Reflection for “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

Reflection for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Abstract This essay consists of three sections. The counterbalance section, a brief synopsis of the decl ar I know wherefore detaind razz sings is presented. At the second part, three insights afterwards recital the discussion be introduced. That is, metaphor of caged bird, power of literacy, and power of silence. At the last section, discipline-specific experience that relevant to the of the essence(p) character of book is stated. Synopsis of the Text This chronicle is Maya Angelous coming of age story, and follows Marguerites (called My or Maya by her brother) life from the age of three to seventeen.In this story, Angelou as the storyteller, tells the audience around her experiences as an Afri tooshie American girl living in the Southern unite States and her struggles with racism and being raped at eight years old. The book reveals the process of how she overcomes these difficulties and transforms into a self-possessed, d ignified young woman, capable of responding to prejudice. Her maturity is generally gained by her granny knot, mommy, the power of literacy, and the love around her. The book starts with Marguerite at three years old.At three, she was sent to Stamps, Arkansas, with her older brother Bailey to live with her grand get under bingles disrobe and crippled uncle. Momma consumes a merchandise install in the Stamps, and her store is a center of the African American community. Church, school, and the store are main sites that little Maya and her brother live around. They are acquainted with African American life in Stamps which is hopeful in the morning before they go to cut the cotton, then turns dissatisfied and disappointed in the evening when they final payment from the cotton field.Read besides Post-Traumatic accentuate Disorder(PTSD).Stamps is a place where the black world and duster world is clearly distinctive. Segregation pulls them notion fear and hatred towards the white people in Stamps. Maya and her brothers relatively peaceful lives are disturbed by their fathers appearance at Stamps. He takes them to St. Louis, Missouri, to live with their mother. Later, Maya was raped by her mothers boyfriend. by and by her mothers boyfriends death, Maya misconceives that her address lead him to his death, and then she refuses to speak.This make her mother feel helplessness, therefore she decides to mail her nipperren to Stamps again. In Stamps, Maya meets Mrs. Bertha Flowers, who supplies her with books to encourage her love of reading and helps her to break by dint of her shell. Later, Momma decides to send her grandchildren to their mother in San Francisco, California, to cheer them from the dangers of racism in Stamps. forrader Maya graduates, she becomes first African American female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.During her final year of high school, she worries that she might be a homosexual and initiates sexual intercourse with a tee nage boy. Later, she finds out that she is pregnant. Maya gives birth at the end of the book and begins her journey to adulthood by accepting her design as a mother. Insights You Obtained from Reading this Text Metaphor of Caged Bird In this text, the cage is used to imply numerous things. In young Mayas eyes, being black is like living in a cage she always imagines she could escape from her black skin.In addition, her uncles handicapped body is his own cage. African American laborers in the Stamps cotton field are similarly being caged, because they are repeatedly doing the same labor work sidereal day after day, but their life does not seem to change. It is still truly tough they are like the caged bird cannot go anywhere. When the powhitetrash girls ridicule Momma, Maya looks through the windowpane and watches the whole process of Momma being ridiculed by these girls. She was unfounded and wanted to yell at them but she could not, like the caged bird.From reading this text , I could know the severer victimization from racism and the impacts of segregation on African American persons life at that judgment of conviction. When Maya firstly comes across the white community in Stamps, she feels fear and perceives the white people there are un- pitying. Segregation produces misunderstanding between the deuce groups and escalates the conflict. Power of Literacy Maya is scared about the power of words after the death of Mr. freeman, and refuses to speak. After she goes back to Stamps, Maya met Mrs. Flower, who encourages her reading of books.Books become a refuge in her bewildering childhood. Maya finds characters of a book to make sense of her bewildering world. She even uses books as a way of coping with her rape. From the literacy, Maya gets cherish literacy expands her thought and enables her to think independently without considering the unwritten rules of society at that time. Literacy also enhances Mayas ability of thinking it lets her meet better understanding of herself, elaborates her thought, and makes her become a stronger person. In addition, literacy inspires her to think what true human lordliness is.It is really lucky for Maya to find a way to coping, as McPherson says, if there is one stable element in Angelous youth it is a addiction upon books. (McPherson, 1990, pp. 215). I wonder what the most dignified characteristic of a human being is. The answer I found from this book is not the color of skin, socioeconomic status, or power it is the self-determined ability to not allows others to decide the appraise of themselves, because everyone is equally dignified. Power of Silence Mayas grandmother is a rather successful African American woman in the African American community in Stamps.However, Momma and Mommas family frequently suffered from racist attacks. On one occasion, Momma is taunted by powhithetrash girls. Maya sees Momma through the window coping with ignorance while being dignified. When these girls go to leave, Momma says to them Bye, Miz. After track how Momma fights with racism, Maya realizes racism can be fought without impudence, but instead with