“Good Country People” by Flannery O'Connor exemplifies character flaws ironically relative to the title. Rather than highlighting goodness, O'Connor focuses on the characters' negative traits. An ideology of Christianity is that one must have a healthy mind, body and soul, otherwise one may lack faith. This is true for Manley Pointer and Joy-Hulga. Hulga's encounter with Manley Pointer illustrates that deformities, both real and invented, are indicative of a religious destitute. Joy-Hulga's prosthetic leg is symbolic of her detestable personality. Her life revolves around her flaw, pushing her to have a mean nature towards everyone. Even her mother says this, although she excuses her bad attitude, "Because of her leg (which was cut off in a hunting accident when Joy was ten)." This affects her life enough to cause her to change her name, from Joy, a beautiful name suited to her personality as a child, to Hulga, "The ugliest name in any language." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Joy-Hulga's life is unfulfilled in her mother's eyes, despite earning a Ph.D. in philosophy, which did not make Mrs. Hopewell, his mother, proud. Due to the nature of the accident, Joy had "never danced a step or enjoyed herself normally". Despite this, he worked hard to obtain a Ph.D. in the hope of giving meaning to his life. As described by O'Connor in a subsequent essay on her work, "By the time the Bible salesman arrives, the leg has accumulated so much meaning... It has taken away part of the girl's personality." The removal of the prosthetic leg, in addition to toning down Hulga's personality, also made her vulnerable. Hulga is humiliated to acknowledge her sinful state, “open therefore to grace and redemption.” In other words, she is an atheist who has the opportunity to become a believer in God. Initially, Hulga is a character who “attempts to live independently, to define herself and her values”. As the story progresses, his bad attitude becomes his most defining characteristic, particularly due to his leg, as previously noted. Manley Pointer makes Hulga feel comfortable enough hiding her evilness, so he can influence her later. The intent of the manipulation is to make her comfortable enough to remove her prosthesis and then take advantage of it. “Without the leg she felt completely dependent on him.” All his supplies were prepared in advance, hidden in his Bibles. “The cover was blank and contained a pocket flask of whisky, a deck of cards and a small blue box with a print on it.” In the story, characters are depicted as lacking spirituality, no matter how tangible the proposed flaw. The concept of a character lacking spirituality, evident by a flaw, is an idea dislocated in various ways throughout the story. One such example is with Hulga. He has a physical defect and also lacks spirituality. He believes in science and physics rather than the mystical or myth. Ultimately, despite her attitude, Hulga is not depicted as a bad person. As mentioned by O'Connor in his essays on his work, “Some of the protagonists in these stories seem perfectly normal; others have a physical deformity that is symbolic of a spiritual deformity.” An example of this is the Bible seller. He says he has a heart defect, but later reveals that he is lying about the heart defect. Furthermore, he admits that he is not religious and that he lied about his name. Specifically, he says to..