Racism in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Essay

In “Momma The Dentist, And Me,” Maya Angelou recounts a small victory against racism when her grandmother displays heroism to save the young Maya from agony. Angelou recalls her childhood when having a horrific toothache and comparing her pain to death; her grandmother, whom she refers to as Momma insists on taking Angelou to a white dentist nearby. Angelou recalls stepping into the “white part” of town, where the surrounding atmosphere distracts Angelou from her toothache. Angelou describes the humiliation her and Momma feel while speaking with Mr. Lincoln as he refers to Momma by only her first name. Angelou narrating her own version of the conversation between Momma and Mr. Lincoln, portrays Momma as a hero in the face of racial cruelty

In an excerpt from her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings called “Graduation,” Maya Angelou narrates the anticipation surrounding graduation in her small town of Stamps, Alabama. Angelou effectively contrives noteworthy differences between paragraphs 1 through 5 and 6 through 10 through the use of emotional and descriptive diction, powerfully bold comparisons, and a shift in perspective in order to instill pride and dignity in Angelou and her race despite the era’s highlighted social injustices which she endures.

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

“You have tried to destroy me and although I perish daily I shall not be moved,” (Angelou, 2014), says Maya Angelou in her Commencement speech to the 1992 Spelman College graduates. Poet and award-winning author, Maya Angelou, is most well known for her poetry, essay collection, and memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou happened to be the first black female cable car conductor who later started a career in theatre and music (Maya Angelou: Poet and Historian, n.d.). Once her acting and musical career began to take off, Angelou began touring with productions and released her first album Miss Calypso (Maya Angelou Fast Facts, 2017). Later, Angelou earned a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away and an Emmy Award nomination for the work she performed in the television mini-series Roots (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). Angelou was also the first African American woman to have her screenplay produced (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). Out of the number of poetry collections Angelou published, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die happened to be her most famous collection that was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). The focus of this paper is to critique Angelou’s credibility, sincerity, and appeal to her whole audience in her delivery during the Spelman Commencement Address in 1992.

Perhaps the reason that Maya’s poetry has had such a lasting impact on Americans is because of her poems such as ‘Caged Birds’ and ‘Still I Rise’ that demonstrate the issues that African – Americans faced, which she has done through the power of her words. She also challenges the readers with the theme of oppression that is carried out through her pomes as she felt very strongly about it by being surrounded by it her entire life. Maya Angelou has left an everlasting mark by influencing the society through her poems by inspiring others to persist towards their goals and dreams with strength and pride. Overall, Maya Angelou’s work can be attributed to the fact that her personal and cultural experiences of power have not been forgotten by overcoming adversity and oppression, which is clearly reflected in her inspiration body of work seen

Maya’s upbringing as a child is very parallel to Taylor’s because she is raised by her grandma, whom she calls Momma, without an affective paternal figure in her life. As a child, Maya sees that her grandma successfully raised her and her brother on her own. Momma owns a shop in their town called, The Store and she runs it generally by herself. She makes an effort to protect Maya and Bailey from being mistreated in society because when the dentist refuses to attend to Maya’s needs, Momma tells the dentist, “I wouldn’t go press on you like this for myself but I can’t take No. Not for my grandbaby” (Caged Bird 189). Momma asserts her power in demanding service for her granddaughter and shows Maya that she is strong and possesses the power to be successful in society and overpower a male in some circumstances. Maya watches her grandma in this situation and instantly categorizes her as a powerful woman and looks up to her even more now. Maya visualizes her Momma as a form of a hero because, “Momma had obliterated the evil white man” (Caged Bird 191), because she stood up to the white dentist that is seen as evil in her family’s eyes. Maya then realizes that Momma is one of the more powerful black women in society that is able to stand up to the white race when the blacks are mistreated. Maya can then exert her

