Lynching kept blacks from straying from the white’s social norms, while also forcing them to look down on themselves as an inferior type of person. How a black addresses a white, substantially demonstrates how. A person’s name or how they are acknowledged is a main part of their identity. A black’s expected etiquette in confronting a white person involves formally regarding the person with Mr., Mrs., Miss, sir, or ma’am to show respect, while the white person is allowed to use the blacks first name. Evident in Angelou’s biography, she explains her feeling of helplessness in preventing the humiliation in times when “white children… call her grandmother by her first name [and]… her grandmother address [them]… ‘Miz”’ (32). Her grandma’s composure
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Freeman. Frightened and confused in the courtroom at the situation and questions asked of her, she could not fully convict him for his crimes. As a result, Angelou’s uncle murders Mr. Freeman after his unjust sentence of only being locked up for one night. Angelou, overwhelmed with how much power she had by just saying a name with her voice, became mute for about five years, afraid that if she spoke, someone else would die (Williams 17). She broke her silence when she met a friend of her mothers, Ms. Flowers. Angelou starts picking at the locks of her metaphorical cage when Ms. Flowers threw her into the world of literature, exclusively bringing Angelou completely brand new books from the white schools. Angelou is reminded of the unfairness between blacks and whites as she compares the look of the freshly new books from the white school and the newly repaired books from the black school. In books, Angelou found refuge from her life. It kept her company as she used story plots and characters to relate to her own life. Shakespeare’s works developed Angelou’s “first white love,” (Angelou 11) for him, specifically his Sonnet 29, which spoke to “Maya’s own social and emotional alienation” (Hunter 6). To characterize Ms. Flowers, Angelou describes her “Like women in English novels who walked the moors…with their royal dogs…women who sat in front of roaring fireplaces, drinking tea incessantly from silver trays full of scones and crumpets” (Angelou 95). Mrs. Flowers wasn’t like any black woman young Angelou had ever seen, she was the direct opposite of Angelou’s personality and acted like a gentlewoman. For the first time, Angelou had stated, “It would be safe to say that she made me proud to be Negro, just by being herself” (Angelou 95). This set the turnaround in Angelou’s life as she caught a glimpse of what it means to be herself. With her life back into motion, “Maya achieves the first real sense of
Freeman. Frightened and confused in the courtroom at the situation and questions asked of her, she could not fully convict him for his crimes. As a result, Angelou’s uncle murders Mr. Freeman after his unjust sentence of only being locked up for one night. Angelou, overwhelmed with how much power she had by just saying a name with her voice, became mute for about five years, afraid that if she spoke, someone else would die (Williams 17). She broke her silence when she met a friend of her mothers, Ms. Flowers. Angelou starts picking at the locks of her metaphorical cage when Ms. Flowers threw her into the world of literature, exclusively bringing Angelou completely brand new books from the white schools. Angelou is reminded of the unfairness between blacks and whites as she compares the look of the freshly new books from the white school and the newly repaired books from the black school. In books, Angelou found refuge from her life. It kept her company as she used story plots and characters to relate to her own life. Shakespeare’s works developed Angelou’s “first white love,” (Angelou 11) for him, specifically his Sonnet 29, which spoke to “Maya’s own social and emotional alienation” (Hunter 6). To characterize Ms. Flowers, Angelou describes her “Like women in English novels who walked the moors…with their royal dogs…women who sat in front of roaring fireplaces, drinking tea incessantly from silver trays full of scones and crumpets” (Angelou 95). Mrs. Flowers wasn’t like any black woman young Angelou had ever seen, she was the direct opposite of Angelou’s personality and acted like a gentlewoman. For the first time, Angelou had stated, “It would be safe to say that she made me proud to be Negro, just by being herself” (Angelou 95). This set the turnaround in Angelou’s life as she caught a glimpse of what it means to be herself. With her life back into motion, “Maya achieves the first real sense of