Good Country People

I was curious to know whether or not Hulga will change her ways after she experiences her epiphany.

O'Connor, of course, leaves this question unanswered at the end of her story with an ambiguous ending. You could make a good case, however, that Hulga will change in some way after her encounter with the Bible salesman. In her book on writing called Mystery and Manners, O'Connor explains why her stories contain shocking events and even violence:

" . . .  in my own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace" (112).

O'Connor usually doesn't show the change in her characters, just the shock and violence that precedes it. In her final description of Hulga, however, she is "sitting on the straw in the dusty sunlight"--an innocent, almost madonna-like pose. This ending suggests that Hulga may well be ready to accept her "moment of grace."

I think that it is possible for Joy/Hulga to re-examine her beliefs in view of the fact that she has now come face to face with abject cruelty in the form of Manley Pointer, an individual devoid of feeling.  She thought she was cold and uncaring and didn't believe in anything, but with the treatment she receives from him, she calls out for Christian charity, mercy. If she was beyond all belief, she would, I believe have found some sense of depraved pleasure in the removal of her wooden leg.  She is not as bad as Pointer. 

Joy/Hulga is a very educated woman, I think that on an intellectual level she will evaluate her beliefs and although she may not outwardly change, I think that her perception and assessment of peope will change in the future.

Since Flannery O'Connor uses religious themes in her short stories, I think that the author would say that Joy/Hulga is not beyond redemption and change is definitely possible.  

Anything is possible, but Joy/Hulga is probably going to be more sullen and bitter than ever now that she has been one-upped by one of those darned "good country people" from whom she distances herself with her intellect and education.