Oppression of the Blacks - Essay Example

Oppression of the Blacks Transformation and Settings The following analysis aims at finding out what were the effects of Maya’s experiences (settings) she had to go through and how they strengthened her in her endeavors to overcome the racism she experienced. In her life Maya travelled to different places within the USA where she encountered different classes of people. The level of interaction with these diverse groups of individuals from multicultural environments played a central role in preparing her psychologically to face the reality of the oppression. Literary work is substantially dependent on settings as one of the elements of writing. Consequently, in Maya’s life this was important to the successful discourse of the narration. The settings of the novel prove significant in determining Maya’s character. The narration revolves around institutions, global, and social demography. Having divorced the parents were not able to take care of their two children. They opted to send them to the grandmother in a little known town called Stamps, Arkansas. To accompany them were the tags with the instructions, "To Whom It May Concern" and “c/o Mrs. Annie Henderson”. The instructions were tagged on their wrists as they took a lonely journey from California to Arkansas. As she describes it, “Our parents had decided to put an end to their calamitous marriage, and father shipped us home to his mother” (Angelou 4). The two kids had to face hardships and tough challenges right from the start on their way from home to their new destination. After a day of travel, a porter who was charged with their welfare got off as the train reached Arizona pinning the tickets to Bailey’s inside the coat pocket. They starved as they had nothing for lunch. However, they were lucky to get a potato salad and cold fried chicken. At the age of three Maya and her brother are totally deprived of any parental love and care following their parent’s divorce. They are forced to board a train on their own to seek refuge in Arkansas where their grand-mother resides. The grandmother happens to run a store which does not accord her time for her grandchildren. She, therefore, transfers the responsibility of raising the children to Uncle William and Momma who live in Stamps. For instance, during the bumpy harvesting periods, the cotton wagon queue starts as early as at four o’clock forcing the little ones to get up early to help collect the sheaves from the fields. Besides, they had to keep the store open at four a.m. as was the routine. The early morning commences with all the attention drawn to the yesterday’s leading picker. As a routine, the grandmother always, every day in the morning, creaks down to the knees and chants (in a sleepy-filled voice): "……Our Father, thank you for letting me see this New Day. Thank you that you didn't allow the bed I lay on last night to be neither my cooling board nor my blanket and my winding sheet” (Angelou 24). These words acted as an inspiration for the two little ones and strengthened their hope for a better future. The book which title infers to the chirps of birds in a cage is about the life of the African-American poet and writer, Maya Angelou. It sets stage when Maya and her brother are barely four years old and ends when she becomes a mother at seventeen. However, she transforms from being a racial target into a self-possessed and dignified woman, a personality with the ability to respond to racial prejudice. Just like many other African-American writers, Maya focuses on African affairs and challenges in foreign lands. Even while living with her parents, Maya becomes a victim of rape with a close family member being the accused. She grows to overcome this trauma amidst other tough challenges. This provides a rich ground for her character transformation. On moving to Stamps (the heart of black community), she encounters new challenges with the main problem being overt racism that she is subjected to by her white neighbors. Though her grandmother, Momma, is relatively rich, Maya is not exempted from prejudice meted by white children. For instance, one of the girls openly humiliates her by publicly revealing her hair to her as a mock. As noted, Momma hides Willie (in vegetable bin) to ensure that she is protected from Ku-Klux Klan raiders who targeted the African-Americans. The racial discrimination is not only felt at home by the neighbors but also by the employers. Her employer insults her to the extent of changing her name from Maya to Mary. Maya experiences a lot of racial discrimination at school, work station and even clinical institutions. A racial white speaker who attended Maya’s eighth grade graduation party disparages the audience by alleging that the blacks have limited access to job opportunities as opposed to the whites of lower technical qualification. The racism becomes worse as it takes over even in medical and clinical institutions. A white dentist who has been loaned by Momma during the Great Depression refuses to attend to Maya’s rotting tooth. This is the nature of racial oppression that the black community living in Stamps is subjected to. Amidst all this extent of racial discrimination, there are signs of relief as Joe Louis (a radio broadcaster) champions for equality among all the races. In her bid to protect her grand children from racial dangers in Stamps, Momma opts to send Maya and her brother to California where their mother lives. It is in San Francisco that Maya attends high school at George Washington High School (Angelou 178-179). Having earned scholarship to study drama and dance, she graduates and goes into books as being the first female streetcar conductor of black origin in San Francisco. This transforms her life experience and she remembers to visit her intoxicated father back in Mexico. Having been raped at eight, her final year of schooling is characterized by irrational decisions. Her worry of being a lesbian forces her to initiate a sexual relationship with a young boy and unfortunately she conceives. Acting on her brother’s advice, she hides from the family to avoid being identified and only comes back after her high school graduation which was her eighth month of pregnancy. Maya decides to face the reality and live to her expectations. She positively accepts the responsibility of parenting her newborn son (Angelou 204). This literary work gives a true picture of what the African-Americans who trace their roots to the Africa slavery victims went through. Maya uses different settings