Chattahoochee River
Monday, March 16, 2015
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Section 2
In chapters 10-18, it stood out to me the most how Maya was greatly affected by being molested by her mother's boyfriend Mr. Freeman while living with them in St. Louis. It was easy for him to take advantage of her because she lacked the love and care that most children received from their parents growing up so she equated his inappropriate behavior as him loving her. It was disturbing to read because she had such a child-like point of view and it shows the complete violation of her innocence. After the case and Mr. Freeman's "unexpected" death, Angelou decides to remain silent because she feels that anyone she speaks to will ultimately die too. She blamed herself for everything and was made to feel that she did something wrong by Mr. Freeman. This was just a sad section to read because I saw her transition from being a worry free child to literally carrying all of the weight in her world on her shoulders.
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I agree that this section of chapters was hard to read because of the dark unexpected turn of events in her life. I empathized with Marguerite the most when she felt trapped by Mr. Freeman's threats of killing Bailey if she told anyone about what he had done to her. The one person in her life that she told everything to and the person she cared most about, was put in danger because of her, and that was heartbreaking to me.
ReplyDeleteI remembered reading this book when I was sophomore, and this was the one section of the book that will probably stick with me every time that the title is mentioned. It was something that I had never had to think about until I was looking at it from her perspective as a girl. In the Road, the young boy is also a sort of victim of the crimes of other people, and goes through experiences that would carry with him forever. Seeing this type of adversity in young children leads us to see if they are able to over come them as they grow and develop.
ReplyDeleteI think that because this sick gross part of her life happened her future can either take two paths. The one she's on about shutting people out so they will not die because she believes it's her fault or to grow into an adult and use this terrible time in her life as a step to help change other people's lives and make a negative time period into a postive outcome.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this book several years ago, and as Kayla said, this is literally the first part of the book that I recall when I hear the title. Being so young and defenseless, there really was much that Maya could do to protect herself. As I recall this scenario in the book, I can't help but compare it to the situation that Pi experiences in my own group novel, the Life of Pi. Whereas Maya has been abandoned emotionally by her apathetic mother, Pi has been physically abandoned, as he is the sole human survivor of a shipwreck. Though the situations that our main characters experience may not be identical, I believe the fear and confusion that each undergoes is very much comparable. I think the worst part of all of this, is the adolescence of each of the characters. Going through either of these situations would be difficult regardless, but the fact that Maya and Pi are both so young, which we typically associate with innocence and helplessness, makes their situations seem that much worse.
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