Examples Of Southern Gothic In Good Country People

Southern gothic is believed to be “disturbed people doing disturbing things.” In Good Country People, readers may think and analyze that the events that occur are a good form of southern gothic. Good country people is southern gothic beginning with the characters and events that happen. Beginning with Mrs. Hopewell calling her daughter Hulga because thrives and enjoys hearing ugly things. Another example is her being a hypocrite to Manley Pointer in his face when she meets him. She smiles at him, but then goes on and tells Mrs. Freeman “he bored me to death but he was so sincere and genuine I couldn’t be rude to him. He was just good country people, you know” (6). This is disturbing to the reader because you can clearly see she is placing other
people in society beneath her by calling them good country people. Moving on to Manley Pointer, he describes himself as a good guy that is a Christian that sells bibles to different towns. He carries a briefcase full of bibles, but something seems off by his character. While in the barn with Hulga we learn that since his arrival at the town his intentions were to be alone with Hulga. He gets on top of Hulga and “He mumbled about loving her and about knowing when he first seen her that he loved her” (8). The reader can clearly emphasize that Hulga doesn’t want anything from him and he is clearly forcing his way on top of her. Normal people do not act in any form like Manley Pointer. Lastly, after forcing Hulga to take off her leg Manley says, “One time I got a woman’s glass eye this way” (9). The reader learns that he aster all this time is not anything he says he is and he enjoys stealing things that people depend on. As said before Manley is a pretty disturbing character doing disturbing things to society. Overall, by reading the short story people learn that Good Country People is a good form of southern gothic.