg. When we think of Joy, we think of happy and postive. Joy's name is ironic in its meaning because she downplays things for herself and always looks on the negative side of everything. In the story, Joy changes her name to a more fitting name: Hulga. Her mother proclaims that it is the ugliest name she could have changed it to. The name Helga represents her spitefulness towards life and her belief that she is ugly because of her wooden leg. With the name Joy, her hatredness is mearly"sugarcoated."

In the story, Hulga meets a bible seller named Manley Pointer. His name is ironic to its meaning. The name Manley reminds reader's of the word "manly." With this name and his occupation, readers thoughts are directly pointed to the phrase "good man." While his character seems like a good man at first, readers later learn that he is a twisted manipulator without morals. His name can also be true to its meaning. If reader's set aside his occupation and just think of "Manley," they might assume that he is a "manly man" and is a player who gets what he wants; by the end of the story, readers learn that this is true.