"In those tender mornings the Store was full of laughing, joking, boasting and bragging. One man was going to pick two hundred pounds of cotton, and another three hundred. Even the children were promising to bring home fo'bits and six bits."
I love this quote because it shows how this community of people could turn the awful task of picking cotton for hours on hours into a task with a meaning or a competition almost. They found a good thing out of an awful task. This makes me wonder how ungrateful I can be of enjoyable things. I don't sit and pick cotton for hours on end yet I can still be ungrateful and whiny.
I like how close the community was. No matter the conditions, everyone was close or they knew each other. I guess that's the perks of a small community. Despite the nice people, Maya was still embarrassed. She was embarrassed she wasn't white, and that is a terrible mindset, no matter your race, you should be proud of yourself.
The fact that Maya was uncomfortable with her race makes me wonder what other children thought of theirself. This also makes me wonder how long it took Maya to embrace herself and when she decided to rely on herself more. Everybody has has self-confidence issues, but I think it comes to a point where wanting to be someone else so badly affects everything in your life.
It is completely wrong that Maya Angelou had to grow up in an environment where everyone around her worked their whole life for nothing. I wish she had had better expectations for herself as she grew up. I also wish that the people around her did not implant the idea that only white children and adults had a bright future. I think all the expectations and comparisons put on Maya made her self esteem drop a very large amount.
Wow, I am really impressed and moved by this post, Kayleigh! I most definitely agree that it's sad to think Maya Angelou had a mindset of not having a brighter future that whites, but back then, it was real, and that's how she thought because she knew it could have been a possible reality that her future wouldn't have been bright. My grandmother tells me stories about her parents, grandparents, and sometimes even her picking cotton in fields and for her generation, living during the Great Depression and the Great Migration. Listening to those types of stories breaks my heart, but your post made me more aware than sad about previous realities of blacks and their struggles to survive in a racist country. Good job!
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