Maya Angelou Research Papers

The 1930’s had very different social ideas than we have today. In the 30’s, all American women wanted to look like the women seen in magazines and movies (Henke). They wanted to be perfect. This idea made people feel badly about themselves, and it also made people look down on others if they did not look the same as them. Maya Angelou felt that she was a double minority because she was a woman and she was black. In her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she was able to show others, and herself, that the trials in life, such as racism and isolation, can be overcome with the help of family and literature.

Maya Angelou was born at her home in St. Louis, Missouri, as Marguerite Annie Johnson. She was born on April 4, 1928, and her

Bertha was hired to be a positive influence on Angelou. She helped her get back to her old self after she was molested by her mother’s boyfriend on a visit to California to see her mother. After the boyfriend was murdered, Angelou thought his death was caused by her. It was because of this that Angelou was mute for 5 years (Skinner). When Bertha began teaching her, Angelou started feeling relief from her guilt and suffering. Angelou said that Bertha, “threw me my first life line.” (Angelou, 77). Bertha also taught Maya self confidence, while giving her attention and respect for just being herself at the same time. But the most important thing that Bertha taught Maya was that words and literature are powerful (Walker). She taught Maya to read for enlightenment. She opened her mind to literature that goes beyond the deep south such as, Shakespeare, Dickens, and repressed African American heritage (Henke, Chandler). This led Angelou to discover her heritage through literature, and also led her to realize that words are not evil. It was people that made the words evil

Angelou dreamed of being something that she was not. She had fantasies of a complete physical transformation so that she could look like all of the other girls with white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. She saw this as her secret identity that no one knew about, not even God. The color of her skin and the way her hair was contributed to the way she felt about herself (Henke). Throughout her childhood, she always felt ugly and unfortunate because she was born black (Siphokazi). And it was on a daily basis that she had to find ways to combat racism. One example of racism in Angelou’s early life was the girls that came up to her and her grandmother just to imitate Momma’s posture and make fun of the way that they looked. Angelou eventually learned to use silence and her daily activities as ways to combat racism (Walker). She also realized that the image of the blonde hair, blue eyed girl had to die before she could become herself