One's attitude towards the world and life in general often proves to be self-destructive. Flannery O'Connor, in her short story "Good Country People", uses a variety of rhetorical devices such as symbolism, characterization, and irony to describe how a nihilistic philosophy of life can ultimately lead to ruin. She describes how people tend to stereotype in ways that prevent them from thinking or seeing clearly, and how this can ultimately lead to devastating consequences. The short story focuses on Hulga Hopewell's expectations and the irony of her encounter with a traveling Bible salesman. Hulga, with a doctorate in philosophy and a wooden leg, considers herself a die-hard cynic in a crazy world, and she thinks she's spotted a world-class fool in Bible salesman Manley Point. As her name suggests, this is just wishful thinking: her certainty of her own genius and the stupidity of others leads her into a trap that reveals much more truth about herself and the world around her. surroundings she never thought possible. PhD, Hulga, 32, lives with her mother and has no job, no desire to find one, no likelihood of ever having one. Hating herself and the world because of her missing leg, she needs the healing powers of love and sex. This is what she sees in Manly, the simple Bible seller: perhaps the last possible opportunity she will ever have to experience love and sex. Having a high opinion of herself and a low opinion of him, she plans to seduce him on their picnic date. Throughout the story, O'Connor shows how people tend to use clichés in a way that allows them to avoid thinking or seeing clearly. . Hulga, who looks at "the nice young men as if she [could] smell their shit…… middle of paper…… it turns out that Hulga, who previously thought she was so intellectual in her nihilistic mentality, is defeated by someone 'an apparently inferior one, but who actually shares the same state of mind. Hulga, the crippled but vain center of the story, is confronted with the human form of the nihilistic worldview she so stubbornly defends. The reader sees her pride in her own intellect and in her mastery of existentialism collapse when she is so gullible that she allows herself to be easily manipulated by the young "Bible salesman", her naivety representing the intellectual equivalent of his physical defect. He pulls her legs out from under her, both physically and psychologically. O'Connor doesn't stop there, as all the characters serve to convey the message that this vain attitude and narrow-minded thinking can have great consequences and, perhaps, ultimately, true enlightenment..