Maya Angelou And Esteeism Essay
RACISM AND CASTEISM WITH THE SPECIAL REFENCE TO I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS AND KARUKKU
Maya Angelou’s turbulent experiences through late childhood and adolescence transformed into an almost positive force in her adult life as they helped enlighten, inspire, motivate and shape and very being .They provided her with the vehement fuel that drives her achingly powerful words and allowed her the knowledge and wisdom that led to self –discovery (finding one’s inner self), two endeavors that most of humanity is never able or perhaps willing to acquire.
From an apprehensive child growing up in a small town in Arkansas, Maya Angelou has evolved into an influential, wish, and respected women. She has overcome obstacles and has grown …show more content…
into one of the elite intellectual people of this country, and perhaps the world.
Along her numerous struggles, various people have given her positive guidance and passed down their knowledge to her. Among these people was Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a person in which Maya respected greatly. She was a dignified person that Maya could strive to achieve the gratitude that Mrs. Flowers gave to the people around her, a sense of appreciation. In her life story, Maya Angelou attributes her characterists she has acquired today, being influential wise and respected, to Mrs. Flower, who shows her the power of a voice, the knowledge of literature and pride in her race, and turns a self-conscious girl, into one of the profound writers of our time.
Mrs. Flowers enlightened Maya on the importance, and dominant effect, of expression through an individual voice. Earlier in her life, Maya was sexually molested and raped, and as a result, became dormant towards society. This was such a traumatizing event in her life that struck her obviously, in a physical sense, but moreover, mentally. Where she was once a brilliant outgoing child, she became a quite, somber adult. As a result of this ,Mrs. Flowers stepped in and told Maya to, ”bear in mind ,language is man’s way of communicating with his fellow man and it is language alone which separates him from the lower animals”. The intellect and beauty of Mrs. Flowers was shown through this quote which she educated Maya.
Throughout I Know Why the Caged Birds sings there were many themes such as racism and segregation, strong black women and literature. The strongest theme addressed in the book was racism and segregation. Racism and segregation was shown in just about every aspect of the book. A major example of to this theme is presented by how Maya and her family lived in the black side of stamps.
Stamps, Arkansas, as depicted in Caged Bird, has very little “social ambiguity”. It is a racist world divided between. Black and white, male and female. Als characterizes the division as “good and evil”, and notes how Angelou’s witness of the evil in her society, “generally directed at black women”, shaped Angelou’s young life and informed her views into adulthood. Angelou uses the metaphor of a bird struggling to escape its cage, as a central image throughout her series of autobiography. Like elements within a prison narrative, the caged bird represents Angelou’s confinement resulting from racism and oppression. The caged bird metaphor also invokes “the supposed contradiction” of the bird singing in the midst of its struggle. Scholar Ernece B.Kelley calls caged bird a “gentle indictment of white American womanhood but Hagen disagrees, stating that the book is” a dismaying story of white dominance. Critic Pierre A. Walker places Angelo’s autobiography in the African American literature tradition of political protest. Caged Bird has been called “perhaps the most aesthetically satisfying auto biography written in the years immediately following the Civil Rights era. Angelou demonstrates, through her involvement with black community of Stamps, as well as her presentation of vivid and realistic racist characters and the “vulgarity of white southern attitude towards African Americans”, her developing understanding the rules for surviving in a racist society. Angelou’s autobiographies, beginning with Caged Bird, contain a sequence of lessons about resisting oppression. The sequence she describes leads Angelou, as the protagonist from helpless rage and indignation to forms of subtle resistance, and finally to outright and active protest.
Walker insists that Angelou’s treatment of racism is what gives her autobiographies their thematic unity and underscores one of their central theme: the injustice of racism and how to fight it. The structure of the book helps to illustrate this theme. Caged Bird, like most autobiographies, begins with Angelou’s earliest memories, but she relates events non-chronologically.for example, the description of the “powhitetrash” girl taunting Maya’s grandmother appears in chapter five when Maya was about ten years old, two years after her rape, which occurs in chapter twelve. Maya reacts to the “powhitetrash” incident with rage, indignation, humiliation, and helplessness, but Momma teaches her how they can maintain their personal dignity and pride while dealing with racism. Walker calls Momma’s way a “strategy of subtle resistance, and McPherson calls it” “the dignified course of silent endurance”. In the course of her book, Angelou demonstrates that Momma’s approach to coping with racism serves as a basis for actively protesting and combating racism. Momma is portrayed as a “realist”, whose patience, courage and silent ensure the survival and success of those who came after her .For example, Maya breaks the race barrier to become the first black street car operator in Son Francisco and responds assertively to the demeaning treatment by Americans subvert repressive institutions to with stand racism. Arensberg insists that Angelou demonstrates how she, as a black child, evolves out of her “racial hatred”, common in works of many contemporary black novelist and autobiographers. At first Maya wishes that she could become white, since growing up black in white America is dangerous; later she sheds her self-loathing and embraces a strong racial identity.
