Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri (1928) as Marguerite Johnson; however she grew up in Stamps, Arkansas where her grandmother ran a general store. Angelou has acted and written several plays, poems, and a six-part autobiography “I Know Why the caged Bird Sings” making her one of this country’s foremost black writers.
In this story Angelou tells about how her grandmother (momma) triumphs over a pack of taunting neighborhood children.I feel very strongly about this particular piece given the time set and the way black people were treated by the whites, and how without harsh words or threats some black people overcame the taunting and cruelties of the whites. Cleanliness is next to godliness her grandmother would always say “and wash as far as possible then wash possible”. My own grandmother to this day tells me the same thing and reminds me to wash behind my ears. You would think after twenty-eight years I would have it down.
It was also drilled in me that being dirty was the root of all evil. Maya was taught to respect others and when speaking to someone you would always address them by their appellation. It only happened a couple times with me but my own mother give me “the look” if I were to not address people by their correct appellation. At the store, one afternoon, momma was humming a hymn from church as Maya had raked the store and yard and cleaned up, it was late in the afternoon after school had let out when some dirty little white girls came walking up.Maya was thinking that she didn’t want her grandmother to wait on these girls, that she would do it this afternoon, but without argument or hesitation when her grandmother asked her to go inside she obeyed.
The girls reached the front porch in front of momma and began to mock her acting like an ape, pooching out there bottom lips, crooking their arms, and hunching their backs.Maya was thinking the whole time where the guns were located in the store and what momma really wanted me to do, when she noticed momma’s knees were no longer bent but seemed locked into place, and she was humming the hymn just the same as she was before the girls had arrived. This is a sad realization of some of the things white people would do to torture and torment blacks. Had that been me standing behind that screen door I’m not so sure I would have been able to control the anger rising in me.It infuriates me when people deliberately do things they know will hurt someone else, but it gives me a since of pride to know there are some people out there that can fight these battles without a single word and come out better for it.
One of the taller older girls whispered something and all the girls moved back from the porch. The girl did a full hand stand, she wasn’t wearing any underpants. The hand stand lasted several seconds too. The girls then in turn said “bye Annie”, and began to leave the yard and head to town. Momma simply stopped her singing and said bye to each of the girls calling them each by name.I feel Maya’s grandmother showed a great deal of courage and valor by not saying or doing anything to the girls while they made a scene in front of her acting the way they did.
While in the store Maya was crying with rage at what had taken place outside; she couldn’t understand how her grandmother could just stand there and then call them miz when they were leaving. Her momma had come inside when the girls had finally left; bent down to calm her only as a mother would do and Maya then recognized that her grandmother was happy.Maya then realized that something had happened outside though she wasn’t quite sure what. Maya then washed her face and grabbed the rake; she raked away the footprints of the girls in the shape of hearts with an arrow going through them. This was a very touching part of the story because without words Maya had comprehended that this fight had been won by momma holding her ground and not allowing the girls to pull her down to their level.
I think we could all benefit from acting like this when someone is really pushing our buttons trying to make us feel a certain kind of way.
