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Questions: 1) In O'Conner's "Good Country People," how are the character's names significant? Is there any symbolism in them? Also, the term "good country people" is thrown around a lot in the story--what does it mean? Do different characters have different definitions?2) What does the term entropy mean and how is this idea presented in Pynchons short story? How does the form, characters, setting and narrative of the story advance this theme? How is this story demonstrative of postmodernist technique? Answers: 1: Good Country People Flannery OConnor has designed the names of different characters of Good Country People with a prompt intention to symbolize the controlled satiric sense of modern world that have neither any moral vision or knowledge. As the name of Mrs. Hopewell sounds sheer hopeful and rejoicing to the readers but she is portrayed as a Georgian farm owner who does not have any futuristic vision of better living. The tenants Mr. and Mrs. Freeman have not availed freedom or empowerment as they are completely dependent on Mrs. Hopewell who have let them work in her farm. Joy has changed her name into Hulga that symbolizes systematic and meticulous lifestyle. On the contrary it is important to note that, the vision of life of Joy alias star Hulga is fragile as she lacks sense in her activities. There is no joyousness in Joy, instead she is more grimful in her naming process. Manley Pointer's name is such that it symbolizes chameleon-like quality and eerie idiosyncrasies (OConnor 1340). The false view of reality of the characters is revealed through the pseudo-intellectual use of the term good country people in the entire story. Flannery tried to ventilate the vague concept of this very term through differentiating the characters from nobility. The characters may live in countryside but they cannot be termed as good in context to their activities. All the characters are from ill- varied ground and possess no specific goodness in them. The different characters may seem divergent from their basic characteristics but in deep down, all of them are representatives of a social condition that has lost the basic moral identity. The social crisis is revealed through the nefarious, nihilistic and pessimistic approaches of the characters (OConnor 1340). 2: Entropy The literal meaning of the term entropy means disorder and degradation that is presented by the vivid narrative style of Pynchon in his short story Entropy. Pynchon pictorially describes a purposeless plot of the apartment of Meatball Mulligan that clearly ventilates the degrading ambitions and social life of American people in after war times. The very narrative style and the activities of the characters in the apartment of Meatball enable Pynchon to advance his pessimist theme towards the conclusion. The setting of the story does not evolve with any kind of permanent aspect except the territories of the unkind spring. The perpetual celebration in the apartment is presented as an scampering process of the individuals from the hard fact of social life that is completely aimless and vague (Pynchon 1484). The forms of this story deluge the past glories but there is no futuristic approach that simply identify the confusion among the individuals. Pynchon has effectively sketches the backdrop and the characters to ventilate his vibrant concern about the fluctuating degeneration of morality and sensibility of that post war periods that are barriers for creativity and prosperity. Entropy describes the aesthetic and theoretical discourses of the post war periods that generate the notion of postmodernism in social theories. This story is an accurate example of postmodernist ideologies as Pynchon has emphasized on relinquishing delineated epistemologies to prove the chaos and disorder of the social life that can only be supplemented through modern rationalistic approaches. This story depicts the need of radical and creative modernism for reducing the instability and aimlessness of the mass (Pynchon 1484). Reference List: Pynchon, Thomas. Entropy. New York.: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. OConnor, Flannery. Good Country People, Harcourt.: Brace and company, 1955.