Bama’s Karukku, apart from being her autobiography, becomes the testimonio of a community. Her personal experiences reveal the life that a Dalit has to lead in a caste based society. This paper talks about the experiences that Bama had in her Dalit life and discusses how Karukku becomes a testimonio of Dalits. Karukku focuses on two essential aspects namely: caste and religion that cause great pain in Bama’s life .Bama has bitter experiences at the school. One day Bama and her friends were playing at the school in the evening at that moment somebody has stolen the coconut. The guilt is thrown on her. Everyone says that it was Bama who had plucked the coconut. Actually she was not guilty but the headmaster treats her badly .He scolds her in the name of caste .when she protested ,the headmaster tells her ,”you the people of low caste like the manner you have…..we cannot allow you inside this school .stand outside”. Because of this incident Bama is agony. It is very shocking incident and she is confused by listening to the caste name particularly when she is not mature enough to understand it at all.
In chapter 2, Bama starts to portray how casteism has been playing its ugly role and says how a lower caste brings vada cover without touching its top. From the first view, we can understand how the higher caste suppresses the lower one. A small girl who is supposed to be Bama sees this action, and starts laughing uncontrollably. But once her brother describes the real pace of the action, she starts thinking. From this action ,Bama makes us also to think how casteism plays an ugly role during her ages .she never fails ,to say that how a small child who is from a high caste ,dominates even an age old grandma who is from lower caste and who is working in the child’s field.
In the same chapter Bama brings out the feeling of a small girl due to her suppression everywhere. Bama makes us clear that only education is the solution for this suppression. Even in the educational institution, casteism shows its real face. The girl who is from the Dalit society hopes that education only can bring out the changes, but the case is different in the institution .Bama brings out the disappointment of the girl through her words itself.
In chapter 4 and 5, Bama brings out the so-called snobberism and capitalism. In these chapters, Bama depicts how workers of the Dalits are paid poorly. Even the children who go and work in the fields of the upper, can get less sum of money. This shows how capitalism is imposed on even to the children. Bama says that the children from the upper society should be given respect, even by the old people. It is simply because they are the Dalits and they don’t have money enough to compete with them.
In chapter 5, snobberism shows its ugly face. The rich people, who are also from the higher class, use the power illegally and bring the power under their control. Even the police man help for them. It shows the law is on the side of the upper. But the Dalits don’t talk it seriously. They enjoy what they do. They think that there are born to struggle.
At the end of the book, she says, “Its great joy to see the Dalits aiming to live with self-respect, proclaimed aloud, ‘Dalit endru sollada talai nimirndu nillada’; you are a Dalit; life up your head and stand tall”.
The poem which I wrote on caste will help us to understand the sufferings of a small boy; You Caste
To admit me, my parents took me to school,
They, the educated illiterates, called us fool;
Because asked they, our caste,
My parents replied with haste.
Asked us, “With that caste how?”
So we, before them, did bow;
Got into the class with fear,
To sit there, among my peer.
In class, I was not their favor,
All was nothing but my color;
Shared everything among their dears,
Left me alone, in eyes, with tears.
People do say I am educated,
But, I was, there, really punished;
They never taught us subject,
Only that ugly unseen object.
I like others, born with same red blood,
Then why I, suffocating in caste flood? Thus the life portrayed in these two works, shows how both the black people and the Dalits are being suppressed. Even though they make their own life .It is clear “great men are not born, they grow great”. The circumstances under which they live made them to struggle bravely and have brought them great.
