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ANGELOU, MAYA. "GRADUATION IN STAMPS."
Term Paper ID:21190
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Essay Subject:
Life, career & analysis of essay from [I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings].... More...
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6 Pages / 1350 Words
6 sources, 12 Citations,
MLA Format
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Paper Abstract:
Life, career & analysis of essay from [I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings].
Paper Introduction:
Maya Angelou's short essay "Graduation in Stamps" is a portion of her autobiographical work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This particular section tells of he graduation from the eighth grade in Stamps, Arkansas. Her recollection of that day is the recollection of a girl who began the day with high hopes, ready for the most wonderful experience of her life, and ended it in some bitterness as she encountered the ingrained racism and sexism of her day.
Maya Angelou's given name is Marguerita, and she was born in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended public schools in Arkansas and California. She also studied music; dance with Martha Graham, Pearl Primus, and Ann Halprin; and drama with Frank Silvera and Gene Frankel. She has had a career as author, poet, professional stage and screen performer, and singer (Bowden
Text of the Paper:
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Critics recognized both thepower of the story, the reality of the people, and the vitality of theauthor's ability to shape her story through language: The story of Maya and her brother Bailey is horrifying and painful to read; yet the strong and sensitive young woman who endures and overcomes is fascinating. Angelou has drawn on a real experience to characterize theblack experience in America in a few paragraphs. She attended public schools in Arkansas andCalifornia. "Graduation in Stamps" begins with the excitement of graduation day,a day the narrator has looked forward to, worked for, and sweated over justas has every other student in the town: The children in Stamps trembled visibly with anticipation. She grew up in poverty in Arkansas andthen went on to a productive and multiple career. The girlimmersed herself in books and in the power of language as it is spoken,written, and sung. She also wrote ten one-hour televisionprograms under the title "Blacks, Blues, Black" for National EducationalTelevision in 1968, followed by "Assignment America," six one-half-hourprograms in 1975 and two African-American specials--"The Legacy" and "TheInheritors" in 1976. She also studied music; dance with Martha Graham, PearlPrimus, and Ann Halprin; and drama with Frank Silvera and Gene Frankel.She has had a career as author, poet, professional stage and screenperformer, and singer (Bowden 28). We should all be dead, I thought I should like to see us all dead, one on top of the other (Angelou 153).Mr. Donleavy is a politician seeking votes by promising the only pavedplaying field for colored children in that part of Arkansas. Her mother worked variously as a card dealer, boardinghouseproprietor, and registered nurse. She sees the onus this places on thosearound her: Their future rode heavily on their shoulders and blinded them to the collective joy that had pervaded the lives of the boys and girls in the grammar school graduating class (Angelou 143- 144).The event is important, and to prove it, Whitefolks would attend the ceremony, and two or three would speak of God and home, and the Southern way of life. She was given thenickname Maya by her older brother. She maintained her silence for five years, even after she and herbrother were sent back to Stamps to live with their grandmother. Her father was a doorman and a navaldietician. Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was her firstautobiographical book and was very well received in 197 when it waspublished. She showed an early fondness for the Bible and for suchblack poets as Langston Hughes, Lawrence Dunbar, and James Weldon Johnson.She also developed a love for Shakespeare, Poe, Dickens, and MatthewArnold. The result for Maya is that this important day losesits importance and leaves the child feeling abandoned once more, this timeby society and by all that she has been taught: It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. The crime was discovered, and the child was forced totestify. This particularsection tells of he graduation from the eighth grade in Stamps, Arkansas.Her recollection of that day is the recollection of a girl who began theday with high hopes, ready for the most wonderful experience of her life,and ended it in some bitterness as she encountered the ingrained racism andsexism of her day. "The Song of a Caged Bird: Maya Angelou's Quest after Self-Acceptance." The Southern Humanities Review (Fall 1973), 365- 375.