Uncle Willie By Maya Angelou Analysis

The chapter starts with Maya describing how she and Bailey were learning the times tables with the speed of Chinese children on their abacuses in San Francisco and how Uncle Willie, a cripple after an accident in his early childhood, is their disciplinarian that forces them to perfect their homework for fear of the stove. They would learn information by heart, like time tables, without understanding the significance because they had no alternative. Later on, we see how Willie was the “butt of jokes” in the community partly because he was handicap but also because he had a stable life with his mother supporting him while the other black men could barely support themselves although they would work very hard. One day as Maya returns from school, …show more content…
This emotional phrase perfectly describes Willies condition, he is not waking up, running or jumping out of his dream but climbing. We sense his tiredness of being cripple and that for him being healthy and on his feet is a dream and a reality he can only fake. His dream is to be like the other strong men that support they families and he is climbing out of it towards his handicap situation. Maya continues and says “He must have tired of being crippled, as prisoners tire of penitentiary bars and the guilty tire of blame.” Here Maya uses simile for comparing Uncle Willie and the prisoner behind the penitentiary bars. Penitentiary bars hold humans from living life like the rest of us, holds them away from their dreams and hopes. Keeps them away from social interaction or advancing in life since they is nothing you can do that can improve your life. Prisoners behind the bars, talk with themselves and those protecting them, the guards, and after years in prison they get tired of seeing the same image again and again, seeing life pass behind the bars and seeing themselves falling behind. For Uncle Willie, the penitentiary bars were his uncontrollable muscles and thick tongue and the looks he …show more content…
Freeman was the rapist she was taken in the hospital. I the hospital she uses an exaggeration “I would have liked to stay in the hospital the rest of my life”, this phrase expresses that the guilt, shame and pain make her want to stay isolated under constant supervision. This use of sensory imagery although it doesn't provide an image it make the reader feel Mayas pain and loss of childhood. After the rape, Maya is not a child anymore since she doesn't want to play or have fun. When she is later taken in court, she realizes that St. Louis has become an unfamiliar and unwelcoming place for her “the coat was a friend that I hugged to me in the strange and unfriendly place.” The coat could symbolize the affection of a person hugging her and caring about her in unfriendly place. Later on she describes herself as “I was as gutless as the doll I had ripped to pieces ages ago.” Dolls are games for children to play with that can be controlled without being asked. She feels like a doll, moved to St. Louis without being asked, doing things she never wanted to and was ripped apart as easily as a