“The Salt of the Earth” Feminism and New Historicism in...

Feminism and Historicism play a major part in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, â€Å"Good Country People†, first published in 1955. The story focuses on the importance of identity and the parallels between truth and deception. In â€Å"Good Country People†, the Hopewell family, maintain a small farm in rural Georgia with the help of tenants the Freemans. The pious Mrs. Hopewell’s mottos ‘nothing is perfect’ and ‘it takes all kinds to make the world’ are manifested in her unmarried thirty-two year old daughter, Joy who later changes her name to Hulga, wears a prosthetic wooden leg because of a childhood accident. Hulga who has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, cannot advance her academic aspirations because of a weak heart; because of this she must live in her†¦show more content†¦Smith’s article notes that they, all of O’Connor’s female characters, deserve sympathy because: â€Å"they’re all face d with an impossible task in having to synthesize aspects of both gender roles in order to maintain their livelihoods† (Smith 35). The family farm despite the absent economic power of a male character leads the Hopewell women to assume all the open roles while simultaneously maintaining their femininity (Smith 36); they must assume a dual task by acting male in public but privately preserving their womanhood. These gender roles, however, cannot be fully explained without looking at the relationship between mother and daughter; despite their common sex, their relationship is seen as a disturbing force where mother and daughter are at often at odds with each other. Mrs. Hopewell is a hard working widow who assumes the male role by being the primary care-giver and supporter to her special needs daughter. Hulga, despite her independence streak is determined to make a life on her own; she gives almost a reversed protest against her mother despite the care she receives. Her education does not lead her to live a more successful life, she fails to live up to her mother’s example and expectation that Hulga’s sisters, Glynese and Carramae, have already successfully copied. O’Connor writes that â€Å"Glynese, a redhead, was eighteen and had many admirers; Carramae, a blonde, was only fifteen but