Gather Together In My Name

The second of Maya Angelou’s autobiographies, ‘Gather Together In My Name’ covers her life between the ages of seventeen and nineteen. Angelou, called Rita in the book, is the example of a single mother’s struggle in a society that is almost repulsed by the very existence of an African-American woman. The book was written three years after and immediately followed the events of her first autobiography ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings’. Maya Angelou has long since been the representation and voice of African-American women in a post-war America, which was essentially a white-male-dominated society.

To give a short summary of the plot, the story revolves around Rita’s life as a young mother and the struggles she faces in locating herself and her identity in a changing world. The shadow of poverty creeps closer to her through the narration as she slides down the social ladder into a life of crime.

The thread of racism has run unbroken through all of Angelou’s works in one form or the other. This book is no different, in terms of her honest depictions of the social realities of such a time in history. There are several instances where the binary of white/black comes uncomfortably close to the surface. For example, a quote from the beginning of the book,

“A Crow gives birth to a Dove. The bird kingdom must be petrified.”

            

         This was said by one of Rita’s classmates, on seeing her infant son. This is in reference to the fact that Rita’s child had a comparatively fair complexion and did not have the distinctive large-lipped mouth marking his African-American heritage. Such a blatant display of the colonial influence is almost shocking to read, moreover because one must keep in mind that this is an autobiography, which allows us to see things as they really were. To assert this point further, the woman saying these words, is also African-American. The illusion of setting what is considered ‘normative’ in a society is one of the primary tools of the coloniser, and this is successful when the colonised begins to accept this norm. We also see how Rita herself is a nonconformist, in that she takes offense at her classmate’s implication that her child has ‘white’ features. Seeing as to how Angelou’s goal from her very first autobiography was “to tell the truth about the lives of black women”, it is apparent that she is successful in doing so.

        The most important element of the book would be its prologue, which highlights the confused state of mind of African-Americans in the post-war period. This quote aptly summarises that feeling:

“There was no need to discuss racial prejudice. Hadn’t we all, black and white, just snatched the remaining Jews from the hell of concentration camps? Race prejudice was dead. A mistake made by a young country. Something to be forgiven as an unpleasant act committed by an intoxicated friend.”

      

       One must keep in mind that African-Americans are, by this time, natives to the land of America. The American way of life does not just belong to the white population, but to them as well. Yet, we see that no member of this community is allowed to live out that American dream as long as they themselves consider their community as the marginalised and the oppressed. The injustice done against the African-American community has far reaching effects, which go much further than the violence of the American Civil War period, or the blatant attitudinal racism that followed this. Maya Angelou’s book marks the period in history, where America transformed its blatant racism to a more subtle form. The book is very much concerned with everything that Rita learnt and how she learnt it. Unsurprisingly, none of this is through the medium of education, but through her experiences from fighting back against the norms set by society.

        

       In conclusion, the second volume of Maya Angelou’s autobiographies illuminates the difficulties in locating the self in a society that one has been forced to adopt as one’s own, while subsequently being suppressed by the same party that forces this society upon the individual.

'Million man March poem' was written by Maya Angelou, is one of her creations which talk about the anguish of the slave days and apartheid and set in 1938 USA. Here the main themes are suffering. Strength, unity and most importantly a revolution- to create a new order of equity.

“The night has been long,
The wound has been deep,
The pit has been dark,
And the walls have been steep.”

These lines have been repeated throughout the poem, to emphasize on the horrors of slavery. Note that here the poet is just remising in the past and has not witnessed it herself. Words like- “night-long, wound deep, pit dark and walls steep”, say that these very conditions have formed what is called identity of the African-Americans. These horrific memories define them. “badge of shame” the  term used by the poet throws light on the identity given to the African-Americans, because traditionally the color black was associated with various negative attributes.

“But today, voices of old spirit sound
Speak to us in words profound,
Across the years, across the centuries,
Across the oceans, and across the seas.
They say, draw near to one another,
Save your race.”

