Maya Angelou

 Word Count: 250

Parker Greene

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou

"The girls had tired of mocking Momma and turned to other means of agitation. One crossed her eyes, stuck her thumbs in both sides of her mouth and said, "Look here, Annie." Grandmother hummed on and the apron strings trembled. I wanted to throw a handful of black pepper in their faces, to throw lye on them, to scream they were dirty, scummy peckerwoods, but I knew I was as clearly imprisoned behind the scene as the actors outside were confined to their roles." (pg. 44)

The way that Maya Angelou was able to describe her life experiences really gives the reader a strong visual picture of what was happening at that time. Maya recounts her perspective in a way that was able to paint a strong visual picture in the readers head of her Momma being mocked and how she wanted to retaliate towards the white girls. During this time black people were mistreated by certain white people called "powhitetrash families", especially towards Maya's grandmother and her store. A person of color owning a store during this time was seen as a 'lesser' store in the eyes of a "powhitetrash" person. Maya describes how other white folk were present around whenever these situations would happen, and would act as if nothing had happened to them at all. It was normal for these types of situations to happen and no one would do anything, since it had no effect on them.