A Literary Analysis Of Momma By Maya Angelou

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

In the story, Maya’s parents don’t understand the American culture , so Maya said “I didn’t feel happy that Nurzhan got yelled at; I felt bad for the whole thing.” Maya thanks Nurzhan for trying to get her to go to the dance. Her parents struggle in America because Maya’s mom screams at Maya which she said “Do not tell me nothing when your father saw you!” Maya’s mom was fierce at the moment. Maya’s mom screamed at her for being with American boys.

n American history, racial inequality has been a prevalent issue for many decades. Slavery is America's original sin. In the 1930s, racial inequality and segregation lived and breathed well. At this point in time, segregation in schools and other public places was still present. For preposterous reasons, white and black people had separate water fountains, restaurants, rest rooms, and areas on the bus. During this time full of racism and racial inequality, Maya Angelou was just a little girl growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis is a town in the South, like many others, had inequalities at the time. In 1938 Maya Angelou was only ten years old. At this age, she worked for a lady named Mrs. Viola Cullinan. Maya Angelou wrote briefly about her time spent working for Mrs. Cullinan in her short story “Mary.” Maya Angelou's’ use of vivid, direct characterization and alternating childish voice to mature adult narrative diction filtered through her authentic first person point of view helps to prominently establish the theme of Angelou’s distaste for racial inequality throughout the short story.

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,

I think Maya didn’t take Zinesser’s advice on being herself. I think this because Maya is following a book on how to act and wear, when your being yourself you don’t have to follow a book you follow your heart. For example, she follows lots of rules from Betty’s book. “Okay Betty, I’ll do my best to keep from spending my money on jukeboxes and pinball machines. Another example from the book is, “Ha! The girdle I’m trying on at the moment is so tight it makes my brain swell.”[pg.141]

When Maya has friends over she tries to keep them sheltered from that part of her life, because she doesnt want them to know about the kind of culture she belongs to. When you look out into the world many people relate to Maya, they all want to hide the kind of culture they grew up in and the kind of lifestyle they live in. These people will hide who they are on a day to day basis because of their culture. These people try to avoid the question “whats that” or “why is that hung up and what does it mean” or they just want to avoid being bullied because of

According to my knowledge of the memoir, Maya was trying to fit in at her school. Her mom states on page 10 “Maya you should follow the advice this year, in eighth grade, and write about what happens.” Maya’s mom was referring to the book written by Betty Cornell. Maya chose the easy route to being popular by reading Betty Cornell’s book instead of being her true self. She was not following the first key tip of Zinsser’s advice.

Love and Friendship is a common thing that the four characters from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, and Their Eyes Were Watching God engaged in, and found during their adventures. In Huckleberry Finn, Huck realizes that his friendship with Jim is much more important to him than “doing the right thing” and turning him in as a runaway slave. In the middle of the book, Jim struggles with decision making as he writes the letter to Miss Watson to tell her about Jim. Soon, he realizes how much he and Jim went through, and how close they've grown. He changes his mind, and states “all right, then, I’ll go to hell”

When we first meet Maya she has just moved to America seven months ago from Kazakhstan. She moved with her brother and her very strict parents. We see their strictness demonstrated when she is responsible for her younger brother Nurzhan after he gets in a fight, and that Maya and her best friend, Shannon Lui, can only spend time together at gymnastics. Her parent, still holding fast to the Kazakhstan culture, don’t understand the American ways of doing things for example after school when Maya and Shannon were waiting for the bus they were goofing off with two boys when her father drives up, not understanding that it was fine, her gets very mad at

This quote is important because based on stereotypes developed by other people, black people are violent and rude. Maya would likely have been punished for standing up for her grandmother while the white girls would be sympathized for harassing an elderly woman.

Maya´s mother is beautiful. She has white teeth and short curly hair. She says that they need to observe and respect their elders and also says that it's rude to call them by their first name.

When Maya made the decision to not work for a person like Mrs. Cullinan it gave her courage that she could carry with her as she continues to live her life. Maya became intimidating to the whites that did not like the African Americans by not standing by and be disrespected but by having a voice that was not given to them. She was mature enough to realize that no one should be treated the way Mrs. Cullinan treats her African American workers. Maya’s actions characterized her as a strong

Vivian played the part of a friend to her daughter throughout the novel however that helped get Maya out of her little bubble. Maya described her “ mother was the only warm, outgoing personality among her siblings” (Angelou 67). Maya’s opinion about her mother is essentially key for the reason that if she likes the qualities of person they will essentially look up to them and want to grow into their shoes. While keeping that in mind Maya mentions how “Mother had cut my hair in a bob like hers and straightened it” (Angelou 64). Keeping previous idea said in mind a reader can infer that Maya is allowing to be change whether it hair or her hobbies so willingly because she saw how her mother was and she thought that the more she changed to be like her, she would become a person very similar to her mother. By doing this and having the desire to be like Vivian, Maya changed from a person that was so insecure to someone that felt good in their skin because when she looked at herself she saw mother. This later lead to the decision to take theaters classes and

In doing this, Maya shows that she no longer is bound by the restrictions she followed as a child. This shows a drastic change in character for Maya throughout the book. She has gone from a young child who was forced to follow every regulation set by her religion, to an older child who still followed the regulations, but began questioning them and viewing them negatively, to an adult who knowingly and willingly breaks the regulations she once

Maya was a fighter who suffered most of her life with female bond. One of her features is quite interesting was her strength. Even though she experienced a variety of problems in her life, she never gave up and she kept pushing for the prosperity of her life. Maya Angelou is a woman with a strong character. She teaches how to keep ourselves up