Maya Angelou and Her Traumatic Experience

Maya Angelou, book “I know why the caged bird sings captures the life experiences she went through from the age of three to seventeen years. She faces many struggles after her parents abandon her. Maya and his brother Bailey are taken to Stamps in Arkansas to stay with their paternal grandmother and their uncle Willie who is a cripple. They are disturbed by their parent’s abandonment and feel betrayed. Maya encounters many problems that make her traumatized. The book is a recap of traumatized ordeals that Maya went through. Racism, segregation and rape are the major traumatic experiences that Maya goes through as a black person in a white dominated world.

Maya’s work is a clear indication of how the society discriminated and segregated on the blacks. This is one of the historical injustices that the blacks had to go through in the areas that they lived. When Maya and Bailey are left on their own by their parents, they face segregation from the white colleagues due to the color of their skin (Angelou 24). Maya is traumatized as she feels that her skin color and her face is not beautiful. This therefore makes her to belittle herself. As a child, she is tormented and ridiculed by other that she does not measure up to the white genteel. She therefore views herself as ugly and feels that she is not like her black colleagues.

In her childhood, Maya experiences segregation as the whites have segregated the black people living in Stamps. Black majority inhabits the area. The area is secluded to an extend of a child such as Maya believing that whites do not exists, “I remember never believing that whites were really real.” (Angelou 25). As Maya grow into adulthood, she is frequently entangled in incidents of racism and segregation. One of the experiences that negatively affect Maya is when her address while at 8^th grade is condescended by a white speaker. This makes Maya, unhappy causing her feel bad and she cries. Furthermore, at the age of 10 while working for white women, she encounters racism, the woman calls her Mary instead of Mary “Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasn’t Mary.” (Angelou 108). This offends Maya who eventually breaks her fin china. Another demonstration where Maya faced trauma due to her race is during her 8^th graduation when a white speaker said that black students were expected to become good servants and athletes. This kind of demeaning makes Maya feel bad and traumatized. The treatments she is subjected makes her feel empty and secluded from the larger society as such treatments constitute to traumatic experience. This treatment is uncalled as it is outrageous.

Mayo furthermore, experiences rife racism when her tooth rots and therefore requires to be removed. It traumatizes her when on visiting a white doctor she is turned away. The doctors tell her that she would insert his hand in the mouth of a dog rather than that of Maya, “my policy I’d rather stick my hand in a dog’s mouth than in a nigger’s.” (Angelou 184). Therefore, they leave without having attended to. The ordeal is traumatizing, when people see others as not deserving equal treatments like others. Therefore, this scenario also contributes to Mayo’s trauma.

Another experience that demonstrates trauma is when she runs away from her family in San Francisco after a fight ensued between her and her fathers girl-friend-Dolores. The cut she endures makes her vacate the place to a safer place. She runs and lives for a duration of a month with homeless teenager on streets. They have to undergo difficult life, as she has no one to take care of her. At an age of only 15 years, it is difficult for her to cater for herself. When life becomes hard, she had to defy racist hiring polices of San Francisco as she manages to get a job as a street conductor.

Furthermore, when she gets involved in dancing as away of earning a living, she gets pregnancy. This is trying times for her because of her pregnancy she is traumatized by the consequences and the repercussions. Her parents may not like the pregnancy and therefore, to ensure that they do not realize hides the pregnancy until the eighth month. This demonstrated psychological unrest and trauma, as she could not be at peace with her conscience during her pregnancy period.

Rape in this book demonstrates a traumatic episode. Many people especially women are psychologically affected when they are raped. Society as well is against this unruly behavior and therefore it is shunned away. Maya demonstrates how she was raped by her mothers boyfriend called Freeman. Maya is molested and eventually murdered by Mr. Freeman. Maya is psychologically affected from the consequences of the acts done on her. She had to put up with the shame and guilt of having been sexually assaulted/ abused. To make the matter worse, Freeman is convicted in the court and is violently murdered for raping her. This, murder affects Maya psychologically too. She is not at peace as she frequently thinks and believes that she is the one who bears the responsibility of Freeman death. Had she not been raped the Man would not have been murdered. The feeling of causing someone to die lingers in her mind despite her being raped and assaulted by the same man.

The trauma is further demonstrated when she feels that she is acting as the mouthpiece of the devil, she remains silent and only speaks to her brother Bailey. The silent is a sign of how traumatized the episodes; rape and murder of Freeman had on her conscience. It is not normal and right for a person to keep silent for that duration. This indicates the emotional and psychological disturbances she was going through.

The trauma that Maya goes through, to higher length has assisted her in her entire life. As a child, she defied all odds, faced with segregation, racism and social injustices such as rape, she manages to light up the mantle by achieving her dreams. The traumatic experiences helped her to personally experience on different variables that affects people’s minds/psychology. As a people, we are faced with a lot of challenges that require careful solutions. She goes through very hard life, her parents divorce leaving her in the hands of her paternal grandparents, she is segregate and ridiculed by other children, she is also denied medical attention and most awful experience is when she is raped with her mothers boy friend. These experiences are not only disheartening but are also unwanted. Despite these sufferings and traumatic experiences, Mayo manages to beat all odds of the time and manages to study and acquire different degrees and honors/awards. Her trauma life has also helped in creating awareness and informing the society on such vices as racism, rape, family values and other important social attributes that they need to uphold. This has been evidenced through the book and her other writings.

Writing has also assisted Mayo in writing her own experiences especially on trauma. The fact that she herself went through the traumatic episodes provides a tangible evident on the harsh realities that our society sometimes tends to run away. It is no doubt, that society was torn apart on the basis of race, and color of skin. Mayo try to link how our social inclination or behaviors contribute to or rather affects others psychological disposition.

Writing also played a crucial role in helping to quench the trauma that Mayo faced. For instance, when she is raped and her rapist is murdered she keeps silent for nearly six years only speaking to her brother. However, when she is introduced to Mrs. Bertha Flower and elite woman tells her to read, literature works aloud; she gives Mayo poetry books, which helps her in regaining her voice as a woman. Through reading and writing, Mayo decided to use this method to reach out to many people who are facing traumatic experiences she herself went through. Therefore, through writing, people who are faced with trauma can learn how to manage trauma, how to deal or how to avoid traumatic situations. For instance, racial discrimination among the society is negative thing that can be addressed through writing. People/society can change if they get exposed to writing materials that denounce such practices. Mayo deals with trauma in her point of view, she gives her personal experience, and how she managed to deal with different challenges that came her way.

In conclusion, Mayo book has concisely provided an overlook of trauma. The mind of an individual is affected through the things that they get exposed to and may cause psychological problems. She uses writing as her channel of teaching the society on trauma. This book is important in educating and creating awareness in the society on the issues of trauma. Therefore, I have no reservation that Mayo has touched many lives through her writing.

Work Cited

Angelou, Maya. I know why the caged bird sings. New York: Random House.1969.