She does not have any hopes about her life. She chooses Hulga as her new name because she believes that is a very ugly name, and fit for her ugly physical appearance.
Joy or Hulga tries to live up with her name. She thinks that it is ugly and that she is ugly, so she just did all the ugly things that she could muster. She always walks noisily as she thinks that her leg is what makes her very ugly. She wears ugly clothes. She is often heard giving ugly remarks to no one in particular. This is the very reason why she had no friends. Because Joy or Hulga is so persistent in making herself look ugly, no body would want to befriend her.
The only thing that Joy could not neglect is her studies. She loves reading and enjoys philosophy. That is why she has pursued a PhD in philosophy.
Her doctoral degree adds conviction to how she views herself. Because of what she learned in Philosophy, she remains believing that she needs no one but herself. She even believes that no religion can ever make her feel better.
However, Joy meets Manley, a Bible salesman. He introduced Joy to God who she has been trying to evade for the longest time. Manley is able to see where Joy's vulnerability lies and so he is able to "attack" her and touch her soft spot. He is able to make Joy realize about the other side of life - the life with faith.
Because of Manley, Joy is able to have a different perspective. She now sees life the way she has never viewed it before. Because of what Manley taught her, she is able to nurture a different side of her - one that is not ugly, physically, mentally and emotionally.
Good Country People" shows a different side of pride. It should be remembered that joy had a painful experience about her amputated leg. It is her pride that helped her to overcome...
because of her pride, she is able to maintain strong and committed to working hard to make herself successful. Because of her pride, she is able to overcome all forms of struggles brought about by his disability. Needless to say, it is Joy's pride that made her aim for a better future.
Joy's pride is a kind of positive pride in nature. It is positive because it brings the best out of her. Joy is physically ill but that did not prevent her from taking a PhD to a course of her own choosing.
Joy sees herself as an ugly person and she is trying to create rude remarks over other people. But this is just a sign that she is not seeing her amputated leg as a reason not to do anything productive for her life.
In fact, she is actually using her smugness and her ugly appearance so that these things will be noticed by the people instead of her crippled leg. Her pride does not want other to see her as a disable. She would rather be perceived as a person with unsightly face or hideous characteristics. She would rather have people angry at her instead of pity her.
Indeed, the kind of pride that Joy has is what makes her a better person in the end. She is able to accept easily the teachings of her renewed faith for she knows that she is really not that ugly. She is able to realize the power of faith because she knows that she has not totally disregarded God. Joy's pride has made overcome all the trials that she had gone through and it is also her pride that enable her to start a new beginning.
References
Good Country People" [online available]
http://www.barksdale.latech.edu/Engl%20308/GOOD%20COUNTRY%20PEOPLE.doc
Young Goodman Brown," 2004, [Online] The Literary Network
http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/158
