Notes on "Good Country People"

The setting seems to be after cars and roads were built. Rural America?

Mrs. Freeman ---> name means something significant? Someone who is free to do what she wants. Could possibly be seen in a bad way.

Black eyes-- seems stubborn, dull. Avoids the point.

Mrs. Hopewell ---> a hopeful person, maybe falsely optimistic?

Joy ---> the name seems to contradict her character.

Mrs. Hopewell seems a bit too eager to explain how she met Mrs. Freeman. Perhaps Joy's grudges are reasonable?

Possible themes?

"Nothing is perfect."

"That is life!"

* "Well, other people have their opinions too."

Pacifist, appeaser character.

Mrs. Freeman seems to be intimidating Mrs. Hopewell.

Mrs. Hopewell is a tenant renter--maybe in the Southern America part?

Joy wants to be accepted as an equal to her mother. “If you want me, here I am – LIKE I AM.” Wants to be free of her situation.

Joy's legal name is Hulga. Mrs. Hopewell refuses to call her this--not accepting at all.

Mrs. Freeman is creepy--relishing in Hulga's leg. Vulture-like behavior.

Hulga---> Vulcan, Roman mythology.

“Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!” she had cried sinking down again and staring at her plate, “Malebranche was right: we are not our own light. We are not our own light!”

Malebranche= French philosopher who believed that God was active in every aspect of our world. Possible reference may be that we need God to be our light -- we cannot have hope by ourselves. "Malebranche argued that human knowledge is dependent on divine understanding in a way analogous to that in which the motion of bodies is dependent on divine will." -- Wikipedia

"That was something that had ended with the Greeks and Romans." <--- Hulga = Vulcan

Mrs. Hopewell thinks Hulga is dealing with un-Christian ideas.

The bible salesman! Possible love interest for Hulga?

“I know you believe in Chrustian service." <--- Chrustian? Possibly a drawl.

He has a heart condition. Could he be lying?

Haha, Joy and the bible salesman... what is his name? Salt of the Earth. English idiom: "People who are salt of the earth are decent, dependable and unpretentious."

The exact meaning of the expression salt of the earth is disputed, in part because salt had a wide number of uses in the ancient world. There are several different possibilities for the originally intended meaning of the salt metaphor:
Exodus, Ezekiel, and Kings present salt as a purifying agent
Leviticus, Numbers, and Chronicles present it as a sign of God's covenant.
The most important use of salt was as a preservative and hence the most common interpretation of the metaphor is as asserting the duty to preserve the purity of the world.
In the Rabbinic literature of the period salt was a metaphor for wisdom.
Salt was a minor but essential ingredient in fertilizer and so a few scholars such as Gundry believe that earth should be translated as soil (i.e. salt of the soil), and hence the metaphor asserts that the audience should help the world grow and prosper.
One interpretation of salt of the earth is that it orders the audience to take part in the world rather than withdraw from it

We still don't know his name. He's so awkward though. I sort of like him.

"It was like losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his." <--- Christianity? Symbolizing Jesus, maybe?

Uhhh... yeah. He just stole her leg. That's slightly kinky.

And Mrs. Hopewell has got to be joking. She is the essence of simplicity.

And his name is apparently Manley Pointer. Weeeird... why didn't I catch that before?