CAGED
...negative comments from her mother, “They don’t accept colored people on street cars.”(p.257) and “The Negro organizations to whom [she] appealed for support but bounced [her] back and forth like a shuttlecock on a badminton court” (p.260) she learned to outwit her tormentors and see reality in all its beauty and ugliness. She outwitted people with negative comments and organizations that gave her the “marry-go-round”, because they were scared to break the restricting tradition, by becoming the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco and breaking the “white only job” trend. Forced into imprisonment because of her unfortunate sexual experience as a child, family conflicts arise. Through a tragic rape by her mother’s boyfriend, Maya is scared for her life because the rapist has threatened to kill her brother if she speaks therefore Maya believes that the very sound of her voice is lethal. “Just my breath, carrying my word out, might poison people and they’d curl up and die”(p.85). The rape was discovered and Freeman, the rapist, was brought to trail and convicted, but immediately released. Three days later, Freeman was kicked to death, perhaps by Vivian’s brothers. “At this point Maya feels responsible for his death and stops talking to everyone”(Evan p.76). Consequently, Maya and her brother are shipped back to Stamps where Maya enters her six year “cocoon”. “This haven extricated her metamorphic spurt into reality and womanhood”(Arensberg p.274). As with every cocoon, there is always a time when one must leave and bravely enter the unknown world outside the shell. Mrs. Flowers, one of her Grandmothers friends, encouraged Maya to break her silence by assisting her in finding her strongest defense and force, her love of literature. Doing this enhanced Maya’s courage and willingness to conquer other barriers and fortresses. Finally, Maya recount many times when she is discriminated against because of her race. At the time Maya was know as Marguerite Angelou, her original name. One day while working for Mrs.Cullinan, a white woman, she decides to give Marguerite [Maya] a new name because it is shorter and uses fewer syllables. “She’s Mary from now on.”(p.91). One of the most important aspects of a person is their name. It is a great insult for someone to change one’s name, without their consent. Had Maya been white Mrs.Cullinan would not have changed her name, and she did it only because of her racist friends and their attitudes. Even some of the white adults who supposedly supported her hid their racist messages in seemingly nice speeches. This is shown when Maya conveys the words of Mr. Edward Donleavy, their 12th grade graduation speaker, “The white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileo’s and Madame Curies and Edison’s and Gauguin’s, and our boys (the girls weren’t even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owen’s and Joe Lousises”(p.151). The man with his dead words had killed the promise and hope...