Hulga and the Boy are Two Peas in a Pod
“She murmured, ‘aren’t you just good country people?’
‘Yeah,’ he said, curling his lip slightly, ‘but it ain’t held me back
none. I’m as good as you any day in the week’” (O’Connor 193).
Hm, this was defiantly a surprise ending. The boy turned out to be terrible, and to me, it seemed as though Hulga was the innocent one in the end just because she was the victim. I think O’Connor used the quote above as a way to remind the audience that in reality she is not innocent. When the boy says that he is as good as Hulga, he is putting things into perspective. The boy, although has a corrupt plan, is no more sinful than Hulga is on an average day. Hulga may not do something as extreme as the boy, but she has her own ways of not being good. O’Connor, who has been comparing the two from the beginning by means of heart problems and impairments that keep them from walking or standing normally (for Hulga, the wooden leg & for the boy, the heavy suitcase), continues to compare these two characters until the end.
Hm, this was defiantly a surprise ending. The boy turned out to be terrible, and to me, it seemed as though Hulga was the innocent one in the end just because she was the victim. I think O’Connor used the quote above as a way to remind the audience that in reality she is not innocent. When the boy says that he is as good as Hulga, he is putting things into perspective. The boy, although has a corrupt plan, is no more sinful than Hulga is on an average day. Hulga may not do something as extreme as the boy, but she has her own ways of not being good. O’Connor, who has been comparing the two from the beginning by means of heart problems and impairments that keep them from walking or standing normally (for Hulga, the wooden leg & for the boy, the heavy suitcase), continues to compare these two characters until the end.
Kaitlin, I like how your discussed the comparison between the two. And you are right, Hulga is the innocent one. She is innocent to how people may be in real life, and innocent to her own thoughts. She claims to everyone and herself that she believes in nothing and that she is in control. Yet, she obviously believed that “good country people,” and for that matter, Christians are good people, or she would not be so surprised by the boy’s actions. I’m not even really sure that Hulga is an atheist; she tries to convince herself that she is, and she tells everyone else that she is. But I’m not sure she is not just mad at God because of what happened to her leg.
I also feel that Hulga was the victim by the end of the story. In my blog I talked about how suprised I was to find myself having sympathy for Hulga when at the beginning I felt I was going to dislike her charater and only guessed she would do something worng. Well it looks like I was wrong. Like I said in my blog, "Pointer played Hulga like a deck of cards".