Presentation Part III: Tyler Perry

 Laura Latham 

EN 446 01 

April 2, 2023

Madea as the Beacon of Community

Despite her large stature, size, and prison record, the character Madea is represented to be the average neighborhood grandmother. She is also known to be loud, aggressive, and nosy. At first glance portraying a fictional black woman as such could be seen as racist in that it plays into negative stereotypes. The purpose of Madea is to glorify these characteristics held by many black women so that those who identify with her can be inspired to be their best self and continue to promote community goodness. The characteristics of Madea that are meant to be glorified are her confidence, her caring nature, and her imperfect decisions.

 Madea’s confidence in her appearance is meant to be ironic because the character is played by a man, and according to society’s beauty standards is not charming. Despite this, Madea instructs the reader to “Take a look at the cover of this book and look at that picture. I’m sixty-eight and I know I look good. I ain’t never had no blond wig and blue eyes. I’m who I am. I just use Vaseline” (The Mystery of the Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Black Women). If Madea can look at herself as beautiful and not waste time, money, and energy on appearances that are fake, the readers can as well. Madea’s confidence also follows her through her past. Madea’s upbringing is not typically glorified in society, however it is a common experience. Madea grew up poor and in a loud shack. Despite this, Madea claims that “What I have learned in this life is that you can never be ashamed of where you come from” (Skeletons in the Closet). This advice reaffirms that somebody’s upbringing and community makes a person who they are and how important it is to be helpful in bettering children and the community they grow up in. Even if somebody’s upbringing looks undesirable, it can be fundamental in their character, and too special to be ashamed of. 

The methods that Madea employs to show her care for others are used as comedy. She discusses the “bag of belts”, which today is seen as cruel and a sign of bad parenting. Perry includes this detail of Madea because it was the common disciplinarian action when he was younger. He wants to glorify the intentions that went behind the belt bag, not the bag itself. By including details about when the belt was appropriate, Perry is ensuring that the reader understands that violence for violence’s sake was not the objective. For Madea, “When children are afraid, they have some sort of reverence. So when you walk in the room, they’re going to stop what they’re doing and behave themselves no matter what they were doing” (The Bag of Belts). Madea, and people like Madea are dedicated to the idea of making their children well behaved so that out of the house they can be good citizens with respect. 

Madea is made to have a past that normally is not considered ideal. Madea got pregnant at eighteen years old, was a stripper and a prostitute, and has been to jail. These experiences are not glorified in society, yet are real experiences of people everyday. To this, Madea says “You don’t have to keep up with the Joneses. Hell, I ain’t known anybody named Jones in my neighborhood” (Becoming Madea). Madea’s experiences are simply what she’s done in her life and there is nothing for her to be ashamed of because she did everything she could to help others and be true to herself. A lot of Madea’s experiences came from the fact that she did not have the support herself, and to survive without losing her morals, she had to go into stripping and prostitution. Madea preaches “There ain’t no man going to do something for you that you can’t do for yourself. Get out there and make it happen for yourself” (Becoming Madea). While experiences that are normally condemned in society are shown through Madea, they are spun in a different light as they are not seen as inherently bad. Purpose and goodness can be pictured along these experiences and identities. 

Tyler Perry through the character Madea brings up characteristics that are normally deemed bad by society and puts a spin on them to prove the point that people are not inherently bad based on one aspect of themselves. People have to be looked at as whole and not labeled by one bad experience or characteristic. With Madea, Perry focuses on confidence, caring nature, and imperfect decisions and experiences. With every part of Madea’s life that is normally deemed as negative, Perry offers at least one view of her in a positive light. The confidence that Madea exudes justifies her background. Perry’s objective in portraying a character like this is to allow readers to feel confident with their quirks, and to remember that the most important part of one’s self is how they treat and care for others. Madea being an extremely caring person shows the reader that she is someone to idolize and copy.