The religion of Christianity has played an important role in practically every text we have read so far. It has been talked about both positively and negatively across those texts by many different types of people. No matter the context, however, it still seems to a controlling aspect of many of these works. I would argue that Christianity, as both a religion and a ruling factor, is primarily helpful to individuals and communities of African descent. Mama Day does not typically focus on the idea of Christianity, but instead combines ideas of natural and supernatural forces, both beyond human control and within human control. For example, Mama Day herself is a conjure woman, yet she and her sister both share conversations of God and readings of the Holy Bible. Cocoa, however, is skeptical about the existence of God, but even she admits to having prayed to God for help in times of need. “Every now and then when a day went haywire and I felt overwhelmed by unforeseen barriers to some goal I’d set for myself, I might take a deep breath and say, God help me, really meaning, Let the best in me help me” (Naylor 251). Although Cocoa says that she really says those words to motivate herself…show more content… Wheatley herself is an African American woman and she speaks highly of Jesus and of what she believes he has done for everyone. She tells her audience, “What matchless mercy in the Son of God! When the whole human race had fall’n, He deign’d to die that they might rise again, and share with Him in the sublimest skies, life without death, and glory without end.” Reading this poem, the reader can see that she believes every word of what she is saying. Considering she uses her beliefs in a poem she recites to a student body, I believe it is safe to assume Christianity has been overwhelmingly positive and helpful to her in her
