Blog Post 4 Resubmission, "Our Sweet Hypocritical Grandmother" by Kyra Moore

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner I would argue was undoubtedly one of the most context heavy stories that we have read in this class thus far. I would also argue that it is the most intriguing story that we have read as I feel it has no clear or concise moral theme. She addresses a number of topics such as our prison system and its effects on it inhabitants, family dynamics and Christianity. Although she alluded to a number of concepts, the one that stuck with me the most is the concept of Christianity. O’Conner used the character of the grandmother and her persona in the story to speak on, or allude to, a number of concepts as it pertains to Christianity such as hypocrisy and the use of the religion.

In researching the personal life of Miss O’Conner, I found that her and her family were devout practicing Catholics. With this being said, this leads me to believe that she may be speaking of accounts that may be specific to her interactions with Christians and Christianity. Speaking on that matter, Abbie C. Harris in “”Jesus Thrown Everything Off Balance”: Grace and Redemption in Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,”” says that “her [speaking of O’Conner] stories bring to life a land overflowing with churches and self-proclaimed Christians, where religion is present everywhere, but rarely practiced in its true form.”

I actually primarily read this story in a college credit English course in high school. It is not until I was forced to further look at the literary work with an analytical eye that I noticed what O’Conner could have been saying about Christianity. The prominent character that can be associated with Christianity in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the grandmother.

Within the work, we are not aware that the grandmother is a Christian at all in the beginning of the story. Ironically, when the reader is fully aware of the religion of the grandmother is when she is in a high anxiety situation such as her looking face to face with death. In fact, we are made aware numerous times that she is immensely concerned with her appearance being “lady-like” before we are aware of the religion that she practices. O’Conner even goes as far as to say in the beginning of the story, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” Ironically enough, as we see in the story, it is not her appearance or apparel that she uses to try to bring her out of a fate of death but it is her religion that she uses as an agent. When the grandmother realizes that she may be subject to death, she says things to the Misfit such as “If you would pray, Jesus would help you” and “that’s when you should have started to pray,” speaking of a particular time in the Misift’s life. Another time when the grandmother could not think of anything else to say when faced with adversity in the story she said, “pray, pray, pray.”

I think this is the phenomenon that O’Conner was trying to bring awareness to- the fact of putting Christians portraying themselves in a prominent manner but puts their religion on the backburner until it’s convenient for them. This is exactly the hypocrisy that we see in the grandmother, she only practices her religion primarily when she is faced with adversity. Abbie C. Harris in “”Jesus Thrown Everything Off Balance”: Grace and Redemption in Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,”” solidifies this by saying “This land of Christianity in turn becomes a land of hypocrisy, where people strive for respectability, ignore Biblical teachings and only act as “Christ followers” when it benefits them.” This quote perfectly illustrates the character of the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”

Overall, in this story we can take a number of different angles as it pertains to Christianity, as O’Conner designed it to be, but the concept of hypocrisy and backburner Christianity is what stood out to me most. It also had a substantial amount of evidence to support the claim. In researching O’Conner and analyzing this literary work of hers, it entices me to read what other claims does she make throughout her works.

Scholarly Source:

https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/papersandpubs/vol3/iss1/5/

Blog Post 4C Montaya Mccloud For Colored Girls X Abortions

As Stated by Anne Lamott, “If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So, you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive”. In 1975 an African American feminist named Ntozake Shange from New Jersey created a chorepoem called  "For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf " . The piece consists of a group of 20 poems about how to help African American women survive in society with pain due to racism and sexual anger. Centuries Later in 2010, Tyler Perry's remade a Drama called "Forcolored girls " which won Several NAACP Awards. The film was based on a group of all African American women in New York who lived in the same Harlem apartment building. The women go through several trials and tribulations which make the film relatable to all women in one way or another. There are several emotional scenes which make people realize how hard women have to work to make it in life. Within the storyline of this film each woman deals with a different conflict such as rape, infidelity, love and abandonment. I am going to focus on if the writer has the right to Remake the film and write it in his own perspective considering that he is a male and African American.

African American Women always receive the same background stories from authors. The woman is shown as over aggressive and either on drugs, hypersexual, or very uneducated. Women are shown in shows as hypersexual in shows consistently(Yuri). Women are shown in shows as hypersexual in shows that they have jobs that require a high education background such as Shonda Rimes television show Scandal, and Mara Brock Akil show Being Mary jane. The uneducated and aggressive African American women are shown in family movies such as Moonlight, and the television show Empire. This shows viewers and other African American people that media categorizes African American women into two groups Highly educated and promiscuous, or aggressive and uneducated. This stereotype does not set a positive image for African American women in society. This stereotype does not set a positive image for African American women in society.

 African American directors have created a high percentage of the movies which use stereotypes of African americans to be successful in the media industry(Yuri). Tyler Perry should respected Ntozake Shange Legendary feministic ways who came up with the chorepoem in the first place.  Ntozake Shange should have all rights to it under any circumstance. No one likes when they take a great amount of time and put their passion toward a piece of art, that in their eyes it is great, and someone chooses to change, or rearrange it to fit their personal ideology.

Works city Tyler Perry  "For Colored Girls" New York :Tyler Perry Studios, Lions Gate 2010

The ethics of abortion : women's rights, human life, and the question of justice / Christopher Kaczor 2015

Understanding abortion : from mixed feelings to rational thought / Stephen D. Schwarz ; with Kiki Latimer 2012

price, Yuri Horton and Raagen. "Edge." 1 june 1999. Portrayal of Minorities in the Film, Media and Entertainment Industries. Ethics of Development in a Global Environment (EDGE) . 2017 1 4. <https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/portrayal.htm>.