However, what we see here is that, instead of submitting to these unfavorable conditions, instead of accepting the identity and status given to them, the poet urges the African-Americans to rise above and beyond this. She asks them to redefine boundaries and meaning. Moreover she urges  a unified effort to surpass these unprogressive conditions. There is no better way to preserve one's identity accept redefine the various parameters. Care needs to be taken that she is not merely accepting the identity given to the African-Americans, but is emphasizing on an effort to surpass them.

“The hells we have lived through and live through still,
Have sharpened our senses and toughened our will.”

These lines celebrate the present identity formed by the colonial past and say that these very horrifying memories have made them thick skinned and hence now are more equipped to lead the revolution.

“Clap hands, call the spirits back from the ledge,” this line calls upon the African-Americans to use these harsh memories to their advantage and use it to draw strength. Here the memories are personifies as the ancestors.

Attention also needs to be paid to the orientalist assumptions, that underly slavery. The orientlist assumptions worked to legitimate and assert the supremacy of the colonizers. In fact orientalism had become an institution then, where its principles like the orient is strange and uncouth, and the concept race intertwined with colour and these very principles were made to legitimate, buying and selling of these African-Americans, like cattle.

Through the poem we can see the development of a major concept called 'negritude', where attempts are made to redefine 'blackness'. Even here the poet urges the people to rise above these demeaning interpretations and redefine what they are made of. Also that past is also glorified in the sense that it is being here used to draw strength. However, I notice some level of acceptance of the colonial past, but not celebrating it. But I don’t see any acceptance of the identity given to them

Therefore, form the above analysis, the concept called 'empire writes back' is also very clearly explained. Also that Fanons phases of the creation of a cultural identities can be traced in the poem-with unqualified assimilation ie learning the English ways, in this case the language English, to 'turning backwards' towards cultural history and finally reaching the final 'fighting phase' with the people using culture to draw strength to lead the revolution. Therefore the horrifying memories are here being then used to draw strength to surpass these very conditions.

The following is the link of the poem-

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/million-man-march-poem/

“Alone” by Maya Angelou is a poem which brings out the bitter fact that no one on the earth can ever live alone. She says that people always want other people to depend on.

The starts the poem by saying that she is lying alone and thinking of a place for her soul to live, which would also mean that her soul is wandering. Her soul does not want to live in the place where it lives in the present. Soul here could also be he Identity as Maya Angelou is an African American, her identity does not have a place. In the next few lines she talks about water not being thirsty and where bead loaf is not stone. Usually water does not have any feeling but if at all it does, it would never feel thirsty. With this she says that something is seriously wrong with the natural order of things. Because when water can feel thirsty the human soul should have a place to live. When she talks about the bread not being a stone, it might be a reference to the Bible, where Satan attempts to tempt Jesus to turn bread into stones.

Between lines 6 and 10, the poet comes up with something but is not sue if she is right. In spite she confesses that nobody can really make it up alone on this earth. She not only talks about herself but she also talks about the millionaire who have a lot of money but she is trying to find out if they have real happiness in their lives. She says that the wives of the millionaires are running around like banshees meaning to say that they are not fun to be around and their kids sing their own blues. She basically means that the families of the millionaires are isolated and each member of the family leads his/he own life and there is no sense of community among them.

Next she talks about the heart of these millionaires. She does not see their heart as just a piece of a giant muscle but she sees it as something which has feelings and connections. Then she metaphorically states that their heart is like a stone with no sense of feelings. And then she goes back to saying that nobody can ever be alone.

The last but one stanza might mean the suffering of the Africans, like the way they are treated by the English men. It is well known that the Africans were treated as slaves by the English men. She might be referring the gathering of the storm clouds as the arrival of the colonizers and the wind she talks about could be the act of slavery. She says that the race of mankind is suffering and she could hear the moaning of the colonized.

Thought out the poem she constantly says the fact that nobody can survive without depending on others. She has also brought out this fact beautifully through her effective poem.