Print out, read, and annotate My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou).
For this weeks blog post I was given the assignment of reading My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou), a story which takes place in the Jim Crowe era and is about a young African American girl named Margaret who faces racism whilst working as a maid for Mrs. Cuillnan (a rich white lady). After reading My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou), the assignment was to answer a couple of questions: Did you agree with Margaret's choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups? And the second question: When have you made an important choice to either resist or not resist oppression, challenge the status quo, or refuse to obey an authority figure? I'll answer those questions to the best of my ability in the following blog post. Did you agree with Margaret's choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups? Do I agree with Margaret's choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups? No, I do not. If you ask me, the punishment (breaking the dishes) does not fit the crime of Mrs. Cuillnan calling Margaret by a shortened version of her name. Do I think she needed to address the problem of Mrs. Cuillnan calling her by the wrong name? Yes, I do. I understand that she felt very disrespected when she was called Mary instead of her actual name, and it was very racist of Mrs. Cuillnan to shorten her name and "steal her identity" like she did. But, what Margaret did was childish (again, this is understandable, she was in fact a child), and in my opinion could have been handled in a much better way. An example of a way to handle the situation better would have been for her to just quit and then try explaining her decision to quit to her mother, instead of doing something so destructive as destroying the dishes and taking a chance of getting Hallelujah (Mrs. Cuillnan's other maid) in trouble too. To me taking a chance of your parent being angry at you, is better than taking the chance of causing harm to someone else (Hallelujah). In reality, Margaret breaking the dishes could have caused Mrs. Cuillnan to become more racist towards her, which could potentially put Margaret in a dangerous position. Even though I do not agree with the choice Margaret made, I think if I was in her shoes on that very day, being so young and thin skinned, I too would have dropped the casserole dish and two green glasses. When have you made an important choice to either resist or not resist oppression, challenge the status quo, or refuse to obey an authority figure? This portion of the assignment really through me off course at first, I could not think of one specific time or event in which I willfully chose to resist oppression, challenge the status quo, or refuse to obey an authority figure. I had to think for a while before realizing I refuse to obey an authority figure/s very often. Which authority figure do I disobey and how do I disobey them? Well, after putting some serious thought into it I decided that I refuse to obey law enforcement quite a lot. I’m not a bank robber or serial killer or anything, but I came to the realization that every single time I go over the speed limit or don’t stop completely at a stop sign I am technically breaking the law, and therefore not obeying the officers who enforce those laws. After I realized that committing minor traffic violations was disobeying the police, I could think of one specific scenario in which I disobeyed the police. Here’s how it happened; I used to work for a company that did concrete work (mainly very large finished concrete floors like you’d see in a grocery or hardware store). A lot of times I would have to wake up very early, drive to the location where the company stored their work trucks, and then drive a work truck to whichever job we were working on at the time. On one morning, I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before (a common occurrence), and had to make the 15-minute drive to pick up a work truck and then drive another hour in the work truck to get to the jobsite. I was tired, the drive was monotonous, and I wanted it to be over. I had almost gotten to the jobsite and was going just a bit faster than recommended so I could get the long boring drive over with. I was only five or so minutes away and then I heard the dreaded sound that no one wants to hear while driving (especially when you’re driving the company’s truck and not your own vehicle), it was the whoop whoop of a police siren. I was being pulled over for speeding. If I would’ve obeyed the law enforcement that morning, it would have saved me from getting my first and only speeding ticket and having to pay the fine. Lesson learned: I didn’t obey an authority figure, and I had to pay for it, literally.
2 Comments
Sabatino
9/15/2017 05:05:17
Thanks for sharing this post. I appreciate how you provide another possible resolution to Margaret's problem while also providing a rationale for why she responded to the oppression by breaking the dishware. I noticed the choices you made as a writer by providing an unconventional response to the question about disobeying authority. Risky choices. But that's where the growth occurs, right?
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9/15/2017 05:07:33
I absolutely love how you set up your personal narrative, Jesse! It made me eager to reach the next portion of your story, even though your disobedient action wasn't all that uncommon. I find it interesting how you perceived Margaret's actions, it definitely gave me a new way to look at things, even though my opinion hasn't changed.
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