Good and Evil Among Good Country PeopleIn Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" the hidden truth is reflected unequivocally through the reality of history, its equal equivalent. For everything, good or bad, there is an antagonistic or opposing force. Each character has a duplicate personality mirrored in someone else in the story. In the story, the names and personalities of the characters clash. The name is the mask covering the personality, representative of the reality aspect of each character. When Mrs. Hopewell named her daughter Joy, she hoped to experience all the joy that comes from raising a child and watching him develop a life of his own. What Mrs. Hopewell received was a disabled daughter who lived miserably at home and was the antithesis of everything her mother believed. The name Hulga is also a mask. When Joy changed her name to Hulga, Mrs. Hopewell had decided that Joy "thought and thought until she came up with the ugliest name in any language" (O'Connor 299). Although Joy-Hulga chose the name because of how "ugly it sounded" and how it suited her, she "secretly desired a beautifully unique inner self" (Bloom 99). The name Manley, the Bible salesman, has similar implications. The name Manley includes the word "man", but it is constantly revealed through his childish actions such that his mutterings "were like the sleeping worries of a child" (O'Connor 307). O'Connor also describes him as having sweet breath like a child's and his "kisses were sticky like a child's" (307). The beginning of the story, “Good Country People,” is misleading. At the beginning, the story presents Mrs. Freeman and Manley Pointer as good country people. According to Ms. Hopewell, the... middle of paper ... history. Flannery O'Connor portrayed both the good and the bad side of human nature. She also explored religious issues prevalent in today's society. The struggle between good and evil and real and hidden truths lays the foundation for the “good country people”. Works Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Flannery O'Connor. New York: Chelsea, 1986. Humphries, Jefferson. Inner otherness: gnostic readings in Marcel Proust, Flannery O'Connor and François Villion. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1983. May, John R. The Pruning Word: The Parables of Flannery O'Connor. Notre Dame, IN: U of Notre Dame P, 1976. O'Connor, Flannery. “Good country people.” Literature: reading, fiction, poetry, theater and essays. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert DiYanni. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994. 297-310. Walters, Dorothy. Flannery O'Connor. New York: Twayne, 1973.