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through anything, and Manley Porter is a devilish and misleading character who gains strength from exploiting other people’s weaknesses
Beginning with Mrs. Hopewell, the title of the story comes from the name she likes to give the poorer and less fortunate people that live off the land and work their whole lives just to hang on to some scrap of a life. This is how she views these people. She believes that they are “good country people” (396). There is not a bad seed among them, for they are all eager to help out and bow in humility to the upper class. The gullible nature of Mrs. Hopewell betrays her true vision of a situation. She is one of those people who acts very self-righteously towards people who they view as less fortunate. She is a person who speaks for people she really knows nothing about. She has convinced herself that she “had no bad qualities of her own” (396). This is her true weakness that is taken advantage of by Manley Pointer. One of Mrs. Hopewell's favorite sayings “Nothing is perfect” (397) is seen at the very beginning of the story. This saying is just a meaningless cliché. The quote serves as a prediction for what her attitude towards life will be. Manley Pointer exploits this weakness as soon as she opens her door. He shows up as a pathetic Bible salesman with an ailing “weak heart” (399), (which is coincidentally exactly what Joy-Hulga had). He appeals to Mrs. Hopewell’s guilty conscience by telling her that no one wants to deal with a simple country boy like himself. He attacks her weakness right at the heart. Not more than two minutes after he knocks on the door, he ends up eating dinner with the family and at the conclusion is even invited to return any time he’d like.
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His persona blinds Mrs. Hopewell and prevents her from being somewhat suspicious of Manley. At the end of the story, we see that Mrs. Hopewell is still clouded by her gullible
weakness and refers to Manly as “…simple” (409) as he passes through a field by Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman.
Unlike Mrs. Hopewell, Joy-Hulga faces and comes to a realization of her own weakness. Joy-Hulga, who has grown cynical and cold as she has grown up with only one leg and a heart ailment, and had created an image that “she was brilliant”(399) and better than the rest of the characters in the story. Her education and vanity seem to instill this attitude in her to greater extent than if she hadn’t studied and read so much. Her weakness is the feeling of power she believes she has gained from her studies. She refers to herself as someone who “sees through to nothing” (406). Little does she know that she is stating her greatest weakness by saying this. Her hidden desires cause her several problems later on. After years of education and self-absorption, Joy-Hulga feels that she has no weaknesses. “Science wishes to know nothing of nothing,” (399) and this is the principle followed by Joy-Hulga. Her line of thinking turns out to be a weakness in itself. Her weaknesses from her childhood are so prominent and hurtful that she doesn’t want to be reminded of them. Manley Pointer puts Joy-Hulga into a position where she feels in control. Joy-Hulga thinks she is a “true genius” (404) capable of easily influencing Pointer’s “inferior mind” (404). She will take all his shame away and turn it into something useful. She believes that she is controlling Manley, but it is he who is doing the manipulating. She lets her guard down because she feels in great control and becomes comfortable with Manley. She is being manipulated from the start, and no amount of
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education can stop the fact that she doesn't see it coming. As soon as she admits to loving Manley Pointer, he sees the opening to completely destroy the artificial appearance she has worked so hard to create her whole life. Before Joy-Hulga even knows it, her glasses are off, and Manley has removed her leg. Physically she is broken down, but the real damage is done mentally. She knows that all control of the situation is out of her hands, and she once again feels the discomfort felt during her childhood days. Manley Pointer exploits Joy-Hulga’s weakness to the fullest extent because she never sees it coming. Joy-Hulga believes she is superior because she learned to “see through... nothing”(406), but she doesn’t realize that Manley has known this much longer than she has. As a matter of fact, he has “been believing in nothing ever since…[he]… was born!’(409).
Manley is the only character in the story that has no apparent weakness. Taking into consideration the religious theme within the story, he takes on the persona of a devil-like character. He seems to be a character who has great understanding and insight, which would fall in line with a powerful type of being. He uses religion as a tool to carry out his acts of degradation and deception, which, in turn, strongly supports his persona. He even says to Joy-Hulga, “I hope you don’t think…that I believe in that crap.”(408) Other things that support this devil-like persona are the hollow bible in which he keeps sinful instruments. A definite clue to this occurs when he states to Joy-Hulga that He “uses a different name” (408) every place he goes. Because the devil is referred to by many different names in many different regions of the world and throughout many different times, the similarity between Manley Pointer and the devil is revealed. Manipulation and degradation seem to be his only objectives in life.
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At the conclusion of the story when Manley is passing by Mrs. Freemen and Mrs. Hopewell, the onion shots that they are picking are even referred to as “…evil smelling…” (409). Mrs. Freemen is a minor character in the story, but she is referred to as having two emotions, “forward and reverse” (395). This is important because when people are is forced to go in reverse, they must face something or learn something they don’t want to know about themselves. This seems to be what happens during the course of the story for Joy-Hulga. Although all the characters in the story are stuck in reverse, the only character that is forced to realize her weakness, and destroy the false mask that she has created, is Joy-Hulga. In this story, as in life, the most high and mighty will suffer the greatest fall. Joy-Hulga is the one who perceives herself to above all the other the characters, when in truth she is the weakest character, both physically and emotionally. This attitude is displayed with many of her comments to Mrs. Hopewell. Perhaps when Joy-Hulga remarks to Mrs. Hopewell, “Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you’re not? God!”(399) she should’ve taken her own advice.
