'Reflection for “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”\r'

'Reflection for â€Å"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” Abstract This analyze consists of trinity sections. The first section, a brief compend of the make â€Å"I know why caged fowl sings” is presended. At the second part, three insights after nurture the carry atomic number 18 introduced. That is, metaphor of caged bird, powerfulness of literacy, and power of silence. At the last section, discipline-particular proposition knowledge that relevant to the principal(prenominal) character of book is stated. Synopsis of the Text This history is Maya Angelou’s coming of age story, and follows Marguerite’s (called â€Å"My’ or â€Å"Maya” by her comrade) feel from the age of three to seventeen.In this story, Angelou as the storyteller, tells the audience close her experiences as an Afri hobo Amerifanny girl living in the s issueherly united States and her struggles with racial discrimination and be raped at eight years old. The boo k reveals the process of how she overcomes these difficulties and transforms into a self-possessed, dignified young woman, capable of responding to prejudice. Her maturity is in the main gained by her grand find, mum, the power of literacy, and the love around her. The book starts with Marguerite at three years old.At three, she was sent to Sttype As, Arkansas, with her older brother Bailey to live with her granny and feeble uncle. mummy proclaims a merchandise store in the St adenines, and her store is a center of the Afri grass Ameri chiffonier participation. Church, school, and the store are main places that little Maya and her brother live around. They are acquainted with African American action in St angstrom units which is hopeful in the break of the sidereal day before they go to cut the like, then turns dissatisfied and disappointed in the evening when they return from the cotton field. Read to a fault Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).St international a mperes is a place where the black innovation and white world is clearly distinctive. Segregation makes them feel fear and nuisance towards the white people in Stamps. Maya and her brother’s relatively peaceful lives are disturbed by their father’s appearance at Stamps. He takes them to St. Louis, Missouri, to live with their mother. Later, Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. After her mother’s boyfriend’s death, Maya misconceives that her words lead him to his death, and then she refuses to speak.This make her mother feel helplessness, therefore she decides to send her children to Stamps again. In Stamps, Maya meets Mrs. Bertha Flowers, who supplies her with books to kick upstairs her love of knowledge and helps her to break through her shell. Later, Momma decides to send her grandchildren to their mother in San Francisco, California, to protect them from the dangers of racialism in Stamps. Before Maya graduates, she becomes first Afri can American female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.During her nett year of high school, she worries that she readiness be a lesbian and initiates cozy intercourse with a teenage 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 power as a mother. Insights You Obtained from Reading this Text allegory of Caged Bird In this text, the cage is used to inculpate many things. In young Maya’s eyes, beingness black is like living in a cage; she al slipway imagines she could escape from her black skin.In addition, her uncle’s handicapped body is his own cage. African American wearyers in the Stamps cotton field are also being caged, because they are repeatedly doing the same labor work day after day, moreover their life does not seem to change. It is still precise yobbo; they are like the caged bird cannot go anywhere. When the â€Å"powhitetrash” girls shout Momm a, Maya looks through the window and watches the whole process of Momma being ridiculed by these girls. She was angry and wanted to weep 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 person’s life at that time. When Maya firstly comes across the white fraternity in Stamps, she feels fear and perceives the white people there are un-human. Segregation produces misunderstanding between the devil mathematical 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 make its co mfort; literacy expands her ruling and enables her to think independently without considering the unwritten rules of society at that time. Literacy also enhances Maya’s ability of thinking; it lets her give better understanding of herself, elaborates her thought, and makes her become a stronger person. In addition, literacy inspires her to think what true human dignity is.It is very lucky for Maya to find a way to coping, as McPherson says, â€Å"if there is one stable element in Angelou’s youth it is a dependence upon books. ” (McPherson, 1990, pp. 215). I wonder what the most dignified characteristic of a human being is. The answer I put together 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 measure out of themselves, because everyone is equally dignified. Power of Silence Maya’s grandmother is a quite successful African American woman in the African Amer ican community in Stamps.However, Momma and Momma’s family ofttimes suffered from racist attacks. On one occasion, Momma is taunted by â€Å"powhithetrash” girls. Maya sees Momma through the window coping with ignorance bit being dignified. When these girls go to leave, Momma says to them â€Å"Bye, Miz”. After see 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 protection 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 sound off is Relevant to this Main Character If Maya is a client, what should a practitioner do with Maya? At first, the counselor demand 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 unlikeable herself to the outside world. Therefore, it can be assumed that this stay is the first crisis in Maya’s life.At the beginning of the direction session, establishing a good blood is very all-important(a). versed abuse involves betrayal of the child’s trust. The solvent of such behavior 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 struggle to build a good rapport with Maya. We can utilize the things that Maya likes in the beginning of the session. As cognize from the text, Mrs. Bertha Flowers introduces books to