Comparing and Contrasting the Protagonists in Flannery...

In the Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å"Good Country People,† Joy/Hulga Hopewell is the main protagonist. In â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† written by Nathaniel Hawthorne the protagonist is Minister Hooper. Both of the main characters represent different views on religion, humanity, and humility. Hulga does not really believe in anything. Her main focus is trying to be smarter than others to compensate for her medical problems. Minister Hooper is a very good man, believes solely in Christ, and throughout the story we come to see how his views on religion reflect his humanity and humility. In â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† Minister Hooper dons a black veil that causes an eruption of gossip in his community . The townspeople do not have any clue as to†¦show more content†¦McCarthy also stated that â€Å"the veil is the manifestation of Christ’s efficacy over sin, of man’s urgent need of that efficacy, and of the perilous future without Christ’s efficacy†, which may give support that Hooper did commit a horrible sin. Because Minister Hooper though he is a man of God is wearing the veil to repent for his sins, but a more logical interpretation is that God forgives sins and that the future without God is not one with great satisfaction.. Unlike Hooper in â€Å"A Minister’s Veil,† in â€Å"Good Country People,† Hulga is a crippled character who believes in no God. She not only has a wooden leg, she also has poor eyesight and a heart condition. However, Kate Oliver stated these â€Å"physical afflictions symbolize her emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairments.† What Oliver means is that Joy/Hulga’s physical defects represent her misshapened spirit and her broken outlook towards religion. Oliver also stated that â€Å"Joy-Hulga revels in her rejection of God. She is a self-proclaimed atheist.† Furthermore, Hulga loved philosophy and this is what she believed in rather than God. She believed in the philosophies that taught that nothing exist outside the self and this belief is another manifestation of her spiritual defects. She chose to believe in this nothing