Good Country People Grace

One moment of grace in the Story is when Hulga first meets Manley. She is always angry and upset and trying to upset other people, but feels a connection with Manley. He says that he has a heart condition and she thinks that they share that condition. She blurts out that he can stay for dinner. This is very different from her normal personality. She normally would pay no attention to him or even force him to leave. After she says it, she regrets it though. This is because of her personality. She tries to be angry all of the time; she does not understand why she would say something like that. This takes away from the moment, but is still a moment of grace none-the-less because she starts to change.

Another moment of grace is when Manley takes her leg and leaves. Hulga thought she knew so much, but was outsmarted by a boy, which probably shocked her because she thought all boys were stupid. She said that she believed in nothing and when Manley is leaving he says that he has believed in nothing for his entire life. This is a complete shock to Hulga because everything she believed in was flipped. How could she be deceived by someone, so lacking in intelligence, compared to herself who was bright and believed in nothing? This was a moment of grace because she changes so much. She thought she was right no matter what and could do no wrong. She did not believe that someone could outsmart her, but Manley did and she had to change the way she thought about everything else.

Yet another moment of grace occurs when Mrs. Freeman comments on how simple Manley is. He seems like he is a very simple man and says that she could never be that simple. It is a moment of grace because Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell think that Manley is just a simple man, but that is really not the case. He forces them to change their perspective on how they look at people being simple.

Manley is a vehicle of grace, even though he represents evil, because he forces many people to change. He makes Hulga change her thinking many times and changes the view of Mrs. Freeman because she thinks that he is very simple. Manley is a vehicle of grace in these ways.