Book Cited: 1. Walker Pierre A. (October 1995). “Racial Protest, Identity Words and Form in Maya Angelou-I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. 2. McPherson, Dolly A. Order out of Chaos: The Autobiographical Works of Maya Angelou. 3. Bama. Karukku. Tr. Lakshmi
Holmstrom
Maya Angelou’s turbulent experiences through late childhood and adolescence transformed into an almost positive force in her adult life as they helped enlighten, inspire, motivate and shape and very being .They provided her with the vehement fuel that drives her achingly powerful words and allowed her the knowledge and wisdom that led to self –discovery (finding one’s inner self), two endeavors that most of humanity is never able or perhaps willing to acquire.
From an apprehensive child growing up in a small town in Arkansas, Maya Angelou has evolved into an influential, wish, and respected women. She has overcome obstacles and has grown …show more content…
into one of the elite intellectual people of this country, and perhaps the world.
Along her numerous struggles, various people have given her positive guidance and passed down their knowledge to her. Among these people was Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a person in which Maya respected greatly. She was a dignified person that Maya could strive to achieve the gratitude that Mrs. Flowers gave to the people around her, a sense of appreciation. In her life story, Maya Angelou attributes her characterists she has acquired today, being influential wise and respected, to Mrs. Flower, who shows her the power of a voice, the knowledge of literature and pride in her race, and turns a self-conscious girl, into one of the profound writers of our time.
Mrs. Flowers enlightened Maya on the importance, and dominant effect, of expression through an individual voice. Earlier in her life, Maya was sexually molested and raped, and as a result, became dormant towards society. This was such a traumatizing event in her life that struck her obviously, in a physical sense, but moreover, mentally. Where she was once a brilliant outgoing child, she became a quite, somber adult. As a result of this ,Mrs. Flowers stepped in and told Maya to, ”bear in mind ,language is man’s way of communicating with his fellow man and it is language alone which separates him from the lower animals”. The intellect and beauty of Mrs. Flowers was shown through this quote which she educated Maya.
Throughout I Know Why the Caged Birds sings there were many themes such as racism and segregation, strong black women and literature. The strongest theme addressed in the book was racism and segregation. Racism and segregation was shown in just about every aspect of the book. A major example of to this theme is presented by how Maya and her family lived in the black side of stamps.
Stamps, Arkansas, as depicted in Caged Bird, has very little “social ambiguity”. It is a racist world divided between. Black and white, male and female. Als characterizes the division as “good and evil”, and notes how Angelou’s witness of the evil in her society, “generally directed at black women”, shaped Angelou’s young life and informed her views into adulthood. Angelou uses the metaphor of a bird struggling to escape its cage, as a central image throughout her series of autobiography. Like elements within a prison narrative, the caged bird represents Angelou’s confinement resulting from racism and oppression. The caged bird metaphor also invokes “the supposed contradiction” of the bird singing in the midst of its struggle. Scholar Ernece B.Kelley calls caged bird a “gentle indictment of white American womanhood but Hagen disagrees, stating that the book is” a dismaying story of white dominance. Critic Pierre A. Walker places Angelo’s autobiography in the African American literature tradition of political protest. Caged Bird has been called “perhaps the most aesthetically satisfying auto biography written in the years immediately following the Civil Rights era. Angelou demonstrates, through her involvement with black community of Stamps, as well as her presentation of vivid and realistic racist characters and the “vulgarity of white southern attitude towards African Americans”, her developing understanding the rules for surviving in a racist society. Angelou’s autobiographies, beginning with Caged Bird, contain a sequence of lessons about resisting oppression. The sequence she describes leads Angelou, as the protagonist from helpless rage and indignation to forms of subtle resistance, and finally to outright and active protest.
Walker insists that Angelou’s treatment of racism is what gives her autobiographies their thematic unity and underscores one of their central theme: the injustice of racism and how to fight it. The structure of the book helps to illustrate this theme. Caged Bird, like most autobiographies, begins with Angelou’s earliest memories, but she relates events non-chronologically.for example, the description of the “powhitetrash” girl taunting Maya’s grandmother appears in chapter five when Maya was about ten years old, two years after her rape, which occurs in chapter twelve. Maya reacts to the “powhitetrash” incident with rage, indignation, humiliation, and helplessness, but Momma teaches her how they can maintain their personal dignity and pride while dealing with racism. Walker calls Momma’s way a “strategy of subtle resistance, and McPherson calls it” “the dignified course of silent endurance”. In the course of her book, Angelou demonstrates that Momma’s approach to coping with racism serves as a basis for actively protesting and combating racism. Momma is portrayed as a “realist”, whose patience, courage and silent ensure the survival and success of those who came after her .For example, Maya breaks the race barrier to become the first black street car operator in Son Francisco and responds assertively to the demeaning treatment by Americans subvert repressive institutions to with stand racism. Arensberg insists that Angelou demonstrates how she, as a black child, evolves out of her “racial hatred”, common in works of many contemporary black novelist and autobiographers. At first Maya wishes that she could become white, since growing up black in white America is dangerous; later she sheds her self-loathing and embraces a strong racial identity.
