Blog 21: Making Connections

1. Q: How do you think Marguerite feels about being an African American?

A: I think she has an appreciation for her culture and race, but she still has to learn to deal with the experience of growing up as a black girl in the segregated American South which is not easy.

2. Q: Describe Bailey. Include how Bailey deals with racism.

A: Bailey is Maya's older brother. His is intelligent like Maya and mature beyond his age. While Bailey enjoys sports and handles himself well in social situations, he shows deep compassion for his isolated sister. Bailey senses the negative influences of racism, but to protect himself from hopelessness, he also shows deep compassion for his isolated sister. He senses the negative influences, but to protect himself from despair, he chooses to handle himself and overcome his soul until the negative moment passes.

3. Q: Why did Uncle Willie hide in the vegetable pin?

A: In the middle of the night "the used-to-be sheriff" comes up to the store to warn Momma, "to lay low" because "a crazy" black man "messed with a white lady today." He goes on to say that "some of the boys" will be riding by later, which means that the KKK will be riding around looking for black men to hold responsible for the "crime." Uncle Willie, a crippled man, must suffer the shame by hiding in a vegetable bin so that the KKK doesn't harass him and even possibly lynch him.

4. Q: How is opening the front door of the Store like “pulling the ribbon off the unexpected gift”?

A: The Store in Stamps Arkansas was Marguerite's favorite place to be when she was eighteen. The store symbolizes the rewards of hard work and loyalty and the importance of a strong and devoted community. A metaphor is said by Maya Angelou to describe that opening the front door was like "pulling the ribbon off the unexpected gift." Maya Angelou also uses a simile to describe the Store in the mornings. She writes that "it looks like an unopened present from a stranger."

5. Q: What is the guiding force in Momma’s life?

A. The guiding force in Momma's life is the Lord (God) and to search for faith. For example the scene in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings when Momma does not react to the girls taunting her outside of the Store, she gives Marguerite advice. The advice that she gives Marguerite is that she should just put a smile on her face when the white people taunt her and make fun of her. She also tells Marguerite that she should know the Lord's words well.

Blog 20: Segregation Presented in Chapter 8

1. How did the Depression impact the black community of Stamps?

The Depression hit the black community of Stamps approximately two years after most of the country was already feeling it.

2. Did it change them much?

The Depression did not change things very drastically as they were already poor and understood sacrifice.

3. Did it alter their view of life?

No. It did not alter their view of life. At Marguerite's house, they were taught "waste not, want not" (Angelou pg. 50).

4. Were they better or worse off than the white community?

Marguerite's mother thought the Depression must have hit the white section of Stamps "with cyclonic impact" (Angelou pg. 50). The change in lifestyle for the white community was much greater.

5. Which would recover faster?

Marguerite states that Stamps was "as slow coming out of the Depression as it had been getting into it" (Angelou pg. 51). Most probably, the Black population recovered more quickly because it lost less.

According to this chapter, there was always generosity in the Black neighborhood. People gave to each other even when they couldn't afford to. This probably made it easier being Black as opposed to being white, which was probably more desperate during the change.

Blog 19: Angelou's Life, Times, & Message

1. Time Period: African-American Experience in U.S., 1930s & 1940s

- In the 1930s and 1940s, the Civil Rights Movements for African-Americans became more noticeable and more people helped in the push for rights.

2. Maya Angelou: Biography

- Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis in 1928.

- She was raised by her grandmother in Arkansas until she graduated from eighth grade. Then she joined her mother in San Francisco.

- In Arkansas, Maya Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination and she absorbed the faith and values of traditional African-American families, communities, and culture.

- As a teenager, her love for arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco's Labor School.

- At 16, she gave birth to a son, Guy after which she toured Europe and Africa in the musical Porgy and Bess.

- In the 1960s when Maya Angelou returned to New York City, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and became involved in black activism.

- She then spent several years in Ghana and editor of the African Review, where she began to take her life, her activism, and her writing more seriously.

3. Racism: What is it? How has it occurred in the U.S.?

-Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief.

- Racism has been an issue in the United States since colonial times. There had been racism in this country against Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latin-Americans, American-Jews, and other immigrant groups.

4. Maya Angelou: Works & Publications

- By the late 1950s, she had become committed to writing and to working in the Civil Rights Movement.

- For her outstanding contributions to American literature, she has received many honorary degrees and the applause of the whole nation on January 20, 1993, when she delivered her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning," at President Clinton's inauguration.

- Maya Angelou is best known for autobiographical books: All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), The Heart of a Woman (1981), Singin' and Swimin' and Getting Merry Like Christmas (1976), Gather Together in My Name (1974), and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969), which was nominated for the National Book Award.

5. Racism: Where does it still exist in the U.S.?

- Racism is not prevalent or acceptable as it once was, but it still exists. There's much more awareness now and better education.

- The Civil Rights Movement ended the Jim Crow Laws and basically made racism illegal.