Discussion Questions

"Good Country People" Discussion Questions

There are several instances of conflict throughout the story, for example: Man vs. man by Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Hulga, and at the very end it was a physical conflict example between Hulga and Pointer. There were also instances of man vs. self with Hulga throughout the entire story, which starts of just by her changing her name and ending with her trusting Pointer even though she had never done such a thing before and she ends up regretting that she had done that. And there was also man vs. society because Mrs. Hopewell always says that everyone is "good country people", which in the end isn't true at all, but she wants everyone to fit into a mold that can't be.

The only name I feel that I can explain is the change from Joy to Hulga. It was an expression of herself and what she thought of herself. She didn't want to be happy and she wasn't happy since her leg was blown off, so she changed her name to something that represented how she really felt about herself. Hulga is not a normal name and usually when someone says Hulga, you don't think pretty, you think the opposite. So for her to change her name just shows some part of her character.