Gender Stereotypes In Maya Angelou's Annie Henderson

Maya Angelou has wrote a quite a meaningful story about her grandmother Annie Johnson about her life and having a turning point and everything changed. It all starts by having a huge conflict about splitting her marriage in 1903 and ended she later became fully aware on what she put herself into. There for Annie Johnson and African-American women has to work her hardest in order to help her two small boys and make harder choices in life. According to the text on paragraph seven it states “Although business was slow, those first days Annie was determined. She balanced her appearances between the two hours of activity.” This explains how Annie was dealing with some conflits. There are more conflicts but a successful ending into the next story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”.

In Maya Angelou’s gloomy “Graduation” essay she asserts that the significance of that moment allowed her to outpace the discrimination and stereotypes of the 1940’s. Angelou develops her claim by the use of imagery, transparent diction and pathos. Angelou's purpose is to draw forth the discrimination and stereotypes put into black people in the 1940’s in order to notify the effects that this might cause. This essay is not directed towards a specific type of audience but to a general one. Angelou’s use of imagery connects the reader to the moment of her graduation.

In the essay “What’s Your Name, Girl?” Maya Angelou explores the injustice and suffering of her childhood as a black girl living in Stamps, Arkansas. Immediately, as the essay begins, you acquire insight on how Angelou seemed to be envious of white girls: “But Negro girls in small Southern towns, whether poverty-stricken or just munching along on a few of life’s necessities, were given as extensive and irrelevant preparations for adulthood as rich white girls shown in magazines. Admittedly the training was not the same. While white girls learned to waltz and sit gracefully with a teacup balanced on their knees, we were lagging behind, learning the mid-Victorian values with very little money to indulge them.” (17-18). Angelou recognized how unfair black people were treated. They had to scrounge up money whenever they could, while white people would effortlessly “waltz and sit gracefully” whenever they wanted to. She was envious of white people’s social statuses and what little work they had to do in the world and she wanted to be one of them; she wanted to live an easy life.

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.

Alice Walker and Maya Angelou are two contemporary African-American writers. Although almost a generation apart in age, both women display a remarkable similarity in their lives. Each has written about her experiences growing up in the rural South, Ms. Walker through her essays and Ms. Angelou in her autobiographies. Though they share similar backgrounds, each has a unique style that gives the readers, the gift of their exquisite humanity, with all of its frailties and strengths, joys and sorrows.

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

Maya Angelou, the current poet laureate of the United States, has become for many people an exemplary role model. She read an original poem at the inauguration of President Clinton; she has also appeared on the television show "Touched by an Angel," and there read another poem of her own composition; she lectures widely, inspiring young people to aim high in life. Yet this is an unlikely beginning for a woman who, by the age of thirty, had been San Francisco's first black streetcar conductor; an unmarried mother; the madam of a San Diego brothel; a prostitute, a showgirl, and an actress (Lichtler, 861927397.html). Her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings argues persuasively

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, is a writer,and she is known for many auto-biographical novels and she also writes poetry and essays. She also loved to study music, dance,and drama. From 1963 to 1966 Angelou was involved in the black civil rights movement. Maya Angelou wrote this specific poem called; “Phenomenal Women”. Angelou has a very creative way of saying things throughout her poem. Angelou talks about a woman in the poem that talks about herself a lot she repeats the phrase“ I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman that's me”( Angelou) therefore Angelou might be this person in her poem. Angelou is trying to show the reader that you need to have more confidence in your own person instead of worrying about others judgment.

Maya Angelou represents a strong, independent woman who has been through the same problems Melinda has been through. (pg. 50) Similarly, she was also raped as a child and she had to learn how to grow as a person and have a voice. Furthermore, Maya Angelou “speaks” to Melinda, which represents Melinda’s subconscious speaking to her. She is also a role model for Melinda, inspiring her at the end of the novel to speak up and fight back against Andy Evans. “Maya Angelou looks at me. She tells me to make some noise. I open my mouth and take a deep breath.”

Thursby, Jacqueline. “Critical companion to Maya Angelou.” A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work. New York: Random House, Inc., 1996. 240 Print.

Mrs.Flowers is everything that embodies a poised, powerful, and bold, southern African American women in Maya’s life. She is looked at as a mentor to Maya through a period in her young life. As an educated and wealthy women, everyone aspires to be her, especially Maya. Bertha Flowers introduces Maya to the importance of education with books and the introduction of sociable relations with others. The gravity of how much Mrs.Flowers means to Maya can only be explained in this interaction were Maya gushes, “ She was one of the few gentle women I have ever known, and has remained throughout my life the measure of what a human being can be (Caged Bird 92). We can see that Angelou recalls even from her childhood and now to adulthood in writing this book that Mrs.Flowers has truly changed her life with a goal of someone she can aspire to be one day. If we follow this relationship further we can see how Mrs. Flowers has been her saving grace, following her rape she has given Maya an outlet to find her voice. This outlet is reading, she gives Maya books on top of books to read, but the catch is that Maya must read every book, every paragraph , every word out loud. Maya struggles immensely with this predicament, but learns that it is much easier reading someone else's words first and then formulating your own won’t be so burdensome.

Maya Angelou is one out of the best known poets. She has written a lot of poems that inspires and assist people with their lives. She has a “desire humbleness to learn and experience all that life has to offer her” (gale biography in context, “Maya Angelou More than a Poet”) which makes her poems have a meaning to them. In addition, Maya Angelou got a lot of pieces of poems considered equality to her experience as a human of the United States during race times and her experience as a person who worked with other civil right activist. Maya Angelou uses deep themes that leaves the reader to think about the topic is being talked about. In her poem, “Still I Rise” she talks metaphorically about discrimination. In the poem, it states, “does my haughtiness offend you? ( the poetry foundation, “Maya Angelou”). This quote from the poem shows how the rest of the poem is about people believe they is better than other people and that the other people should suffer because they are inferior to the people, but the people being abused should not be embarrassed of who they are and be thankful for life(“Maya Angelou More than a Poet 1”).

To gain success, one has to go over various obstacles in order to bear the fruit of hard work. Maya Angelou’s life has been a constant example of struggles and achievements. Being sexually abused at the age of 7, had a lot of scars than the girls her age. She depicts her story through the poem, ‘Men’ , a fascinating poem which tells about a young lady's involvement in sexual intercourse. To Angelou, the opposite gender fascinated her.

    Alice Walker and Maya Angelou are two contemporary African-American writers.  Although almost a generation apart in age, both women display a remarkable similarity in their lives.  Each has written about her experiences growing up in the rural South, Ms. Walker through her essays and Ms. Angelou in her autobiographies.  Though they share similar backgrounds, each has a unique style which gives to us, the readers, the gift of their exquisite humanity, with all of its frailties and strengths, joys and sorrows.

The duration of Maya Angelou’s life saw African Americans being looked down upon by and oppressed by whites. People like Angelou weren’t seen as equals or professionals that strived for success which is something Angelou greatly defends in poetry. Angelou believes that anyone can be successful and prosper with hard work regardless of the color of their skin. In the poem “Times-Square-Shoeshine-Composition,” Angelou depicts a day in the life of an African American shoe shiner in Times Square, and a white man’s pity and refusal to support the shoe shiner’s business which can relate to all. In her poem “Times-Square-Shoeshine-Composition”, Angelou creates a distinct speaker’s voice using sound elements and structural variations to prove that African Americans can achieve success and prosperity despite being looked down upon.