"There was more laughter in me trying to get out" "I didn't know there was this much in the whole world."
Growing up in Alabama, Maya Angelou, tells readers how she spent the beginning of her life without her parents, and how they walked right back into her life at age 7.
The struggle of growing up not knowing if her parents were alive or dead, or just abandoned them, is a very tough way to grow up. Thinking they were dead was better than thinking they didn't want them at all. I think it's really crazy how someone can abandon someone or something so important in their life. Not giving someone an explanation to why they left you, is even worse than telling them what you did. You think "I'm not even worth an explanation?"
In Stamps, Alabama segregation is still a very big thing. Even in present time, racism is very real. Children mocking adults, something Maya Angelou thought was very disrespectful, watched a group of white girls taunting her grandmother.
Many very real life problems were addressed in this memoir. Racism being looked at as an everyday normal thing, and how many people because of their status can get away with unacceptable things.
It's funny how even today in 2016, where gay marriage is legal & accepted, racial shootings, and brutal rapes are being thought of as "normal". It's thought of as something that just happens, and people argue against, but still accept as normal society. When I write my memoir, I will struggle with detail, and text. Maya Angelou's memoir has plenty of detail and text, so I can learn from this memoir how to write my memoir using plenty of detail and text.
I'm excited to read the rest of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", to see how Maya Angelou deals with being, with and without her parents, being raped as an 8 year old, and the toughness of being an southern, African American, girl.
Glad you're enjoying the book. Your response is personal and invested!
ReplyDeleteI could never imagine growing up with no parents to care for me. Also i could never imagine being look down on for the way I look. We live in such an excepting time where most everyone disregards things like that and i'm glad that things have changed from then to now because i don't think i could live in a world like that.
ReplyDeleteI love how Maya brings raw, uncomfortable, and honest topics into her writing. She is a person who went through so much as a child and shares her inner struggle with the world. I've only read excerpts from the book but what she writes is so unbelievably shocking. I love how you connected her situations with very recent issues to show that the struggle of discrimination is not yet lost. It's something that continues in our society. I think Maya's work never fails to capture the world in a different light. She always finds a new ways to think about thee world's issues. We live in a world with murderers, rapists, abandonment, and harsh living and Maya makes herself the spokesperson for it all. I absolutely love her writing.
ReplyDeleteI love how Maya brings raw, uncomfortable, and honest topics into her writing. She is a person who went through so much as a child and shares her inner struggle with the world. I've only read excerpts from the book but what she writes is so unbelievably shocking. I love how you connected her situations with very recent issues to show that the struggle of discrimination is not yet lost. It's something that continues in our society. I think Maya's work never fails to capture the world in a different light. She always finds a new ways to think about thee world's issues. We live in a world with murderers, rapists, abandonment, and harsh living and Maya makes herself the spokesperson for it all. I absolutely love her writing.
ReplyDelete