“Good Country People” and “A Stroke of Good Fortune”
pull of the same feeling; although, one is clearly more light-hearted than the
other. In ASGF, Ruby looks down on her family for one reason or another. By the
end of the story, we find that Ruby can be, or is just as, ignorant for her
refusal to go to a doctor and, ultimately, to acknowledge the fact that she is
pregnant. O’Connor finishes the story with this idea there is transcendent
thing that is always there, waiting patiently for anyone, “Then she recognized
the feeling again, a little roll. It was as if it were not in her stomach. It
was as if it were out nowhere in nothing, out nowhere, resting and waiting,
with plenty of time,” (p.196).
In GCP, Joy-Hulga, in the same vein
as Ruby, looks down on others because of her intellect. Joy-Hulga sees her
difference between other people, including her mother, as a reason for her to
be above everyone else. In the end of the story, Joy-Hulga is taken off her
guard and, ultimately, learns a hard lesson; at least, we hope that she does.
This lesson has the same feel in ASGF; this feeling that this transcendent
thing is out there in nothing, waiting for everyone, both the intelligent and
ignorant.
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