If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. In the novel I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, Marguerite Johnson goes from a little southern black girl who wishes to be a a long and blonde haired, light-blue eyed, white girl, to a very mature young adult that is proud of her race. Throughout Marguerites (Mayas) life she goesthrough many difficulties and triumphs. Some of which a person could never imagine of going through. Maya goesfrom being a very shy and strange black girl, to a certain and self-confident young woman. In I Know Why TheCaged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, Marguerite has to deal with prejudice, rape, and also the issues ofabandonment in her course of becoming a mature woman. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings takes place in the 1930s to the 1940s. During this time period Blackswere discriminated against. Being a child in this period, Maya experiences how difficult life is with prejudicepeople. For example, with all the discrimination going on, Maya wishes to be a white girl. She says Wouldnt theybe surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blond, wouldtake the place of the kinky mass that Momma wouldnt let me straighten? My light-blue eyes were going tohypnotize them.....Then they would understand why I had never picked up a Southern accent, or spoke thecommon slang, and why I had to be forced to eat pigs tails and snouts. Because I was really white and because acruel fairy stepmother, who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big Negro girl, withnappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth. She experiences how mean and harsh white people areto the black people. For example, Maya saw her grandmother Momma be insulted by a bunch of powitetrashkids. They were making fun of how she was standing on the front porch and how she w...
