A young person’s life can undergo a multitude of changes within a given time frame, and these changes will ultimately shape the type of person that they will come to be. As a child and adolescent, it is common to go through particular experiences, which guide the course of one’s life. Change can be difficult as it can take a toll or completely alter one’s path of life. After something has undergone a molding, their character will never quite be the same even through meticulous manipulation. Whether the change is futile or effective, the result will somehow advance one’s life in a foreseen or an intended manner. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography of the author’s life up to her seventeenth year. The main character
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Without a doubt, one of the most daunting events in her youth is her sexual assault encounter. When Marguerite is eight years old and living with her mother in St. Louis, her mother’s boyfriend sexually abuses and rapes Marguerite. She then becomes mute for almost five years. This period of change as she copes with this atrocity and becomes mute is credited with providing her brilliance as an author and her strength as a woman. This is the time when she develops her amazing memory and her love for literature. Marguerite explains finding this love when she recounts a woman by the name of Mrs. Flowers giving her “...her secret word which called forth a djinn who was to serve [her] all of [her] life: books” (Angelou 200). Even though the rape robs Marguerite of her childhood and her innocence, this change in her life is effective in that it awards her one of her most prized possessions, one that she might not have encountered if her life had followed a different course of …show more content…
Marguerite consistently finds herself questioning who she is, which ultimately leads her to devalue her worth. “Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle.” With relation to Marguerite’s life, this means that without knowing herself, she is unable to free herself from societal constraints. This identity crisis dissipates once she gives birth to her son. Near the end of the last chapter, she says, “Just as gratefulness was confused in my mind with love, so possession became mixed up with motherhood. I had a baby” (Angelou 288). This point marks the change in her life from true childhood to adulthood. She no longer has to question whether she is a child or a woman because she has found an identity like no other: being a mother. When she finally comes to terms with her pregnancy, her identity is clearly defined. This change enables Marguerite to advance her journey into developing into a woman as she able to define her place in society. Through change, Marguerite successfully overcomes past experiences and develops into a strong young woman. While trying to define her identity, she undergoes a multitude of life altering events, which cultivate her prosperous womanhood. By embracing the changes in her life, be them good or bad, Marguerite is able to enforce her life values as she now recognizes what she is able to overcome. Change triggers progress
Without a doubt, one of the most daunting events in her youth is her sexual assault encounter. When Marguerite is eight years old and living with her mother in St. Louis, her mother’s boyfriend sexually abuses and rapes Marguerite. She then becomes mute for almost five years. This period of change as she copes with this atrocity and becomes mute is credited with providing her brilliance as an author and her strength as a woman. This is the time when she develops her amazing memory and her love for literature. Marguerite explains finding this love when she recounts a woman by the name of Mrs. Flowers giving her “...her secret word which called forth a djinn who was to serve [her] all of [her] life: books” (Angelou 200). Even though the rape robs Marguerite of her childhood and her innocence, this change in her life is effective in that it awards her one of her most prized possessions, one that she might not have encountered if her life had followed a different course of …show more content…
Marguerite consistently finds herself questioning who she is, which ultimately leads her to devalue her worth. “Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle.” With relation to Marguerite’s life, this means that without knowing herself, she is unable to free herself from societal constraints. This identity crisis dissipates once she gives birth to her son. Near the end of the last chapter, she says, “Just as gratefulness was confused in my mind with love, so possession became mixed up with motherhood. I had a baby” (Angelou 288). This point marks the change in her life from true childhood to adulthood. She no longer has to question whether she is a child or a woman because she has found an identity like no other: being a mother. When she finally comes to terms with her pregnancy, her identity is clearly defined. This change enables Marguerite to advance her journey into developing into a woman as she able to define her place in society. Through change, Marguerite successfully overcomes past experiences and develops into a strong young woman. While trying to define her identity, she undergoes a multitude of life altering events, which cultivate her prosperous womanhood. By embracing the changes in her life, be them good or bad, Marguerite is able to enforce her life values as she now recognizes what she is able to overcome. Change triggers progress