To what extent do you agree that Angelou’s poetry presents the female struggle for identity more effectively than the male struggle?
Angelou writes from many different viewpoints, the main one tending to be from a female perspective.
The poem ‘men’ focuses on the admiration and vulnerability a woman may feel towards a man – ‘they knew I was there. Fifteen years old and starving for them.’ By saying ‘they knew I was there’ shows the reader that everywhere the young girl goes men are constantly watching her, looking for her even with the age that she is at. ‘Starving’ is a sense of desperation for something, in this case the young girl may want sexual experience this links to a later line ‘it is your juice’ this is also a simile, which may connote to the physical point, referring to a sexual encounter. However, with the sentence being short it shows us that a lack of detachment was there this also relates back to the young girl wanting experience. Angelou portrayed to us the image of a young girl struggling for identity due to want of a man’s touch, making the female struggle more effective than a man’s struggle.
Whereas, in the poem ‘Willie’ Angelou shows the struggle for a man’s identity in a more negative view than the girl in ‘men’. During the poem it states that people call him ‘uncle’ ‘boy’ and ‘hey’ this shows us that Willie does not have a true identity to anybody – meaning nobody actually knows him, suggesting to the reader that he is on his own and has no body. This is supported by aneglou saying ‘solitude was the climate in his head, emptiness was the partner in his bed’ . However the word lonely is never actually used, this may imply that although he is on his own he may not necessarily not be happy with his life and the identity he holds.
Throughout the poem, Angelou uses a lot of natural imagery of the cycle of seasons – this could be a metaphor to show us that although he is a lone he is experiencing everything the same has others would be, he then goes on to say ‘I may cry and I will die’ ‘but my spirit is the soul of every spring’ this could be a religious connotation has some Christians believe in an afterlife, Willie shows to the reader that he is not scared of death and stays positive all the way through. This shows us that although no major identity struggle is happening for Willie, the thought of having no identity and people not knowing who you are is more negative and upsetting than having a negative identity struggle; this is arguably more of an effective way of showing struggle for identity through a man’s view has men are seen to be stronger than women emotionally.
In ‘a kind of love some say’ it is arguable that the view point can either be from a man or woman this represents both gender struggles. The poem can be perceived different ways, a physical relationship based around abuse or that the love is that strong towards someone it is giving them emotional pain. In the idea of the abusive relationship this is evident through aneglou saying ‘is it true the ribs can tell’ ‘the kick of a beast from a lovers fist?’ the meaning of ribs could be literal or connote to people noticing the physical appearance changing from the abuse, the sentence also being a rhetorical question could influence the reader of having the perception that the person is asking themselves this question in order to gain an answer for this behaviour or the idea that they are asking themselves this for their own conscience (normally people in abusive relationships do not speak to anyone else about it). However, the idea that it is an emotional pain could be perceived through a male perception metaphorically, men do not like to express their emotions in a way which women do, therefore by expressing it through physical connotations the feeling of masculinity is still there. ‘Then swollen lids, sorry eyes, spoke not of lost romance, but hurt.’ This is also known has enjambment has the pain is on-going. This shows that Maya aneglou showed the struggle for identity for both men and women through the ideology of love and pain of a romance. Making both of them effective, rather than either one being more effective than the other.
Maya aneglou shows how effective a woman’s struggle is through ‘woman work’ this shown through the way it is written; the first stanza gives the feeling that the woman is being over worked, this is due to the long list of chores written. By Angelou not using any commas it emphasises the pace giving it an intense and arouses the feeling of exhaustion and breathlessness. Also by aneglou using terminology from southern America ‘gotta’ ‘cotton to pick’ ‘chicken to fry’ this captures the woman’s voice, making the poem feel more direct and personal to the reader. This shows us that a woman has the struggle of trying to escape the traditional values of a woman, Maya Angelou shows this more effectively than she would be able to through a man’s struggle.
The traveller can be interpreted from different view-points – a man, a woman or possibly even a gay man. This shows us that Maya Angelou was able to effectively show the struggles for identity through both genders. ‘And lone nights long’ in the beginning of the poem Angelou interprets that the nights are still far away and not in the grasp of that person, but by the end they are. You could also say that the nights she claims, wanting this ‘torture’ to occur; possibly to remind themselves that this was not the idea of life they had planned. However, by using the comma at the end, separating the ‘nights’ from the ‘lone’ may suggest that it is themselves that is alone and not the night. This suggests to us that Angelou represented the struggle of loneliness.

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