Quest for Self-Determination in I Know Why The Caged Bird...

Quest for Self-Determination in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Lakota Woman During their growing up years, children struggle to find their personal place in society. It is difficult for children to find their place when they are given numerous advantages, but when a child is oppressed by their parents or grandparents, males in their life, and the dominant culture, the road to achieving self-identity is fraught with enormous obstacles to overcome. Maya Angelous I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Mary Crow Dogs Lakota Woman depict the two womens triumph over formidable social obstacles and [their] struggle to achieve a sense of identity and self-acceptance (Draper 1). Both women grew up in segregated†¦show more content†¦Knowing that their grandmother wouldnt approve of their reading Shakespeare, Bailey and Maya decide to memorize The Creation by James Weldon Johnson instead. Marys grandmother believed that going to church and dressing and behaving like a wasià ¨un (white man) was the key which would magically unlock the door leading to the good life, the white life (Crow Dog 23). In contrast, Mayas grandmother instructed her grandchildren to use the paths of life that she and her generation and all the Negroes gone before had found, and found to be safe ones (Angelou 47). Her safe path was one in which blacks had as limited contact with white people as possible since she did not believe that whitefolks could be talked to at all without risking ones life (Angelou 47). In addition to parental dominance, both women suffered male dominance when they were forcibly raped at a young age. Mary Crow Dog was fifteen when a man of unspecified color raped her, and Maya Angelou was eight when her mothers boyfriend assaulted her. Besides sexual domination, these women also experience mental and physical domination. Mary reports that on the reservation, the men pay great lip service to the status of women in the tribe (Crow Dog 65). When actually, among the Plains tribes, some men