MISCELLANEOUS
CHARACTERS
LITERARY CRITICISM
FIGURES OF SPEECH
VOCABULARY
100
How old is Hulga?
She is 32 years old. She actually later lies to Manley: she says she is seventeen (page 282). When she develops trust on him, she continues lying to him, she says she is 30.
100
Which character fits this description?
"forward" and "reverse"
Mrs Freeman
100
Explain Hulga / Joy
Hulga is the name that Joy chooses. Page 274:"When Mrs Hopewell thought the name, Hulga, she thought of the broad blank hull of a battleship. She would not use it. She continued to call her Joy ...." (274)
Hulga (for Joy): "She had a vision of the name working like the ugly sweating Vulcan who stayed in the furnace and to whom, presumably, the goddess had to come when come when called. She saw it as the name of the highest creative act" (275)
The fact that she has changed has been interpreted as an act of rebellion against creator /creation (relationship with her mother). Biblical undertones
100
Which figure of speech?: "He was gazing at her with open curiosity,with fascination, like a child watching a new fantastic animal at the zoo..." (283)
Animalization / Commodification / Manley contemplates Hulga /Joy. Freak show / Hulga to be consumed / to be derided
100
stump ( in context)
Where Hulga's artificial leg joins.
200
What are the names of Mrs Freeman's daughters? Stand out a peculiarity or an event of one of them.
Glynese and Carramae.
Glynese is called Glycerin (by Joy), she is readhead and 18.
Carramae is called Caramel (by Joy), she is 15 and pregnant.
200
Joy has a degree in....
Philosophy
200
What do you think Mr Manley would have wanted with Hulga's leg?
Bring forward two possible readings
Humiliate her?
Good answer (Mila,Salome, María, Belén,Iolanda team): A collector of women's parts / a metaphor of rape
200
What figure of speech? "Mrs Hopewell....she was able to use other people in such a constructive way..." (272)
Understatement / Irony.
See context: "She hired them in the end because there were no other applicants but she had made up her mind beforehand exactly how she would handle the woman. Since she was the type who had to be into everything..." (page 272)
200
A sheath of sunlight
a beam of sunlight
300
Which of these ones is not one of Mrs Hopewell's favourite sayings?
Nothing is perfect
That is life
Some people are more alike than others
"Some people are more alike than others" is Mrs Freeman's (Context: Mrs Hopewell gives her an account of the Bible salesman's visit) (page 282)
300
What does it mean that "Mrs Freeman is forward and reverse?
She is a prying character, and she will not retract from anything she would say.
300
The title of the short story appears several times interspersed in the short story ... Recall at least two moments in the short story and its associations...
"The reason for keeping them so long was that they were not trash. They were good country people" (Mrs Hopewell about the Freemans" (page 272)"
"...she would be far from these red hills and good country people..." (276) Related to Joy teaching
"good country people are the salt of the earth" (Mrs Hopewell to the salesman (279)
300
Which figure of speech? Context?: "I like to walk in the woods and see what mother Nature is wearing" (283)
Personification / Manley to Hulga.
Context: He has just contemplated her as an animal, Hulga has just told him that she may actually die, too. Biblical overtones of "Saturday" as sabbatical.
300
A sty
a small inflamed swelling on the eyelid.
400
How's Joy physically marred? and When did it happen?
She lost a leg in a hunting accident
400
Who is Manley and what does he do to Hulga?
He is a bible salesman who cajoles Hulga into the barn and takes away her wooden leg.
"He was a tall gaunt hatless youth who had called yesterday to sell them a Bible" (page 277)
400
The valise: bring forward three ideas connected with "the valise."
It's Manley's / it contains bibles that he tries to sell.
He takes it to his encounter with Hulga / Joy. The narrator narrows the focus on the valise as it seems to weigh less. Manley says that he has brought it to the encounter because he wants to take the word of God with him.
He climbs up the ladder of the barn carrying it.
Hulga/Joy finds it uncanny.
The valise has two Bibles, one of them is hollow, with a pocket flask of whiskey.
It could also be a foreboding or foreshadowing (as it happens in many of Flannery O'Connor's stories. An element in the narrative that will be meaningful)
400
Figure of speech and context: "Some people might enjoy drain water if they were told it was vodka"
Simile / Metaphor
Context: Manley has just kissed Hulga / Joy. Hulga thinks she is in control of the situation. She undermines that kiss by using this simile in a metaphorical way.
400
Swig
to drink, especially by swallowing large amounts in a series of single actions.
"Take a swig" (Manley offers Hulga when they are in the barn after he took a flask of whiskey from inside a hollow bible)
500
What dis-similitudes are there between Mr Manley and Joy? Mention two at least
They both seem to have a "heart condition" and they are antithetical in terms of aspirational targets: Joy has a PhD in philosophy and Manley says he doesn't want to go to college, he wants to devote his life to Christian service. Joy seems to be a woman of science / a nihilist, and Manley, a man of "faith." Allusion to her mother's stupefaction on her science books and how lost she feels at identifying what her daughter devotes herself to. (277)
500
Manley's secret / spoiler
Not a real preacher, not a real Christian. He tricks Hulga. He is not really "good country people" nor "the salt of the earth" as Mrs Hopewell refers to him.
His valise displays his vices: drink, cards, and trickstery.
500
Equate Manley and Hulga to at least one character of the other short stories by Flannery O'Connor. Explain why.
Manley could as well remind one of "The Misfit" for his ruthlessness, or Mr Head for what he hides inside, the grandmother for his hidden panels, for that valise that might be a harbinger of disastrous effects.
Hulga may remind us of the characters that undergo some revelation (EPIPHANY) in Flannery's short stories: the grandmother, or Nelson.
500
Explain the literary device and the context: "You're a Christian!" ..."You are a fine Christian" (Hulga to Manley)
Manley: "I hope you don't think ...that I believe in that crap"..
EPIPHANY / MOMENT OF REVELATION
Hulga discovers that Manley is not the man he pretended to be ...."not that simple" as Mrs Hopewell says at the end of the narrative.
500
Lunge
/lʌndʒ/
to move forward suddenly and with force, especially in order to attack someone.
Synonym: thrust
"Give me my leg!" she screamed and tried to lunge for it. (290)