Bama’s Karukku, apart from being her autobiography, becomes the testimonio of a community. Her personal experiences reveal the life that a Dalit has to lead in a caste based society. This paper talks about the experiences that Bama had in her Dalit life and discusses how Karukku becomes a testimonio of Dalits. Karukku focuses on two essential aspects namely: caste and religion that cause great pain in Bama’s life .Bama has bitter experiences at the school. One day Bama and her friends were playing at the school in the evening at that moment somebody has stolen the coconut. The guilt is thrown on her. Everyone says that it was Bama who had plucked the coconut. Actually she was not guilty but the headmaster treats her badly .He scolds her in the name of caste .when she protested ,the headmaster tells her ,”you the people of low caste like the manner you have…..we cannot allow you inside this school .stand outside”. Because of this incident Bama is agony. It is very shocking incident and she is confused by listening to the caste name particularly when she is not mature enough to understand it at all.
In chapter 2, Bama starts to portray how casteism has been playing its ugly role and says how a lower caste brings vada cover without touching its top. From the first view, we can understand how the higher caste suppresses the lower one. A small girl who is supposed to be Bama sees this action, and starts laughing uncontrollably. But once her brother describes the real pace of the action, she starts thinking. From this action ,Bama makes us also to think how casteism plays an ugly role during her ages .she never fails ,to say that how a small child who is from a high caste ,dominates even an age old grandma who is from lower caste and who is working in the child’s field.
In the same chapter Bama brings out the feeling of a small girl due to her suppression everywhere. Bama makes us clear that only education is the solution for this suppression. Even in the educational institution, casteism shows its real face. The girl who is from the Dalit society hopes that education only can bring out the changes, but the case is different in the institution .Bama brings out the disappointment of the girl through her words itself.
In chapter 4 and 5, Bama brings out the so-called snobberism and capitalism. In these chapters, Bama depicts how workers of the Dalits are paid poorly. Even the children who go and work in the fields of the upper, can get less sum of money. This shows how capitalism is imposed on even to the children. Bama says that the children from the upper society should be given respect, even by the old people. It is simply because they are the Dalits and they don’t have money enough to compete with them.
In chapter 5, snobberism shows its ugly face. The rich people, who are also from the higher class, use the power illegally and bring the power under their control. Even the police man help for them. It shows the law is on the side of the upper. But the Dalits don’t talk it seriously. They enjoy what they do. They think that there are born to struggle.
At the end of the book, she says, “Its great joy to see the Dalits aiming to live with self-respect, proclaimed aloud, ‘Dalit endru sollada talai nimirndu nillada’; you are a Dalit; life up your head and stand tall”.
The poem which I wrote on caste will help us to understand the sufferings of a small boy; You Caste
To admit me, my parents took me to school,
They, the educated illiterates, called us fool;
Because asked they, our caste,
My parents replied with haste.
Asked us, “With that caste how?”
So we, before them, did bow;
Got into the class with fear,
To sit there, among my peer.
In class, I was not their favor,
All was nothing but my color;
Shared everything among their dears,
Left me alone, in eyes, with tears.
People do say I am educated,
But, I was, there, really punished;
They never taught us subject,
Only that ugly unseen object.
I like others, born with same red blood,
Then why I, suffocating in caste flood? Thus the life portrayed in these two works, shows how both the black people and the Dalits are being suppressed. Even though they make their own life .It is clear “great men are not born, they grow great”. The circumstances under which they live made them to struggle bravely and have brought them great.
Book Cited: 1. Walker Pierre A. (October 1995). “Racial Protest, Identity Words and Form in Maya Angelou-I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. 2. McPherson, Dolly A. Order out of Chaos: The Autobiographical Works of Maya Angelou. 3. Bama. Karukku. Tr. Lakshmi
Holmstrom