Self-Delusion and Blindness in O'Connor's "Good Country People"

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Blindness, or, the lack of awareness, whether it concerns one’s self or the world around them, is a common affliction suffered by the majority of humankind. Those without the insight or experience to rid themselves of their ignorance and naïve notions are doomed to suffer from their consequences, such as the susceptibility to arrogance and self-importance and the destruction of relationships. In the short story, “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, the characters suffer from self-delusion as well as blindness to the outside world; however, O’Connor offers them a figure of grace in hopes of opening their eyes.         The characters in the story suffer from blindness to their true selves, which harms their relationships with each other. Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman are two characters that experience such blindness, as they are unaware of the reality that they are simple and naïve, but believe themselves to be wise. The self-delusion that Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman suffer from cause them to believe that they are wise and superior to the simple-minded. The characters’ use of clichéd, and, in their opinion, deep and wise statements serves as an example of their self-importance. Mrs. Hopewell states clichés such as, “nothing is perfect”, daily, “as if no one held them but her”, with the constant agreement of Mrs. Freeman (O’Connor
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2). She, in turn, thinks that “[nothing] had been arrived at by anyone that had not first been arrived at by her” (O’Connor 2). O’Connor’s use of free indirect discourse from Mrs. Hopewell’s point of view also illustrates her misconceptions concerning herself. She believes herself to have “no bad qualities of her own” and to be “a woman of great patience” (O’Connor 2). The two characters believe themselves to be very wise and open-minded. Mrs. Hopewell even has the arrogance to believe that she is superior to Mrs. Freeman, who, in her opinion, is a “good country [person]” whose bad ...

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