Comparison of views on Religion and Society in the Short Stories ‘The
Foundations of the Earth’ and ‘Good Country People’

Stories are meant to convey particular symbolic perspectives of the authors’ society.
More so, short stories offer a significantly compressed view of a large society. Short stories are
therefore a fast way of learning about an environment. Since every story is set in a particular
environment, it is important to understand the setting and hence understand the story to a larger
extent. The following analysis tries to find out connections, meanings, and symbols that the short
stories, ‘The Foundations of the Earth’ and ‘Good Country People’ convey. The short stories are
mainly set in an African American background. A careful analysis shows that the stories have
new views to explore as well as connections that compare to each story in an interesting manner.
This analysis therefore follows the connections in the stories titled above. These stories compare
to each other in very appealing ways. This analysis will examines some important concepts
brought out in the stories, these are: strength of women, conflict between religion and some of
society’s norms and the liberated mind.
Indeed, some of the perspectives illuminated by the stories include: working mothers, and
a discrimination for the different people in society, specifically gays; an example is the character
Gabriel, in ‘Good Country People’ and people with peculiar deformities (O’Connor 10). In the

stories ‘The Foundations of the Earth’ and ‘Good Country People’, we experience mothers who
have grown up sons they can barely control. These mothers have several things in common. Both
mothers are separated from their husbands who should be father figures to their sons, both
mothers work hard to provide for their families, they both work at low paying jobs and last but
not least, both mothers have disobedient and manner less sons who are hard to keep in check.
The concerns raised by the author can be seen in most parts of the society. The primary concern
of the grandmother about Gabriel being gay and normal is an example (Kenan 35).
It is no secret that women from poor, undeveloped, third world countries move across the
world to raise other people’s children as nannies forcing them to leave their children behind in
order to seek greener pastures for their children. Poverty shoves around the women so much that
they have to leave their home countries. These women are presented with two choices. Their
choices are either stay in their home countries to raise their child, which means raising them in
extreme poverty, or, to travel across the world to first world, developed countries and give their
children significantly better lives but not raise them. There are also young women who
knowingly or unknowingly get into foreign prostitution for the same reason nannies who travel
across the world do it. Most of these women are from communities presented in ‘The
Foundations of the Earth’ and ‘Good Country People’ we find strong mothers concerned about
their children’s welfare. However, although the parents want the best for their children, the
children have moved to a new phase of reason and logic where; Gabriel knows he has a right to
be gay (Kenan 20) and Joy know she has a right to believe in anything she wants (O’Connor 10).
The presentation of liberalized minds in the stories as presented in the two short stories
actually goes show a failure in society, which can be largely blamed for the failure in life of the
characters that can be considered as failures in the stories. The author, the authors, can be said to

be making a case of how human behavior is affected by both one’s social circles and, to a great
extent, the society (O’Connor 10). These are seen as the causes of the extreme poverty, crime
and drugs that seem to be common occurrences in the African American immigrant community.
The authors have also pointed out the issue of the relationship between sexual behavior and
discrimination in this community, which again can be traced back to the lack of strong
reasonable, logical influence by the society to create tolerable norms.
In these short stories, the authors have shown the central role played by women in
society. Although these women may not have chosen to be in the situations they are in, their
strength comes across as key in the way their families turn out. They are the sole caregivers since
they are also expected to guide their sons and daughters through life so they can be responsible
and respected people in society. For example, in the story “The Foundations of the Earth” it can
be safely assumed that Gabriel’s mother knows that her son is gay but she still shows him
support and tender love. Perhaps Gabriel is striving to let the world know that sexual orientation
mean private life not abnormal life (Kenan 16). In most cases it is the less developed countries
that are thought to be dependent on the more developed first world countries. This is way owed
to even by the debts possessed by the third world countries.
These stories go out of their way to explore the issues in both the modern and story
setting times. It is evident from the stories that the indulgence of society to people’s lives could
lead to a potential hindrance to expression by individuals. It is probably a coincidence that both
stories touch on religion and sexual behavior but both stories work efficiently to draw the main
orientation of society toward matters on religion and sexuality. A lesson that the stories teach is
that people should stick their belief and ignore cries from the other side.

References

Randall, Kenan. The Foundations of the Earth. New York: Pearson book. 1992.
O’Conner, Flannelly. Good Country People. Schmoop Books. 2015.