It appears Maya Angelou could answer the timeless question what does it mean to be a women?” She shows her confidence and pride in her identity as a women in the poem “Phenomenal Woman” that I found on the internet. She says,
It 's in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I 'm a woman. Phenomenally, . Phenomenal woman, That 's me. (Angelou)
There are many literary works, like the one above by Angelou,
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One’s pretty lively when ruined,” said she. (Lines17-20) This women seemed to be a women because she was loved. Now for an example of loving others, in the fiction story by Toni Cade Bambara called “My Man Bovanne,” giving purpose. In this story the main character, Miss Hazel is a good example of a woman. She is not always loved by her children. They are disrespectful to her at times. Her children in this story were also being disrespectful to the older blind man named Bovanne by ignoring him. She noticed and had been dancing with in a risqué way, trying to be loving towards him. The main character says, “I don’t answer because I know I’ll cry. Terrible thing to have your children talk to you like that.”(Bambara, 97) One of her children had said she was acting “like a bitch in heat.”(Bambara, 97) Instead her children’s comments stop her, she is not ashamed of her actions. She takes Bovanne home with her. Miss Hazel has a renewed purpose of loving others, even though her ways might be more controversial than others ways. It says in the story she says, “you got to take care of the old folks.”(Bambara, 98) The McNair Scholars Journal, a periodical, it says “Love and attraction appear to be universal emotions.” (Braxton-Davis, 12) It is likely Miss Hazel’s character was trying to speak the “universal language” and not trying to be controversial at all. She was an example of being a women by …show more content…
Granny Weatherall was a women who was jilted. Her character knows quite a bit about both rejection and love. It appears that even in rejection, this women still became a women by being loving and being loved. She still holds on to those bad times as well as the good. Evidence of that in the story is that she has letters, “All of those letters- George’s and John’s letters and her letters to them both.”(Porter, 265) Granny seems to be bitter about somethings, but not about the life and love she had with her husband. Granny says, “I wouldn’t exchange my husband for anybody except St. Micheal himself.” (Porter, 210) Though not ready for death, “I’m not going, Cornelia. I’m taken by surprise,” (Porter, 270) she seems to have a purpose brought by love even in death. She had a loved one that she wanted to go see. “Granny made the long journey outward, looking for Hapsy.”(Porter, 270) Her loving, though full of loss, seems a prime example of what it means to be a
...d to go through, and the obstacles that came in her way, which she took head on, without having any other option. She describes herself as once being "a young woman with the peaked Spanish comb in her hair and the painted fan". Granny Weatherall was changed from this young woman to a different young woman, a stronger, innocent, young woman, the day her groom, George left her at the altar. At the same time, we learn that she did move on with her life after some time.
In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” the story is read in a lighter fashion. It involves the main character, Granny Weatherall, and her triumph through time and love. Granny fights for love and strength for her kids, despite being “jilted” by George at the alter and the issues and pains that come with that memory. Although Granny married, and had children, she never seemed to live up to the fact of her being “jilted” by George. Death is an idea that both stories start, and end with.
"Angelou, Maya (née Marguerite Annie Johnson)." Encyclopedia of African-american Writing. Amenia: Grey House Publishing, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 12 March 2014.
The ambiguities in Katherine Ann Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" have provided fertile ground for widely different interpretations (B. Laman). I agree with Laman's viewpoint of this novel, which states that Granny did actually receive a sign from God, just not exactly what she had intended. However, I also agree with Hoefel's feminist interpretation, stating that Granny's character was formed by the diminutive treatment of men in her life.
The reader can visualize the opposing settings. The grandmother’s character is revealed in line 6 by the humming, “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” combined with the setting implies that the grandmother is a religious person that appreciates the calm country life. When the grandmother stops humming the granddaughter states in line 12 -15, “I could feel the soft gray of her stare against the side of my face when she asked, How’s school a-goin?”. The granddaughter, narrator, starts revealing her inner thoughts to the reader. There is a close relationship between the grandmother and the granddaughter as evident in line 20, “She reached the leather of her hand over the bowl and cupped my quivering chin…(Meyer pg. 324) The caring touch reveals the grandmother’s concern for her granddaughter’s well being, even the lyric of her humming suggests that Jesus will listen to ones deepest worries and fears. The granddaughter’s life lessons learned at the northern college are referenced in Line 19 as very strong like “..a swig of strychnine (Meyer pg. 324)”. In line 31, her “…friends wore noserings and wrote poetry about sex, about alcoholism, about Buddha (Meyer
What makes a phenomenal woman? A phenomenal woman she was, Mrs. Maya Angelou truly inspired and touched people all over the world with her art and wisdom. On April 24, 1928 in St. Louis Missouri Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Ann Johnson, I know what your thinking how did she get her glorious name Maya Angelou; well she was given the name Maya Angelou in her early twenties, after her first performance as a dancer at the Purple Onion cabaret. Growing up Angelou had stable parents her mother was Vivian Johnson a nurse and realtor, her father was Bailey Johnson and he served as a naval dietician. In about 1931 her parents relationship would resort to a divorce leaving her younger brother and she to live with their grandmother in Stamps in
