The Peckerwood Dentist
A custom research paper on Maya Angelou's The Peckerwood Dentist and Momma's Incredible Powers can be ordered from Paper Masters. Maya Angelou's survival of a racist insult by her grandmother, Annie Henderson, in the excerpt, "The Peckerwood Dentist and Momma's Incredible Powers", from her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, can be viewed as her first example of female empowerment, particularly Southern Blacks.
At the onset of The Peckerwood Dentist and Momma's Incredible Powers, a young Maya is overrun with pain to the extent of wishing she were dead.Certainly not the feelings of strength she experiences at the end of she and Momma's excursion,
"I lived a few days and nights in blinding pain, not so much toying with as seriously considering the idea of jumping in the well, and Momma decided I had to be taken to a dentist."
The reasons for Maya Angelou's need to fantasize about Dr. Lincoln and Momma's confrontation is a bit unclear at first. Angelou tells of Momma's and Uncle Willie's satisfaction in the resulting outcome of their dispute, "Momma and her son laughed and laughed over the white man's evilness and her retributive sin." Why then does Maya find a need to fantasize the result? Her obvious compulsion to make Momma into some sort of superwoman as explained in her fantasy, "Her eyes were blazing like live coals and her arms had doubled themselves in length...Then she did give him the tiniest of shakes, but because of her strength the action set his head and arms to shaking loose on the ends of his body.", can only be from Angelou's necessity for empowerment. This would be empowerment from the racist world Maya and her family live in. Many of Angelou's memories are peppered with unhappiness and uncomfortableness. Her ability to remove herself from reality and fantasize may have helped her get through many of these instances.
In your The Peckerwood Dentist and Momma's Incredible Powers research paper, show the following:
- The relationship of Angelou's embellishments to her adult life may have substantial significance.
- In exploration of critical essays by Smith, Kent, and McMurray, some insights can be found on Angelou's life.
This is just one The Peckerwood Dentist and Momma's Incredible Powers example of a literature term paper on The Peckerwood Dentist and Momma's Incredible Powers.