eepin her so long was that they were not trash. They were good country people”(O’Connor 272). Mrs. Hopewell describes Mrs. Freeman and her two daughters as “two of the finest girls she knew and Mrs. Freeman was a lady and that she was never ashamed to take her anywhere or introduce her to anybody they might mett”(O’Connor 272). In contrast to Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell, Joy/Hulga represents the new south that is not concerned with self presentation in the way that the grandmother is in “A Good Man Is Hard TO Find”. Joy/Hulga did not care to participate in the morning gossip between the older ladies. O’Connor describes Joy/Hulga’s disregard for the old south and its sense of manners:When Hulga stumped into the Kitchen in the morning (she could walk without makingthe awful noise but she made it--Mrs. Hopewell was certain--because it was ugly-sounding), she glanced at them and did not speak. Mrs. Hopewell would be in her red kimono with her hair tied around her head in rags. (275)O’Connor juxtaposes Joy/Hulga to her mother, Mrs. Hopewell, by contrasting her mannerism, clothes, and overall demure. Joy/Hulga is described as making awful noises in contrast to her mother whom is sitting in her red kimono across the kitchen from her. Mrs. Hopewell’s name is symbolic of her very hopeful and optimistic nature. Joy’s changing her name to Hulga represents her renouncing of the old Southern traditions imposed by her mother. Joy/Hulga does not conform to the social codes of the old south because she deliberately makes grotesque and unlady like noise and does not apologize for them. Joy/Hulga is “forced by her physical disabilities to live at home, the girl’s existence has become one continuous of outraged rejection of the life around her”(Asals, 103). Joy/Hulga is also set apart from the old south because she has obtained a PH.D. in philosophy. ...
