A Feminist and Psychoanalytical Analysis of Flannery O’Connor “Good Country People”

Flannery O’Connor is one of the greatest American writers during the twentieth century whose writings have been analyzed as criticism for the emptiness in the American society. She dissents the new attitudes towards rejecting religion and resorts to her literature to bridge the chasm that was highly expanded with the prevalence of Darwinian nihilism between religion and the individuals. However, critics assume that the complexity in O’Connor’s works transcend the theological limits; thus, they have started to analyze her literary production from new perspectives. This paper provides a close feminist and psychoanalytical reading for “Good Country People” to highlight the acts of repressing women in patriarchal society , applying a psychoanalytical approach to examine Hulga’s psychological defenses to maintain the balance between herself and the society, in addition to dissect the spiritual transformation of Hulga by resorting to a clear analysis for the psychological and archetypal symbols in the text.