T.SCOTT
“Liked For Myself” (Excerpt from “I Know why the Caged bird Sings”)
Author: Maya Angelou
Theme: “THE MEASURE OF WHAT A HUMAN CAN BE”-MAYA ANGELOU
Purpose: The purpose of the excerption was to show how befriending someone can not only benefit you in the sense of having a new friend but it can be life changing, The purpose also included a look into the authors childhood, and how she went through things that made her feel ashamed, which cause her to be solitaire. The purpose was also to let the reader/audience to understand that friend/friends do not come in a specific size, color, race, ages etc. I also believe that the purpose was for the audience to understand that a friendship does not have to be big and spectacular; it can just be simple. A friend: It’s not what they have but what they give”.
Connections: I connected two stories to the essay “Liked for myself”. The first connection was made between the essay” What are friends For?”, Marion Wink. The connection I made was that the essay was just a overall view of the different friends there are in the world and the friend I related to the essay “Liked for myself”, was “HERO FRIENDS”, and “A NEW FRIEND”. I chose these two friends because a Hero friend, according to the essay is someone who you consider better than you in aspects such as career wise, houses, relationships are great, they aren’t negative, non- gossipers, helpful and caring. These are the feelings young Marguerite had about Mrs. Flowers. “She was our side’s answer to the richest white woman in town (pg.148)”. “ I was certain that like everything else about her the cookies would be perfect”(149).The other type of friend would be the new friend, which is self-explanatory. “Suddenly your life story is interesting again, your insights fresh, your opinion valued. Your various shortcomings are as yet completely invisible. It’s almost like falling in Love (pg.170)”. Marguerite described Mrs. Flowers as her life line, she also enclosed with: “it was enough to prove that she liked me”. All she wanted was for someone to like, and talk to her for herself and nothing more nothing less. She just needed that feeling of comfort, support encouragement that ever person needs.
The second passage I connected the essay with was, “ A simple Gift” by Robert Matthews. This connection was similar. The man sort of befriended the elder man by just speaking to him, and then he did the most simplest thing of giving him a pair of socks because of the cold weather in November. This is similar to Mrs. Flowers just giving Marguerite a chance to express herself. A chance for her to enjoy herself, feel special and loved. “God Bless you, Bhai. No one has touched me in a very long time”( 190). This I what the old man said to the man for giving him the socks. This connection is very similar to Marguerites feelings towards Mrs. Flowers. She was very thankful for, Mrs. Flowers reading a favorite book t0 her and making tea cookies for her.
The actions of the man goes back to the saying it’s not what you have but what you give that leaves lifelong impressions or foot prints in a person’s heart. “The action was so graceful and inclusively benign.”
Monday, October 29, 2007
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Summarizer
The young girl in the story felt like she was worthless and nobody wanted to talk to her. She was a very depressed little girl. Then Mrs. Bertha Flowers came along with her warm and loving embrace to help Marguerite come out of her shell. The way that Maya explained Mrs. Flowers was almost like she looked up to her greatly. Mrs. Flowers stopped at the store where Marguerite worked and asked specifically for Marguerite to carry her groceries to her house even though everyone knew that Bertha was quite able to carry her groceries on her own. Marguerite was a very smart and intelligent young girl but it was just a challenge for her to be able to talk in class and that is what she wanted to talk to Marguerite about. I think that having Mrs. Flowers take the time to notice and seek her out to help her really helped in bringing Marguerite out of her shell. Since Marguerite liked to read Bertha got her to later read some books and memorize a poem so that it got her to better come out of her shell in class.
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