Maya and encourage her love of reading books.Therefore, we can intercourse 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 leave alone do assessment. Through talking with Maya, the counselor can comprehend Maya’s feelings, her coping behaviors, her perceptions about the incident, her develop psychological tasks, and her ecosystem. At the end of the assessment, two main issues might emerge. That is, trauma from sexual abuse and racism-related issues, including obsession with break away and an individualism issue.It is said that counselors are ethically and lawfully mandated to report suspicions of child sexual abuse to administration (Miller, Dove, & Miller, 2007). Therefore, documenting and reporting the suspected sexual abuse of Maya is the counselor’s first job. In the specific counseling session, the counselor needs to consider that discourse issues for child victims of rape typically includes many symptoms. or so of these symptoms include anger, trust issues, social withdrawal, self-blame, emotional dysregulation, dissociation, alimentation disorders, self-injury, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Budrionis & Jongsma, 2003).Previous research suggests cognitive- behavioral approaches â€Å" rationalise the impact” of (child) sexual abuse (Berliner & Elliot, 2002), and are more effective than supportive therapy in promoting improvements in children’s knowledge about body recourse skills (Deblinger, Stauffer, & Steer, 2001). The counselor could apply cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to identify distorted thinking, like how Maya thought being raped and Mr. Freeman’s death were caused by her; modify beliefs; facilitate relating to others in different ways; and changes Maya’s behaviors associated with her trauma.Next, the counselor needs to deal with the racism-related issues that Maya is experiencing. baffle model of psychological nigrescense (the process of becoming wispy)(Cross, 1971, 1991, 1995; abidance & Cross, & Freedle, 1972) indicated that the evolution from the pre-encou nter to the internalization lay out reflects a movement form psychological dysfunction to psychological health. Evidence from the book supports an assumption that Maya is in her pre-encounter stage, where individuals consciously or unconsciously devalue their own Blackness and concurrently value White value and ways.This can be seen when Maya often imagines that one day she will escapes from her black skin and become a blond and blue-eyed white girl. African Americans at pre-encounter stage evidence self-hate, low self-esteem, and poor noetic health (Vandiver. 2001), whereas African Americans with the greatest internalization of racial identity report the highest self â€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 departed through in order to make changes.For ever-changing the perception of herself and her perceptions toward s African Americans, the counselor could introduce Maya with whatsoever movies or books of outstanding African Americans. Facing racism, Neal-Barnette and Crowther (2000) prime that parents who focusing on human values and ignoring the habit of race more likely generate children’s higher levels of social anxiety, particularly with African American peers. It means, for African Americans, it is crucial for parents actively prevent racism by admitting existence of racism, putting this issue on the table, and guiding their children to confront racism.In Maya’s case, the counselor could identify 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 Maya’s life could be asked to meet together in Momma’s home, and then all the members could share information about their struggles and s earch for identity. Sue and Sue (2007) indicated that, use of these techniques, derived from African American experience, can lead to personal empowerment. course credit Angelou, M. (1971).I know why the caged bird sings. New York, United States: Bantam Books. Berliner, L. , & Elliot, D. M. (2002). informal abuse of children. In J. E. B. Myers, L. Berliner, J. Briere, & Ct. T. Hendrix (Eds. ), The APSAC handbook on child revilement (2nd ed). (pp. 55-78). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Budrionis, R. , & Jongsma, A. E. (2003). The Sexual abuse Victim and Sexual Offender give-and-take Planner. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. Cross, W. E. (1971). The Negro-to-Black conversion experience: Towards a psychology of Black liberation. Black World. 20, 13-27 Cross, W. E. (1991).Shades of Black: motley in African American identity. Philadelphia: temple University Press. Cross, W. E. (1995). The psychology of Nigrescence: Revising the Cross model. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander(Eds. ), handbook of multicultural counseling (PP. 93-122). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Deblinger, E. , Stauffer, L. B. , & Steer, R. A. (2001). Comparative efficacies of supportive and cognitive behavioral group therapies for young children who have been sexually abused and their nonoffending mothers. nipper Mal discourse, 6 (4), 332-343. Hall, W. S. , Cross, W. E. & Freedle, R. (1972). Stages in the development of Black awareness: An exploratory investigation. In R. L. Jones (Ed. ), Black psychology (pp. 156-165). New Yourk: Harper & Row. Neal-Barnett, A. M. , & Crowther, J. H. (2000). To be female, middle class, anxious, and Black. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24, 129-136 McPherson, Dolly A. (1990). Order out of Chaos: The autobiographical Works of Maya Angelou. New York: tool Lang Publishing. Miller, K. L. , Dove, M. K. , & Miller, S. M. (2007, October). A counselor’s behave to child sexual abuse: Prevent ion, reporting and treatment strategies.Paper based on a program presented at the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Conference, Columbus, OH. Pierre, M. R. , & Mahalik, J. R. (2005). Examining African self-consciousness and Black racial identity as predictors of Black men’s psychological well-being. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 11, 28-40. Sue, D. W. , & Sue, D. (2007). Counseling the Culturally Diverse : Theory and Practice. (5th Ed). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Vandiver, B. J. (2001). Psychological nigrescence revisited: introduction and overview. journal of Multicultural counseling and Development, 29, 165-173.\r\n'