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Whenever she looked at Joy this way, she could not help but feel that it would have been better if the child had not taken the Ph.D. It had certainly not brought her out any and now that she had it, there was no more excuse for her to go to school again. Mrs. Hopewell thought it was nice for girls to go to school to have a good time but Joy had “gone through.”
The narrator has just explained that Mrs. Hopewell often looks at Hulga over the kitchen table, thinking that Hulga wouldn’t look bad if she would just take care of herself and smile more. She believes that people with a positive outlook appear more beautiful to others. Mrs. Hopewell attributes Hulga’s depression and negative perspective on life to her education; she believes education had ruined her. Mrs. Hopewell thought college should be a “good time” for a young woman, and possibly help her secure an advantageous marriage. In the 1950s, many believed that the best outcome for a woman in college was finding a husband, and Mrs. Hopewell finds it challenging to understand Hulga, who, instead of pursuing marriage, has become more complex and hard to understand.
“I guess a lot of boys come telling you they’re working their way through college,” he said, “but I’m not going to tell you that. Somehow,” he said, “I don’t want to go to college. I want to devote my life to Chrustian service.”
Manley says this to Mrs. Hopewell, attempting to convince her that he is “good country people.” In this way, Manley is like Hulga. He draws a line between education and religion. He reinforces Mrs. Freeman’s belief that “good country people” are simple and uneducated. Hulga and Manley seem to be polar opposites. She went to college and her education made her forsake religion. Manley claims that he did not go to college because he wanted to hold onto and spread religion.
As a child she had sometimes been subject to feelings of shame but education had removed the last traces of that as a good surgeon scrapes for cancer; she would no more have felt it over what he was asking than she would have believed in his Bible.
Manley has just made an unsettling request, urging Hulga to prove her love by showing him where her wooden leg connects to her body. Though shocked, Hulga's dismay doesn't stem from the explicit nature of the suggestion. Instead, she associates religion with shame, viewing shame as akin to cancer—a perilous affliction that must be excised from the body.
In the 1950s, when cancer survival rates were low, the primary treatments were invasive surgeries and rudimentary radiation therapy. Even a "good surgeon" might resort to harsh measures to eradicate the cancer, such as scraping, which seems far from a gentle solution. Hulga draws a parallel between her educated mind and a detachment from emotions like shame and love. Just as education erases her sense of shame, it also extinguishes her faith in Manley's Bible and religion.
