Survival of a Teenage Mother: Angelou’s Treatment of the Subject of Motherhood in Her Autobiographies

Abstract

Angelou's autobiography critically explores all the defining phases of her experience as an African-American. She uses the narratives to define her identity - who she is, her culture, her past, present and future. Maya Angelou's autobiographical texts chronicle her life from infancy to adulthood. In these collections, she recounts the hard and good times of her life. In the early part of her life, specifically since her adolescence, she became a teenage mother. As such, all her activities from there were centered on her portrayal of her mothering role to her son. Her readers are taken through different aspects of motherhood role play ranging from training she acquires from her grandmother, her biological mother and her surrogate mother. This study, therefore, discusses how Angelou developed the motherhood theme to define her identity as a woman. It explores Angelou's use of the motherhood subject to gain education about life, her tough-mindedness as a mother, the issue of the enraged mother, the concept of the working mother and the other mothers' role in African-American traditions. Different people are examined as characters who helped to shape her understanding of motherhood along the African American woman's concept of motherhood generally. The study concludes that Angelou is successful in using the motherhood theme to define her unique identity as an African American woman.