Mrs.
Hopewell describes "good country people" as people who are "not trash." She
repeatedly says they are the "salt of the earth." It becomes clear as the story
unfolds that she considers people she can control as "good country people." They are
people onto whom she can project her own ideas (or fantasies) of who they are or should be. They
are people who seem simple, ordinary, and not threatening to her. It's no wonder that as Manley
Pointer insinuates himself into her good graces, she should think of him as "good country
people," saying to him, Why, I think there arent enough good country people in the
world!
Although she thinks she is different from her mother, Hulga has
picked up the same tendency to look down on "good country people" and to feel she can
control them. She decides she knows who Manley is on the most superficial basis, and she is
frightened when he shows her his hidden alcohol stash. She asks, echoing her mother's definition
of the phrase, "Arent you just...
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