I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Literary Analysis

In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou makes a statement about the power of names often harm or offend people. She shows many examples in the book on how the names were used in offence or to hurt someone. Although they can sometimes be used in a friendly way and can sometimes stick to that person. She showed this with her name from Bailey. Nicknames can also not mean what they say, they mean the opposite of what they’re supposed to mean. To be called any other name but your own because it was a “convenience” to someone else (108) was an absolute insult. When Mrs. Cullinan called Marguerite “Mary”, it offended her to have her name shortened to “Mary”. Yet, when Mr. Freeman called Marguerite “Ritie”, she was perfectly fine with it; or when Bailey called her “Maya”, she was also fine with being called by it. The fact that Marguerite hated working for Mrs. Cullinan might have had something to do with her hating that Mrs. Cullinan shortened her name to “Mary”. She hated Mrs. Cullinan, but she loved Bailey, and, for a while, she also loved Mr. Freeman. Marguerite accepted the nicknames from them, but never once accepted Mrs. Cullinan. Nicknames can also say the opposite of what they mean. For example, when the sheriff came into town to warn Momma, he called the men …show more content…
It might not hurt the person directly, but instead it might affect someone watching. When the powhitetrash girls mocked Momma, then proceeded to call her “Annie”, Momma didn’t show any signs of being upset. After they had mocked Momma and disrespected her, she still called them “Miz” and then their name; that fact made Marguerite so angry. Marguerite thought it was very disrespectful that the powhitetrash had called Momma “Annie”, and she just called them “Miz”. Calling them by “Miz” mean Momma still had respect for the powhitetrash. Marguerite didn’t think they deserved that respect, especially after one of them just showed their