Throughout American history, people have had an image of what farmers should look like. For example, many people consider them pious, strict and honest. Flannery O'Connor, author of “Good Country People,” addresses the images that societies have formed of country people from a different and enlightening perspective. His story goes against what society thinks of these humble people. Although O'Connor may seem critical of others in his short story "Good Country People", he uses symbolism, character development and irony to get his point across, that there are hypocritical people in every part of society . , both in the city and in the countryside. In his short story, O'Connor uses physical deformities to symbolize the character's emptiness and need for something greater such as spiritual fulfillment. Joy, also known as Hulga, is one of the characters in this narrative who have many disabilities. She has a prosthetic leg, a weak heart and poor eyesight which symbolizes pride, "When Hulga came into the kitchen in the morning (she could walk without making a terrible noise on the bus - Mrs Hopewell was sure - because it was ringing in ugly way); he looked at them and did not speak" (447). difference. According to Elizabeth Hubbard, a critic, there is more to the false leg than simple pride. He wrote, “The wooden artificiality of the leg symbolizes the lack of life or vitality in what Hulga places her faith in, the purely mechanistic way she understands sexuality, the body, and the human” (Hubbard 62). Hulga has never known the love of a man because she constantly looks at the center of the card at Hulga's attitude towards life and other people. She may be intelligent, but she has low self-esteem and to feel better about herself she treats everyone around her with contempt. By acting this way he feels he has control over his life. O'Connor's approaches the stereotypes of country people from an unusual point of view. Like many of his narratives, his characters are misfits, religiously empty, and disabled. Use these characters to reveal the truth. The truth is that everyone is looking for something and sometimes people are blinded by pride, ignorance, pain and a false sense of security. O'Connor's stories deal primarily with characters who carry with them a spiritual void. Uses symbolism, character development, and irony to portray life's struggles and the fact that some humans will use religion, stereotypes, and deformities to get what they want.