Maya Angelou was born an African American. One would experience the torment she went through to be born as such and in America. Her grandma was raped and bore a kid ; this kid subsequently came to be her female parent. Similar to the fierceness her grandma experienced. she was raped as a kid by her mother’s fellow who was subsequently on killed by her uncles. Because of this. she didn’t speak for about six old ages afraid that her words had killed the adult male. This must be the morning of her way to being a author. recognizing that words are powerful.
If it could kill so it could give life every bit good. When her parents divorced. her grandma took good attention of her and her brother Bailey. Jr. and it was him who called her Maya. She became many things: a terpsichorean. a overseas telegram auto operator. a vocalist. a waitress. and where she flourished. a author. The bend of her calling came when she went to Egypt and Ghana. She went back to America to back up Malcolm X’s Organization of African American Integrity but he was assassinated. The battle of the race continued as she supported Martin Luther King. Jr.
who was besides assassinated supporting the African American cause. this made Maya Angelou devastated. She ne’er stopped working for the emancipation of the African Americans and continued composing for equal rights and autonomy. And so. in 1993. she read ‘On the Pulse of Morning. ’ at President William Jefferson Clinton’s startup at the White House. Her words are valuable to the state. Her words influence work forces of power. Her life is interesting which produced plants that are invaluable to the American people most particularly to the African Americans of whom she dedicated her attempts to for their emancipation.
Angelou’s manner of composing categorized her plants in the genre of autobiographical fiction because of her authorship manners in duologues. word picture. development of subject. scene. secret plan and linguistic communication. But for her. these are merely autobiographies. She speaks through her authorship what she has learned or larning out of life. In her interview with Mike Schneider in Bloomberg Television. she talked to all adult females as her girls for her book. “Letter to My Daughter” .
She speaks to them how a adult female surpasses an incident in life as she would. given a similar state of affairs. She writes to all the adult females as her girls. sharing with them her narrative like she was one with them. In the verse form. “I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing” . one would experience between the lines how an African American feels in the land called America. The words are simple and yet powerful in the sense that it deeply triggers emotions from the reader. These are deep sentiments of an enslaved race. desiring to be free but “the bird’s wings are clipped” .
Feelingss of being held while the other birds are free: is something that she has undergone while the Whites enjoy the autonomy of being portion of their race. A critic named Lupton. considered Angelou’s Hagiographas as autobiographies for they contain the elements of such: written by a individual writer. chronological. and they contain character. technique and them. Although. there are parts that are fictional. the elements necessary for an autobiography are present. Angelou has the inclination to travel to the way against the convention of what an autobiography is.
She used the first individual remarkable. “I” in speaking about “we” . She is placed among the African American autobiographists but other authors insist that she has created a different sort of reading of the autobiographical signifier. The book. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” . became an acclamation incorporating the sentiments of the black people. She wrote it out of a challenge by Robert Loomis. her editor. for her to compose “high art” . African American literature is more challenged in such that the writers have to hold about the position of their Hagiographas on whether it’s “high art” .
O’Neale considers Angelou’s poesy a “more expected ghetto expressiveness” and she besides avoids a massive Black linguistic communication. The bird was used as metaphor that is fighting to put itself free from its coop. The coop that incarcerates the animal represents “oppression” of the African American people. It must be emphasized every bit good that Angelou doesn’t intend to insulate the white people. She wanted to advance the relevancy of diligence so as to alter the construct of indolence among African Americans. At the latter portion of the sixtiess. one of her ends was to make a book that satisfied the standards. “organic unity” .
Harmonizing to English literature bookman Valerie Sayers. her poesy and prose are similar because of the episodes which are done like a series of short narratives. but they do non follow a chronology of events. Her prose and verse forms are both in “direct voice” . which are characterized by steady beat with lyrical forms that use figures of address ( similes and metaphors ) . Hagen has mentioned that Angelou’s plants were influenced by the African American community’s literary and unwritten tradition. She uses the “blues” music and literary characters in attesting about her life and adversities. with the usage of metaphors. beat. and modulations.
Angelou’s one of the most of import subjects are “kinship” . this has something to make with her parents forsaking of her and her brother. her relationship with her boy. hubbies and lovers all throughout her books. She discusses the value of household relationships of how it can impact development of a individual. She spoke of her paternal grandma who prophesied of her being a instructor when she deliberately went deaf-and-dumb person. Stating her that she would be a instructor someday but how could that go on if she does non talk.
In most of her books. “motherhood” is preponderantly manifested based on her experiences as a individual female parent. a girl. and a granddaughter. Like in the book. “Letter to My Daughter” . she dedicated this book to all adult females chew overing on their life experiences. She delivered words of wisdom to comfort and give waies to their psyches. When asked if she would state the same things to her boy or boies. she said it would be different. She would ne’er cognize how it is to be a adult male. If she would compose something for her son/sons. it would be through the position of a adult female.
Her secret plan frequently surrounds in this motive – female parent & A ; kid. “The adult female who survives integral and happy must be at one time stamp and tough. ” – Maya Angelou. Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now ( 1994 ) She is an incarnation of strength and wisdom. This is where she gets her dogmas from – the experiences she has gained from childhood up to the present which molded her to go a adult female whom people listen to. For Scholar Mary Burgher. African American adult females autobiographers have rejected the stereotyping of functions as “breeder and matriarch” of their sort and they are being presented as “creative and personally fulfilling” .
Maya Angelou besides wanted to present the message that adult females are more than the intent of conveying forth kids. Womans are valuable existences in society every bit much as work forces are. In her books. adult females are victors and are brilliant who have overcome hinderances of racial favoritism. She has been influenced greatly by her relationship with her grandma who died early in her 3rd autobiography. “Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas” . Momma ( Angelou’s grandmother ) . is quoted in the whole book.
“I write because I am a Black adult female. listening attentively to her people” . Maya Angelou. 1984 [ 87 ] She has greatly contributed to the emancipation of the black people in America working aboard with Malcom X and Martin Luther King. Jr. Went through desolation because of their deceases but continued on the battle of her people. She continued to show the strivings she goes through as a black adult female through her music and verse form. Using her gift in showing through words her ideas and battles. unified the really same sentiments of all the black people in America.
Her experiences particularly from childhood gave her the foundation she needed to go who she is now. Everything that transpired in her life was a message she depicted in all her books. She resisted racial prejudices and protested outright to consequence alteration in American society. She mentioned in her interviews when asked if she was angry. she said. “I am angry but I am non bitter…” . repeating that choler was necessary to show outrage to the unfair intervention towards the black people. She emphasized. nevertheless. that she is non acrimonious.
There is a difference between those two. She used choler to progress the cause of African Americans but made certain there is no resentment in her bosom. Works Cited Hagen. L. ( 1997 ) . Heart of a Woman. Mind of a Writer. and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Maya Angelou. Lanham. Maryland: University Press. Lauret. M. ( 1994 ) . Emancipating Literature: Feminist fiction in America. New York: Routledge. O’Neale. S. ( 1984 ) . Reconstruction of the Composite Self: New Images of Black Women in Maya Angelou’s Continuing Autobiography. Garden City. NY: Doubleday.
