As more opportunities are presented to women, they can be more contemplative and reflective in their messages and approaches
Student Margarita T.
As more opportunities are presented to women, they can be more contemplative and reflective in their messages and approaches. In this section of our course, we have readings that show our authors’ connections to relatives and family. In very different ways, they all address how bloodlines live in us and how heredity makes determinations in who we are. Although each author has a different way of presenting their connections to their family members, they were all connected based on their upbringing and reflections of their blood relatives. Each one of these women authors’ addressed statements about their family ties. Throughout these works of literature, there were various themes related to the inevitable traits passed down from parent to offspring.
There is a saying that “blood is thicker than water”. This saying has been around for many many years. It alludes to the relationships and loyalties within a family which are the strongest and most important ones. Maya Angelou presents her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, where she demonstrates how much of an impression her grandmother was for her. Through this excerpt, she demonstrates that she shares the message and theme of strength, passion, and pride. She begins by describing the excruciating pain she has with her cavities. “The pain was beyond the bailiwick of crushed aspirins or oil of cloves” (Gilbert, 927). Although Angelou mentioned her toothache, it was used as a symbol for how strong she is because she did not want to go to the dentist; however, she tried to endure the pain just so she wouldn’t burden her grandmother. Throughout this work of literature, we see how her grandmother’s actions show that she is a strong, passionate, and tenacious woman. Her grandmother “lent money to Blacks and whites alike during the Depression” (Gilbert, 927) and this helped give her leverage in the community. The grandmother realizes she is a colored woman, but that they are still well-mannered and sanitary. For example, she says “when you go to a doctor you have to clean yourself all over, but most especially the part that’s to be examined” (Gilbert, 927); however, the white dentist says “Annie, my policy is I’d rather stick my hand in a dog’s mouth than in a nigger’s” (Gilbert, 929). This is the pivotal moment where Annie marches in the office and defends her honor as well as the others she represents. Consequently, Angelou reverts to the family traits passed down to future generations by stating “I was so proud of being her granddaughter and sure that some of her magic must have come down to me” (Gilbert, 930).
Similarly, in Elizabeth Bishop’s, “In the Waiting Room,” we see how a young girl becomes influenced by her blood relative- her Aunt Consuelo. Although Bishop did reflect in the poem, she did have very different opinions. The little girl in the poem more likely relates to the dentist in Angelou’s autobiography. “black, naked women with necks, wound round and round with wire…their breasts were horrifying” (Gilbert, 615). It is not that Bishop was racist as a little girl, but she was raised a certain way. We can assume she was sheltered from the world and that is why she could not relate to these photos in the National Geographic and therefore fears the fact that she lacks so much insight into one’s identity. Again in Bishop’s poem, she touches on the fact that she has become like her aunt because they have the same blood coursing through their veins. She states, “I knew she was a foolish, timid woman. I might have been embarrassed, but wasn’t. What took me completely by surprise was that it was me: my voice, in my mouth. Without thinking at all, I was my foolish aunt” (Gilbert, 615). Although Bishop realized that she had some traits passed down from a relative, like Angelou and her grandmother; however, her opinion of her relative was extremely opposite from how Angelou felt toward her relative. Bishop was conflicted over being like everyone else; “But I felt: you are an I, you are an Elizabeth, you are one of them. Why should you be one, too?” (Gilbert, 616). She even at seven years old wanted to be an individual, not influenced by others, yet in Angelou’s, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she only ever aspired to be like his grandmother.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. 3rd ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton, 2007.
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