ENGL 4310

This was actually the second time I have read "Good Country People." Since I knew right away that he was going to steal her leg, I found myself paying less attention to "Pointer" and more attention to Hulga. I was surprised to realize that, contrary to the other stories we have read which involve handicapped people, in this story, Hulga's wooden leg is not the so-called elephant in the room. The other people in the story don't seem to shy away from her handicap, but seem to be intrigued by it. What I find interesting about this is that they make no attempt to hide their fascination of the artificial limb, "something about her (Hulga) seemed to fascinate Mrs. Freeman and then one day Hulga realized that it was the artificial leg" (267). The narrator goes on to explain how Mrs. Freeman had a "special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children. Of diseases, she preferred the lingering or incurable" (267).

We also see that the bible salesman has an overt fascination with anything that is unusual. He unabashedly asks to see where her artificial leg attaches to her real one and he's slowly building a collection of artificial body parts which represent the Other, being those who do not fit in with the norm as a result of their handicap. The notion that these people are fascinated by artificial limbs or unusual infections or deformities kind of gives you the chills, but this fascination is not something that is unique to them. We all hate to admit it, but we are intrigued by people who are unlike ourselves. When we see someone walking down the street who is physically different the norm, don't we often take a second glance? How many documentaries are there on diseases which cause physical deformities? Just the other day I was watching a show that displayed people being attacked by animals. I found myself wondering why I was so compelled by these gruesome displays, yet I didn't want to change the channel. As I compared this story to "He", "The Life You Save", and "The Displaced Person", I realized that the other handicaps were a subject of discomfort that everyone avoided talking about, whereas in this story, like I said before, Hulga's handicap is the subject of overt curiosity. I think the difference is that He cannot speak, Lucynell cannot speak, and the Mr. Guizac cannot speak the same language as those around him. Hulga, however, can. Perhaps people don't so much shy away from physical differences, but rather, mental ones. Maybe they feel comfortable talking to Hulga outwardly about her leg because she can effectively communicate, and she has the same mental capacities as the greater part of the population. In the case with Mr. Guizac, he is not in any way disabled either physically or mentally, but because he cannot speak, people don't know how to interact with him. It seems like people tend to avoid any discussion about a disability as long as that disability interferes with the ability to communicate to the outside, "normal" world.