WEEK 5 REPLY

Your replies to classmates should be at least a paragraph in length and made with an eye to expand, clarify, defend, and/or refine their thoughts. Consider asking questions to further meaningful conversation. Participation must be completed by the end of the week to earn credit.

For this weeks discussion I will be analyzing a article from America Magazine called “A Flannery O’Connor Story for the World Today” written by Jim McDermott.The article focuses on the similarities of Donald Glover’s viral summer hit “This is America” and Flannery O’Conner’s 1955 “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The article claims that both of these works are a commentary on peoples ability to ignore what is happening around them. McDermott claims that not only do both the Video/Song and the short story present the commentary on society but that they both had the same response, “Don’t bother us with truth or suffering. We just want to party.” (McDermott, 2018, p. 49)

I thought that the article opened my eyes and gave me a deeper incite to some of the subtle things I might have dismissed in the short story. For example, when the grandmother called the poor black child they encountered a “nigger” and indicated that that sight was picture worthy. I already had a strong sense that O’Conner was making a commentary but after comparing it to Glover’s less hidden commentary I definitely see the connection.

McDermott, J. (2018). A Flannery O’Connor Story for the World Today. America Magazine, 48-49.