dignity. On the another occasion, Momma hides Uncle Willies in a vegetable bin to protect him from Ku Klux Klan raiders, because at that time, it was hard for a black man get security department from the police.Momma chooses very realistic ways to protect her family and shows to little Maya what truth dignity is. Discipline-Specific Knowledge that You Think is Relevant to this Main Character If Maya is a client, what should a practitioner do with Maya? At first, the counselling-at-law needs to decide the time that Maya come to see him or her. Maya has come to see the counselor after she has been raped. As described in the book, after this incident, Maya refused to speak and closed herself to the extracurricular world. Therefore, it can be assumed that this period is the first crisis in Mayas life.At the stemma of the counse ling session, establishing a good relationship is very important. internal misapply involves betrayal of the childs effrontery. The effect of such demeanour makes a child who survives sexual abuse feel that it is difficult for them to trust others. Therefore, the counselor needs to make a tremendous effort to realize a good rapport with Maya. We can utilize the things that Maya likes in the beginning of the session. As known from the text, Mrs. Bertha Flowers introduces books to Maya and encourage her love of reading books.Therefore, we can speak about characters or authors of books, or whatever can bring her interest. After establishing a good relationship with Maya and making sure that she is ready to talk, the counselor will do assessment. Through talking with Maya, the counselor can comprehend Mayas feelings, her coping behaviors, her perceptions about the incident, her developmental tasks, and her ecosystem. At the end of the assessment, two main issues might emerge. Tha t is, trauma from sexual abuse and racism-related issues, including obsession with washing and an identity issue.It is said that counselors are ethically and legally mandated to report suspicions of child sexual abuse to authorities (Miller, Dove, & Miller, 2007). Therefore, documenting and reporting the suspected sexual abuse of Maya is the counselors first job. In the specific counseling session, the counselor needs to consider that treatment issues for child victims of rape typically includes many symptoms. Some of these symptoms include anger, trust issues, mixer withdrawal, self-blame, emotional dysregulation, dissociation, eating disorders, self-injury, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Budrionis & Jongsma, 2003).Previous research suggests cognitive-behavioural approaches reduce the impact of (child) sexual abuse (Berliner & Elliot, 2002), and are more effective than supportive therapy in promoting improvements in childrens intimacy about body safety skills (Deblinger, St auffer, & Steer, 2001). The counselor could apply cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to identify distorted thinking, like how Maya thought being raped and Mr. Freemans death were caused by her modify beliefs facilitate relating to others in dissimilar ways and changes Mayas behaviors associated with her trauma.Next, the counselor needs to deal with the racism-related issues that Maya is experiencing. Cross posture of psychological nigrescense (the process of becoming wispy)(Cross, 1971, 1991, 1995Hall & Cross, & Freedle, 1972) indicated that the evolution from the pre-encounter to the internalization degree reflects a movement form psychological dysfunction to psychological health. consequence from the book supports an assumption that Maya is in her pre-encounter stage, where individuals consciously or unconsciously vilipend their own threateningness and concurrently value White values and ways.This can be seen when Maya often imagines that one day she will escapes from her b lack skin and become a blond and blue-eyed white girl. African Americans at pre-encounter stage evidence self-hate, low self- deference, and poor mental health (Vandiver. 2001), whereas African Americans with the greatest internalization of racial identity report the highest self esteem (Pierre & Mahalik, 2005). It seems that accepting who you are and being proud of yourself are fundamental for African American to maintain mental health. However, long journey needs to be gone through in order to make changes.For changing the perception of herself and her perceptions towards African Americans, the counselor could introduce Maya with some movies or books of outstanding African Americans. Facing racism, Neal-Barnette and Crowther (2000) found that parents who focusing on human values and ignoring the role of race more likely generate childrens higher levels of social anxiety, particularly with African American peers. It means, for African Americans, it is crucial for parents actively retard racism by admitting existence of racism, putting this issue on the table, and directive their children to confront racism.In Mayas case, the counselor could refer to Sue and Sue (2007)s recommendation. That is, the counselor can employ family and community support systems. Specifically, members of the family and other important individuals (brother, Momma, uncle, teacher, etc. ) in Mayas life could be asked to meet unneurotic in Mommas home, and then all the members could share randomness about their struggles and search for identity. Sue and Sue (2007) indicated that, use of these techniques, derived from African American experience, can lead to personal empowerment. Reference Angelou, M. (1971).I know why the caged bird sings. New York, United States Bantam Books. Berliner, L. , & Elliot, D. M. (2002). knowledgeable abuse of children. In J. E. B. Myers, L. Berliner, J. Briere, & Ct. T. Hendrix (Eds. ), The APSAC vade mecum on child maltreatment (2nd ed). (pp. 55-78). Th ousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications, Inc. Budrionis, R. , & Jongsma, A. E. (2003). The Sexual abuse Victim and Sexual Offender Treatment Planner. Hoboken, NJ gutter Wiley. Cross, W. E. (1971). The Negro-to-Black conversion experience Towards a psychology of Black liberation. 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