“Then I wished that Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner had killed all whitefolks in their beds and that Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and that Harriet Tubman had been killed by that blow on her head and Christopher Columbus had drowned in the Santa Maria. It was awful to be a Negro and have no control over life ( Angelou 180). This quote is probably my most favorite quote in the book I love the way the author uses allusion to describe how much she hated being black and not having any control over her life, life and the people in life controlled her. I loved the way she wrote her allusion in a humorous but also understanding way . I think she did so that the readers could understand how she anger she felt and it also let the reader see the childish point of view that she was trying to portray. I think that it’s hard for people to express the problems they have with themselves and the negatives about who they are through the past and I thought she did a really good job with that. I just love the quote goes from bad to worse. When I was reading I was like woah did you hate being black at a young age this much that you had to throw shade at history was the experience this bad?If it had been me I probably would’ve asked God why he made me black instead of white and why the color of my skin defined who I was? Maya Angelou does a great job of expressing her emotions in this book through words and not actions and you can definitely see that in this quote how she is able to express her anger by wishing that history for African Americans had been different.
I found that fascinating about Maya Angelou too! I thought it was sad how uncomfortable in her own skin she was. I thought it was interesting that she wanted to be a white girl. I understand that she didn't want to be discriminated, but she just thought she was ugly. That's a horrible self image to have as your growing up, and makes it harder to love yourself as you get older.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the book but from the quote and what you said I can see that Maya Angelou had it hard. I know even as a privileged person who is part of a majority that I personally have wanted to be something or someone different so the urge for her must have been so much stronger. I agree that it must be hard for authors to write about bad choices they've made because no one wants to make their mistakes or misconceptions public. We are all scared that if people know about everything we've done, thought and been through they will look at us funny.
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