Malebranche and Hulga

Melebranche was a French philosopher who argued that “we see all things in God” and knowledge about the world is not possible except through a relationship between man and God. What we see in the physical world comes from our God. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Melebranche’s thesis is in his section of Vision of God “we see external objects by means of ideas in God.” Our thoughts, therefore, would be God’s thoughts and what we see would be the sensation of God’s ideas. Knowing this about Melebranche, the dramatic point of Katharine Ann Porter’s “Good Country People” where Hulga screams at her mother to look introspectively and understand she is not God presents a huge statement about our roles as human beings and how we should think of each other. Mrs. Hopewell believes her interpretation of her daughter aligns with God. Women should smile and act beautiful, even if they are not beautiful. Mrs. Hopewell believed there “was nothing wrong with [her daughter’s] face that a pleasant expression wouldn’t help…people who looked on the bright side of things would be beautiful even if they were not” (267). Obviously, Mrs. Hopewell’s thoughts trod against God’s, for God sees every person as beautiful according to his own standards, rather than society’s standards. If Melebranche’s philosophy existed ideally, every person would see the people in this world as beautiful because God’s thoughts were supposed to infiltrate our own and determine how we interpret the external/physical world. Because our humanity prevents that kind of humility in our eyes, we must admit as humans that we are flawed and unable to see the world through holy lenses. Pride breaks us down as we simultaneously feel lifted up by own our own opinions and desires. Pride, the worst of the seven deadly sins, is Mrs. Hopewell’s flaw. Because she truly believes her own ideas about beauty and about femininity to be of God’s, she turned her own daughter away from her and most likely influenced Hulga’s rejection of her faith, of her name, and metaphorically of finding joy in the world.