Caged Bird Sings Adversities

Do you think different adversities are solved differently? Are there any correlations between different adversities? Is there a way to overcome one’s adversities? Well in the book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, the main character has the capability to solve her most important ones. The main character, Maya Angelou, experiences the wrath of racism while living in the south during the 20th century. Racism is the stem of many adversities such as low-self esteem and poverty which Angelou must face. Angelou, angered by the fact that white people can get away with things because they are white,“wanted to throw a handful of black pepper in their faces, to throw lye on them, to scream that they were dirty, scummy peckerwoods, but [she] knew [she] was as …show more content…
The word “imprisoned” means unable to get out, and held back; which indicates that Angelou remains trapped in the situation of being a black, young, female living in white dominated time. She is having to face the world in a triple-crossfire that limits her succession at all odds. And that white people, no matter their status or their wealth, will always be heads above the black ethnic race. This bears down to Angelou massively as she knows that this situation is irreversible. The feeling of not being able to do anything completely demoralizes her as her self esteem widdles down. Low-self esteem is only one effect of the adversity racism, another predicament that stems from racism is poverty. Angelou appears baffled by the discrepancy of the value for money: “I couldn’t understand whites and where they got the right to spend money so lavishly. Of course, I knew God was white too”(...). The diction choice of “right” implies that white people have an entitlement to spend money lavishly, as if it was a law that allowed them to. The kind of power that white people holds is the reason why Angelou associates them with having an immense amount of money, and that they have