----------------------- 6 A few days later, the assailant was found beaten to death in analley, probably beaten by some of Maya's uncles. This excitement continues until the middle of the ceremony as theband fails to play the anticipated Negro National Anthem, and the girlbegins to believe something is about to happen that will make them all lookbad. She had earlier written a musical revue called "Cabaret forFreedom" with Godfrey Cambridge in 196 , which was produced at the VillageGate Theater in New York; "The Least of These," a two-act drama produced inLos Angeles in 1966; an adaptation of Sophocles "Ajax," produced in LosAngeles at the Mark Taper Forum in 1974; "And Still I Rise," a one-actmusical produced in Oakland at the Ensemble Theatre in 1976; and severalunproduced theatrical works. (Angelou 144). Detroit: Gale, 1977.Gross, R.A. All that is necessary is to see a graduation like this one in which theyoung are brutalized by a racist white politician pretending to do a favorwhen in fact he is taking away all hope for an entire generation in oneafternoon. She would later say that her self-imposed silencehad given her the power to listen more intently and to remember everyinflection and every nuance of what she heard (Current Biography 8). "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Library Journal (March 15, 197 ), 1 18.Smith, Sidonie Ann. In the story of this one girl, readers found what Angelou herselfclearly found--evidence of the larger black experience, expressed in herown specific life but extended by her in the book to blacks everywhere inAmerica. She recorded an album of songs, "Miss Calypso," in1957, and another album was released in 1969 consisting of "The Poetry ofMaya Angelou." After her first book, she published more autobiographicalworks--Gather Together in My Name in 1974--and books of poetry--Just GiveMe a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diie in 1971 and several since then(Bowden 28). (ed.). New York: Bantam Books, 197 ."Angelou, Maya." Current Biography (February 1994), 7-11.Bowden, J.A. The black community of Stamps is itself caged in the social reality of racial subordination and impotence. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings received good reviews and sold well.The book is, as noted, autobiographical, telling of Angelou's childhood andher relationship with her brother, Bailey. The family moved to Long Beach,California, soon after Maya was born, but when the marriage dissolved, Mayaand her brother were sent to live with their maternal grandmother, whoowned and managed a general store in the small town of Stamps, Arkansas.When Maya was seven, she and her brother went to live with their mother inSt, Louis, and a few months after their arrival, Maya was raped by hermother's boyfriend. Both attended the "black" school in town, the LafayetteCounty Training School, which unlike the "white" school has "neither lawn,nor hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy" (Angelou 143). She is seen in the book traveling away from her parents, with astrong sense of rejection even as she travels to the new experience of ahome with her grandmother: The aura of personal displacement is counterpointed by the ambience of displacement within the larger black community. The girlseems at this point to accept the usual path for young black children inthis town--all attend this black training school, then only a few go on tocollege, with college being one of the agricultural and mechanical schoolsof the South that trained blacks to be carpenters, farmers, masons, maids,cooks, handymen, and baby nurses. He tells the assembled studentshow wonderful things will be for them in the future, but what Maya sees isthat the choices of black people are limited, and their options are beingset forth in contrast to those of white students: The white kinds were going to have a change to become Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gauguins, and our boys (the girls weren't even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises (Angelou 151).The effect on the students is strong--Maya feels as if bricks have beendropped on her stomach, and she sees others using their handkerchiefs tohide their feelings. The cotton pickers must face an empty bag every morning, an empty will every night, knowing all along that the season would end as it had begun-- money-less, credit-less (Smith 369). . She graduated from the eighth grade in 194 , by which time she hadstarted to speak again. What that proves to be is the arrival of the white speaker, Mr.Edward Donleavy, who speaks in a condescending manner so much a part of hisworldview that he may not even know it. This short piece tells much about the history of black people inAmerica and about the source of black frustration, anger, and bitterness.It is not necessary to look to overt racial acts such as attacks on blacks. Works CitedAngelou, Maya. Louis, Missouri. Contemporary Authors. Maya Angelou's short essay "Graduation in Stamps" is a portion of herautobiographical work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou's given name is Marguerita, and she was born in 1928 inSt. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Newsweek (March 2, 197 ), 9 .Guiney, E.M. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense. . Some adults were excited too, but to be certain the whole young population had come down with graduation epidemic (Angelou 142).The girl is following in the footsteps of her brother, who graduated a yearor so before. Angelou is a skillful writer; her language ranges from beautifully lyrical prose to earthy metaphor, and her descriptions have power and sensitivity (Guiney 1 18).Another reviewer refers to her ability to convey "the diminished sense ofherself that pervaded much of her childhood" (Gross, 9 ). The girl was shocked bythe perception that there was a connection between her words at the trialand the death of a man, and so Maya decided to stop speaking in public(Current Biography 8).
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