O’Connor writes Mrs. Hopewell thought it was nice for girls to go to school to have a good time but Joy had “gone through”. ... The girl had taken the Ph.D. in philosophy and this left Mrs. Hopewell at a complete loss. You could say, “My daughter is a nurse,” or “My daughter is a schoolteacher,” or even, “My daughter is a chemical engineer.” You could not say, “My daughter is a philosopher”. (276)Mrs. Hopewell feels that it is unlady like to pursue an education that far, but Joy/Hulga disregards this old southern sexist attitude about women and education. Joy/Hulga thinks she has “defined a self that is the antithesis of her mother’s”(Asals 104).Education and mannerisms of the old and new south are not the only contrasting views that Flannery O’Connor explores in these two short stories. Christianity and fallen human nature are two other aspects that bring depth and ironic twists to “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People”. In both stories, O’Connor explores the ideals and hypocrisies of the Christian religion and faith. Within O’Connor’s writings, the traditional Christian themes of “fall and redemption, nature and grace, sin and innocence” are explored (Bleikasten 138). In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, O’Connor questions the faith and beliefs in Christianity of the grandmother. At the closing of the story, when the grandmother is facing her own death, the Misfit says: Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead ... and he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can--by killing somebody or burning down his...
