ates, “I never was a bad boy that I remember of ... but somewhere along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive”(O’Connor 130). The Misfit admits that he was once good, but he is unable to determine the source of his fallen human nature.O’Connor presents us with another character in “Good Country People” of fallen human nature. Pointer does not argue that he was once good; instead, he tells Hulga, “you ain’t so smart. I been believing in nothing ever since I was born!”(O’Connor 291). Pointer’s character illustrates that one can be born with a fallen human nature, or he is made that way by society from the time he is born. In contrast to the Misfit’s fallen human nature that comes about when he is older, Pointer began falling the day he was born. The idea of fallen human nature is contrasting to the ideas of the old south. “Good country people” were assumed to always be “good”, and the old south also thought “bad” people were born that way. O’Connor posited the idea that the society in which one lives can influence a person to change. The Misfit was raised by “nice folks”, and the old south would have assumed that he would be nice. The grandmother repeatedly argues that “I know you came from nice people!”(O’Connor 132). Bailey, the grandmother’s son, realizes the situation that they are in, and he knows that the Misfit is not a nice person. In “Good Country People”, Pointer portrays himself as a “good country person”, and he states, “I’m as good as you any day in the week”(O’Connor 290). Pointer dismisses the old south’s view that there are good people in this world, and he argues that he is not a bad person. O’Connor explicitly explores the themes of Christian theology th...