She is worried that the unstoppable persona she has presented to her children will be demolished if they find those letters. This is further proven in the short story when she scorns her daughter, Cornelia, for “thinking she was dumb, deaf, and blind” (454) after she overhears Cornelia telling her husband that Granny Weatherall was acting like a child and they would have to humor her for the time being. She is already beginning to live out her nightmare. Cornelia, Granny’s least favorite child, pities and tries to humor her. It is only logical for someone with as much pride as Granny to try to control the situation. To elaborate, Granny Weatherall is also a control freak. She beats every threat that comes her way into silence and throws it to the farthest corners of her mind. For example, when faced with the thought of her demise, she rationalizes, “thank God there was always a little margin over for peace: then a person could spread out the plan of life and tuck in the edges orderly” (453). Though on her deathbed, she assumes she cannot die because she is not prepared for death. Metaphorically, she is telling God that she is in control of her fate. Therefore, she believes she
‘Cornelia tell Hapsy to take off her cap. I can’t see her plain’” (Porter 780). While it is alluded that Hapsy died in childbirth, Granny Weatherall seems to believe that she is still alive and with her, at one point she even thinks Hapsy is giving birth. This hard to follow writing technique is purposely used in order to demonstrate Granny’s loss of faith in a moral center, in other words the squandering of her ontological ground. Prior to her death Porter makes very clear Granny’s tendency to stay organized and and tidy. In the following passage Porter describes Granny’s thinking on organization of the household, "Thank God there was always a little margin for peace: then a person could spread out the plan of life and tuck in the edges orderly” (Porter 777). This is significant because it serves to show that Granny wishes to have the same control over her life as she does in her household. She prides herself on being a strong, matriarchal figure capable of performing feminine and masculine tasks in the absence of her husband. Throughout the story whenever Granny's sense of control over her life or her independence is threatened, she become
In the short story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” Author Katherine Anne Porter describes the inside thoughts, feelings, and specific memory that goes on within Granny. Granny Weatherall’s life was filled with loss, but she overcame it. The main character responds to the loss she dealt with by persevering through it. Granny dealt with multiple life altering experiences that stood by her throughout her entire life. With these experiences, it molded her into the strong woman that she became.
The family doctor, their priest, and the Weatherall family all gather around Granny Weatherall on her death bed, but for the majority of this time, she does not realize that she is dying, and believes that they are all making a fuss over nothing. Granny Weatherall is very annoyed by the attention, and almost always has a catty remark to her family’s concern, such as when she says to her doctor, “You look like a saint, Doctor Harry, and I vow that’s as near as you’ll ever come to it”(Porter, 265). While Granny Weatherall had a family that was very attentive to her, it seems as though the grandmother from “A Good Man is Hard to Find” had a family that was mainly annoyed by her presence. Not much is known about the grandmother’s past, but is seems as though her son tries not to be annoyed by her, but just cannot stop himself, and it is very clear that her grandchildren are very annoyed by her. She is found annoying by her family,
The Grandmother is a bit of a traditionalist, and like a few of O’Connor’s characters is still living in “the old days” with outdated morals and beliefs, she truly believes the way she thinks and the things she says and does is the right and only way, when in reality that was not the case. She tends to make herself believe she is doing the right thing and being a good person when in actuality it can be quite the opposite. David Allen Cook says in hi...
"I had decided that St. Louis was a foreign country. In my mind I had only stayed there for a few weeks. As quickly as I understood that I had not reached my home, I sneaked away to Robin's Hood's Forest and the caves of Alley Oop where all reality was unreal and even that changed my day. I carried the same shield that I had used in Stamps: 'I didn't come to stay.'"
In her bedroom, Granny is literally confined to her deathbed, revealing to the reader that death is approaching. Granny speaks of a longer life from the place her life will end, emphasizing that death could come at any moment. As her mind starts deteriorating, she begins confusing the past with the present. At one time, she remembers having to dig hundreds of postholes after her husband’s death, and enlightens the reader with the fact that “digging post holes changes a woman;” (Porter 85). The change from a genteel lift to one of harsh labor representing another type of death. She worked hard for years, foreshadowing the time she will no longer need to work. Consequently, since she familiarized herself with hard work, accepting that her death is effortless is very difficult for Mrs. Weatherall. In the end, nighttime draws near, and Porter uses the time of day to symbolize mortality; the end of day is not only passing so is Granny’s life. Similar to the candle beside her bed, Granny draws her last breath to blow out light of her own life. Just as day has its end, so does every
Maya Angelou, known for six amazing autobiographies giving her a title of being one of the world's greatest writers. Not only was she a writer, but she's also known of a singer, actress, and civil rights activist. Following Angelou's great accomplishments of the autobiographies, displayed her personal expedition of survival, growth and self-determination as an African-American woman. Maya experienced discrimination and felt disrespected by the way society looked at people like her. Her determination and hunger to change the way the world views African Americans drove her to focus on topics such as motherhood, racism, and being proud of her melanin. She was extremely proud of herself and wanted the world to see it. Never afraid of speaking in public and voicing her opinion, she felt she was speaking out for others that were the victims of discrimination. Which is why she began putting her foot down and taking action, not with violence, but with knowledge and intelligence. Fighting for women to have the same rights as men and not being afraid to do so is what made Maya Angelou the woman she is today, and made African American woman have a voice in the future generations.
It is said that when we look in the mirror, we see our reflection; but what is it that we really see? Some people look through the glass and see a totally different person. All across the world identity is an issue that many women have. Woman today must be skinny, tall, thick, fair skinned and have long hair in order to be considered beautiful. Maya Angelou feels otherwise, as she gives women another way to look at themselves through her poem "Phenomenal Woman".