in her work to build on her character as an outstanding hard working and fearless Black-American woman. As a young black girl, she treads through various settings and environments in her life which contributes in shaping her destiny. There is a case before a congregation in a church during Easter reciting a poem but the kind of the social environment almost bars her from finishing the recitation. However, it is very clear that she comes to realize that the racial discrimination is widespread and so much complex such that it requires extra-ordinary composure to overcome. Maya realizes this even from the dress she is putting on which looks like a secondhand wear from the white women. She, therefore, fantasizes on how one day she would wake up to find that she is a white woman. Some of the physical attributes she talks about include her perceived black skin, large body, and unattractive black-American girl. An ironical twist comes out of this scene because, in as much as she is openly humiliated by the racial behaviors of the white folk, she resorts to laughing away the incidence and this gives her some courage to fight her way out of the racial prejudice. This episode propels Maya to beat odds and put a hard face against the oppression and psychological humiliation that the Africans were subjected to. These acts were propagated by the whites after the slavery was set to be stopped (Moore 82). In the cotton farms where the blacks are subjected to hard labor with small wages, there is a character that comes out very prominent in defining the destiny of Maya in her fight against racism. This is in Stamps, Arkansas, where Annie Henderson runs a store in the section for the blacks in Stamps. This is the only store run by an African-American and this earns Momma a lot of respect in this entire community of the black and the poor whites. Nevertheless, the racial discrimination syndrome is not amiss even with the poor white societies who are also working with the Black people in the cotton fields. The wage for the poor whites is different to the wage of the Black people doing the same job in same environment. This is heightened by the discriminative behavior that even the young white children develop towards the black community regardless of the age. This scene exposes the role of Momma in contributing to the assertive character of Maya by waging a silent mental and emotional war against these most feared white children. Momma has a store from which she serves the entire cotton harvesting work force that is dominated by the black people with a little pay. This store is accessible to many people who include the white kids. However, the problem is that whenever these poor white workers' children enter the store, the inferior blacks almost scamper for safety. Willie, who is handicapped, contributes to Maya’s interest in reading the works of William Shakespeare. However, there is a feeling of guilt which Maya has because Shakespeare was white and she couldn’t fully enjoy his poetry. This is an evidence of negative attitude that she has against the white race due to the deep discrimination they have inflicted on the black community (Arensberg 106-107). As if that is not enough, when the white children try to enter the store with contempt on blacks, Momma does not give up but follows them and stands out bold and talks to them without any fear. The courage and boldness of Momma provides Maya with some spirit of positive personality and sense of esteem that pushes her high to win the racism war which was being practiced by the white Americans. The experience of Maya in the store shows a bitter reality of how the blacks were subjected to abject poverty after the global end of the slavery era. Black people were shortchanged on the promises made to them on land and other property. In St. Louis, Maya comes across some of her relatives and blacks among whom were Vivian’s mother and Grandmother Baxter. These folks treat blacks and whites alike in their illicit business and this poses a very strange social environment for Maya but, at least, these are her black kinsmen (Moore 89). During the same episode, Big Bailey, who is the current guardian of Maya, has a soft stance and treats her in a hospitable way. This comes at the backdrop of racial segregation between the blacks and the whites. Big Bailey redefines Maya’s perception and attitude in any environment she is in to succeed amidst the oppression of blacks. The soft landing that Maya gets from Big Bailey strengthens her will to achieve her social dreams and her long standing wish to diffuse the suffering of the Africans (Angelou 125). The numerous geographical re-locations that Maya goes through really shapes her ability to cope with the different environments and social settings in her life. In spite of her re-location to a new environment coupled with exotic, chaotic and loud alien place of St. Louis, she has the ability to interact with people regardless of the strained relationship between her and the mother. The diverse characters of strong will and sound ideas help her recover from the negative attitude and inferiority complex she holds against herself. This setting, therefore, provides a better avenue on which the different factors shaped Maya’s personality. One of her uncles encourages her to shun her worries and develop her self esteem by telling her not to be worried about her appearance but rather cherish her outstanding intelligence level. In chapter 12 and 13, Maya encounters a rape case in which Mr. Freemans sets a trap and rapes her and the legal battle that follows sees her make critical decisions that incorporate the past and current experiences. The different setting on which this work was based provides the best tool for shaping the future of Maya in her fight for racial discrimination and oppression of the African-American. Works Cited Arensberg, Liliane K. "Death as Metaphor for Self". In Maya Angelou's ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’. A casebook, Joanne M. Braxton, ed., New York: Oxford Press. 1999. 102-8. Print. Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2011. 56-9. Print. Angelou, Maya, and Joanne M. Braxton. Maya Angelou's “’ Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’. A casebook. New York, NY : Oxford Univ. Press, 1999. 24-256. Print. Moore, Opal. "Learning to Live: When the Bird Breaks from the Cage". In Maya Angelou's ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’. A casebook, Joanne M. Braxton, ed., New York: Oxford Press. 1999. 70-95. Print. Read More