First_Impressions_Good_Country_People

First Impressions Can Be Deceiving: O’Connors “Good Country People” While some people have trouble with trust, many come to trust someone too easily to feel like they are wanted. Throughout Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People”, Hulga’s initial impression of a Bible salesman is miss-judged. Why do people trust someone so easily even if they have just met them' Hulga trusted the Bible salesman because her self-esteem is low, she wants to impress someone, and he had sympathy for her. You can never judge a book by its cover because you never know if there is really nothing inside. Low self-confidence and self-esteem are just a few things that have someone become attached to another person a little to quickly. Hulga appears to have self-confidence because she says that she is smart. However, she actually feels like she is ugly because of her appearance and her prosthetic leg. She changes her name from Joy to Hulga as a result of feeling ugly. She also feels like she has to take what she can get. Hulga does not know what her real potential is with men. She takes the Bible salesman because he is the only guy that makes her feel wanted. In the end, she finds out how the salesman is not really interested in her, but he is interested in her prosthetic leg. When Hulga gains sympathy for him she becomes more interested in him. When we gain sympathy for someone we tend to trust them more and do more for them. The Bible salesman tells her that he was dying, which made her have sympathy for him and become more attached. This was all part of the man’s plan to get closer to Hulga; He draws her in with his story and she starts to have some sympathy for him. Because Hulga wants to feel wanted by someone, she feels like she needs to impress the Bible salesman to have him stay interested in her. When people do not get the attention they need, they start to feel unwanted. Hulga’s disabilities set her apart from everyone, and people did not treat her normally. When Hulga was imagining the man seducing her, it shows the reader that not many people really want her or will date her and that she has never really felt sexually wanted. Hulga feels like she has to impress people to make them like her. That was just the case for when she met the Bible salesman. She puts Vapex on her collar so she would smell good because she did not have any perfume. The fact that she wants to impress the Bible salesman so much reveals her lack of self-esteem. All of these acts contributed to how quickly Hulga got attached and how she trusted the Bible salesman. Her first impressions of the guy were amazing and she really liked the guy. But at the end she learned that the guy was not very interested in her when he ran off with her prosthetic leg. The theme of this short story is shown very well. The first impression of someone can be very good but once you get to really know them they might not be the person you thought they were. Hulga trusts the Bible salesman and then gets her fake leg taken away.