Flannery was kind of a babe back in the day

amlit338"The Artificial Nigger" is fuckin sick. As in good. It's a classic tale I think most people, men maybe a little more, can identify with. It's a story of a man's pride getting in the way of his relationships with loved ones(possibly God???), and through the moral cleansing process involving guilt, remorse, mercy, and eventually forgiveness, O' Connor shows her audience that redemption is possible, no matter how prideful a (wo)man may have been in his(her) actions. It's really beautiful and heart warming actually. It's so comforting to know that Mr. Head and Nelson were able to resolve their conflict throught mutual racism, and that Head, very deservingly got his redemption and reconciliation. He made up with Nelson, and made it home safely. No longer did they have to wander lost in that city of darkness. Could there be a more happy ending?
I think in a way it's kind of ridiculous though, that O'connor went through all that trouble to make a moral point. Even to the point of exploiting african-americans, using them merely as a back drop, to show the skewed nature of Head and Nelson's moral judgements. There was barely any interaction with african americans in the story. At least no enough to sense that any of them were real people.
Having said that, I don't know if I truly believe that, but my other teacher got on my ass the other day for me saying it was ok for a writer we're studying to use Native American's stereotyped culture merely as a backdrop for a white boy's moral lesson("Indian Camp"). I'm so lost in this world of confusion, and can only find my way out by anxiously adhering to every infallible word that drops from my professor's lips. PLOP!!! That doesn't inlclude prof. Shultz though, cause she actually want's to hear what we have to say. Just wanted to vent a little of my welling bitterness cause my shrink is on vacation right now. Thanks for listening.