This week we were given some background information to deeply understand the book; mostly links to the communities Maya lived in and a story about segregation in USA. But since Maya Angelou already describes the environment pretty well the information wasn’t that pleasing - although if you don’t know anything about segregation it might be harder to fully appreciate the book.
The time and place is really relevant to the story: It takes place in a segregated racial prejudiced USA during the Great Depression in the 30’s – which pretty much decides the directions of Maya’s life. Her family situation, their financial struggles, the racism and sexism, that characterizes her confident and developing capacity, are all bounded to this hard times.
Obviously there is a lot of racism, sexism and financial recessions going on in the world today as well – even in Sweden. There are a lot of children that are being sexually abused by someone in their family; many women – all women at some occasion in their life; we dare to say – are still oppressed; 1 billion people are living on less than one dollar every day. But by struggling and speaking out loud for all peoples’ rights we have managed to reduce the hate and injustices – and hopefully some day we can all live in peace.
// Linnea N, Pernilla, John and Tina.
Yes, obviously time and place are crucial for this story (and Angelou's life!) but as you rightly point out, we still see racism and sexism in the world - rascism even gaining ground in Sweden today??
SvaraRadera