Joy Hulga, the protagonist in O'Connor's "Good Country
People", basically fails to interact with anyone throughout the story. Her only attempt
at true interaction is ruined by the way that Manley Pointer treats
her.
One of Joy Hulga's main conflicts is that she finds
all people beneath her based upon their lack of education. Joy-Hulga possesses a Ph.D.
in philosophy. She finds that people are simply stupid. Joy-Hulga simply fails to be
able to interact with anyone based upon her own personal issues with
identity.
Given that Joy-Hulga fails to find anyone around
her who can talk on her level, when Pointer enters her life she finds him instantly
interesting. She believes that he is not stupid as the others around her and that she
could probably teach him something.
She fails to truly
interact with anyone in the story but Pointer. Once she begins to interact with him, she
is swept off of her feet. He, unfortunately, further eschews her thoughts about mankind
when he steal her leg and leaves her immobile in a barn
loft.
The second main conflict (Joy-Hulga's inability to
find herself) adds to the fact that she cannot interact with other people. Her lack of
identity accentuates the fact that she is unable to identify with others. Perhaps if she
would have found some hint of self-realization prior to the story, she would have been
able to identify the kind of man Pointer really was.
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