Momma won the contest by standing her ground. Religiously practicing the art of hygiene, she recited countless mantras like “Thou shall not be dirty,” “wash as far as possible, then wash possible,” and “cleanliness next to Godliness, dirtiness was the inventor of misery.” She strongly believed children should be unsoiled, if not, they were “detested by God and shameful to its parents.” When faced with the disgusting appearance of the “powhitetrash” girls flaunting their grime, Momma desperately wanted to punish them, the way she would beat Maya and Bailey if their feet were filthy. Knowingly, she had to restrain herself, for her fate would be sealed if she laid a finger on them, no matter if they were poor. To keep from lashing out,

The black community of Stamps, especially Maya, highly values the importance of respect, compensating for the wrongdoings they suffered. A name is a way of communicating. Maya’s reaction to the name Mary shows her dislike of a name she does not associate with herself. Especially hard for Maya as an African American to speak up to Mrs. Cullinan because “[Negros have] been called niggers, jigs, dinges, blackbirds, crows, boots and spooks” (109). Calling Maya by the name Mary, one she does not appreciate, shows the pride whites have over those inferior to them. Maya does not speak up against Mrs. Cullinan because she knows she will get beat. For example, Maya’s incorrect use of the phrase “by the way” cost her a whipping from Momma because “by

Despite the fact that the powhitetrash girls were mocking Momma and offended Maya, Momma stood her ground and made it seem as if the rude remarks were not affecting her in any way. Momma's constant humming throughout the whole situation made her seem in a constant calm state of mind. At first Maya was confused about her actions toward s the situation when she thought, "What would Momma really like me to do?" (32). However this suddenly leads to the realization that by keeping calm, Momma is showing that she is more civilized and worth more than those girls any day or any time.

During the time period Angelou lived in racial discrimination was prominent. She was turned away from jobs and multiple opportunities because employers didn’t like what they saw at surface level. She faced many hardships that began at a young age and spanned to her later years, which inspired some of her best known work along with her autobiography ¨I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” In her autobiography she shares about the time she spent with a woman known as “Mrs. Flowers”, a woman who coaxed Angelou out

“Momma pulled herself back from being ten feet tall with eight-foot arms and said, you’re welcome for nothing you varlet, I wouldn’t waste a killing on the likes of you. ( Angelou 186)” The fact that Angelou even imagined such an act of resistance to the awful dentist shows how she is thinking about how to fight back against discrimination. In Angelous eyes Momma does not need to use violence on the dentist because she rises above with her strength and keeps her dignity. Momma turns to the Bible and prayer to resist racism while other women turn to other

At the age of ten she takes a job for a white woman who calls her “Mary” because she cannot be bothered to learn or say her full real name. In anger, Maya breaks the woman’s fine china. At her grade eight graduation, a white speaker from the prestigious white school informs the black students that they are expected to become only athletes or servants. When Maya gets a tooth ache, Momma drags her across town to the only dentist in Stamps (who happens to be white), and he proceeds to insult her, saying he would rather place his hands in a dogs mouth than in hers. An example of indirect racism would be when Bailey encounters the body of a dead, rotting black man and witnesses a white man’s satisfaction at seeing the body. Momma soon becomes concerned and fears for her children’s safety. She saves up money to take them to Vivian, who now lives in

While reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings during the summer, I was engrossed by the way Maya Angelou depicted the horrors she faced growing up during segregation in USA. Her voice rang raw throughout the book as she unearthed the truth about discrimination and rape.

Most humans desire to belong, because discrimination and isolation hurts. Maya Angelou went through these feelings doubly as her fellow african americans and by the alien white folk tease her because of her looks, described in her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In an excerpt from chapters one through five, Angelou uses colloquial language and parallel characters to show how racism in Stamps crippled her into believing that she truly was inferior to white folk.

At the age of three, Maya Angelou and her older brother, Bailey, had been sent off by their parents to go live with their grandmother and uncle in Stamps, Arkansas. It is obvious to the reader that Maya felt much more closely bonded to her grandmother - whom she quickly began to refer to as “Momma” - and Uncle Willie than she did with the thought of her mother and father. This is shown with the excerpt; “I didn’t mind his using us to make himself look good. In fact, I would have pretended to be his daughter if he had wanted me to. Not only did I not feel any loyalty to my own father, I figured that if I had been Uncle Willie’s child I would