Good Country People

Friday,
November 07, 2008

7:10 PM

The girl
uttered a sharp little cry and her face instantly drained of color. The
obscenity of the suggestion was not what shocked her. As a child she had
sometimes been subject to feelings of shame but education had removed the last
traces of that as a good surgeon scrapes for cancer; she would no more have
felt it over what he was asking than she would have believed in his Bible. But
she was as sensitive about the artificial leg as a peacock about his tail. No one ever touched
it but her. She took care of it as someone else would his soul, in private and
almost with her own eyes turned away. “No,” she said.

Leg provides security,
privacy

“She took care of it as
someone else would their soul”

Show me your soul

Her soul is an artificial leg

“Not yet,”
he murmured, setting it on its foot out of her reach. “Leave it off for awhile.
You got me instead.”

You don’t need the leg as a
crutch since you have me

It is what makes her strong

She must now rely on him

He will betray her

Mrs.
Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman, who were in the back pasture, digging up onions, saw
him emerge a little later from the woods and head across the meadow toward the
highway.  “Why, that looks like that nice dull young man that tried to
sell me a Bible yesterday,” Mrs. Hopewell said, squinting.  “He must have
been selling them to the Negroes back in there.  He was so simple,” she
said, “but I guess the world would be better off if we were all that simple.”

Mrs.
Freeman’s gaze drove forward and just touched him before he disappeared under
the hill.  Then she returned her attention to the evil-smelling onion
shoot she was lifting from the ground.  “Some can’t be that simple,” she
said.  “I know I never could.”

Story could end here but
narrator brings us back

Irony: Mom (Hopewell) thinks
he is still the innocence kid

World would be better off if
we are all that simple

Supreme misreading

But Freeman does not believe
it

Very good reading of people

Bible Salesman : Hulga ::
Freeman : Hopewell :: Paolo : Francesca

Not really FOILs

More of a parasitic
relationship

Find the parasite in the
story

Pointer and Hulga are both
aliases

Does Freeman have her on
agenda? (tone)

Pasted
from <file:///G:\English\Dante\08-Good%20Country%20People.doc>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Location: file:///C:/26451A76/page26.htm
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"

Good Country People

Friday,
November 07, 2008

7:10 PM

The girl
uttered a sharp little cry and her face instantly drained of color. The
obscenity of the suggestion was not what shocked her. As a child she had
sometimes been subject to feelings of shame but education had removed the last
traces of that as a good surgeon scrapes for cancer; she would no more have
felt it over what he was asking than she would have believed in his Bible. But
she was as sensitive about the artificial leg as a peacock about his tail. No one ever touched
it but her. She took care of it as someone else would his soul, in private and
almost with her own eyes turned away. “No,” she said.

Leg provides security,
privacy

“She took care of it as
someone else would their soul”

Show me your soul

Her soul is an artificial leg

“Not yet,”
he murmured, setting it on its foot out of her reach. “Leave it off for awhile.
You got me instead.”

You don’t need the leg as a
crutch since you have me

It is what makes her strong

She must now rely on him

He will betray her

Mrs.
Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman, who were in the back pasture, digging up onions, saw
him emerge a little later from the woods and head across the meadow toward the
highway.  “Why, that looks like that nice dull young man that tried to
sell me a Bible yesterday,” Mrs. Hopewell said, squinting.  “He must have
been selling them to the Negroes back in there.  He was so simple,” she
said, “but I guess the world would be better off if we were all that simple.”

Mrs.
Freeman’s gaze drove forward and just touched him before he disappeared under
the hill.  Then she returned her attention to the evil-smelling onion
shoot she was lifting from the ground.  “Some can’t be that simple,” she
said.  “I know I never could.”

Story could end here but
narrator brings us back

Irony: Mom (Hopewell) thinks
he is still the innocence kid

World would be better off if
we are all that simple

Supreme misreading

But Freeman does not believe
it

Very good reading of people

Bible Salesman : Hulga ::
Freeman : Hopewell :: Paolo : Francesca

Not really FOILs

More of a parasitic
relationship

Find the parasite in the
story

Pointer and Hulga are both
aliases

Does Freeman have her on
agenda? (tone)

Pasted
from <file:///G:\English\Dante\08-Good%20Country%20People.doc>