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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.
Mrs. Hopewell is eternally hopeful. Her favored expressions are trite. And while she may think these sayings are deep and meaningful, they are not. Her actions do not match her words. She harshly judges others, especially her daughter, rather than accepting their differences. Her hypocrisy makes her blind to both the good and bad in people. She fails to see the good in Hulga and the bad in Mrs. Freeman, her daughters, and Manley.
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 to which the girl responded but in a purely mechanical way.
Mrs. Hopewell thinks Hulga is an ugly name and refuses to use it. She prefers the “beautiful name” Joy because it fits her hopeful outlook on people and life. She feels that by using the name Joy she can somehow make Hulga joyful. She may also be holding a sentimental attachment to the happy child she knew before the hunting accident forever changed her. By refusing to take Hulga as she is rather than how she wants her to be, Mrs. Hopewell increases the rift between them.
“Why, that looks like that nice dull young man that tried to sell me a Bible yesterday,” Mrs. Hopewell said, squinting. “He must have been selling them to the Negroes back in there. He was so simple,” she said, “but I guess the world would be better off if we were all that simple.”
After Manley reveals his true nature and steals Hulga’s glasses and prosthetic leg, Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman spy him leaving the woods and heading toward the highway. O’Connor uses dramatic irony here. Readers know what has transpired between Manley and Hulga, but Mrs. Hopewell does not. She is unchanged by the events of the story. She remains optimistic about people and blind to their faults. She still sees Manley as simple and thinks the world would be a better place if more people were like him. Readers know she is tragically wrong and naïve about the truth.
