Good Country People
by Flannery O’Connor

Good Country People: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

O’Connor’s writing style in “Good Country People” features free indirect discourse, rich figurative language, as well as humor and irony. The following passage from the beginning of the story showcases all of these elements: 

Nothing is perfect. This was one of Mrs. Hopewell’s favorite sayings. Another was: that is life! And still another, the most important, was: well, other people have their opinions too. She would make these statements, usually at the table, in a tone of gentle insistence as if no one held them but her, and the large hulking Joy, whose constant outrage had obliterated every expression from her face, would stare just a little to the side of her, her eyes icy blue, with the look of someone who has achieved blindness by an act of will and means to keep it.