"Cotton Picking Time"

Paper Summary:

This essay discusses an important aspect of Maya Angelou's work, "Cotton Picking Time", which is its spiritual content and power. The paper states that Angelou is known for her religious and spiritual beliefs and how they reflect through her work. This paper analyzes how, "Cotton Picking Time", Angelou discusses one day in her life when she realizes both the bounties and harshness of Southern life as a black person.

From the Paper:

"As mentioned earlier, language is used as a powerful tool by the author. According to Angelou, it was the language that helped her community survive. There may actually be more to the folk language than we realize at first. By communicating about their pain and hard times, the community could verbalize their situation that helped in survival. Angelou admits that: 'It may be enough, however, to have it said that we survive in exact relationship to the dedication of our poets (include preachers, musicians and blues singers)' (p. 180). Black authors have almost unanimously agreed that language has helped them in survival. By talking about the pain, they could at least let it out or in other words, writing and singing provided an outlet to their pain and frustrations."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "The Song of the Caged Bird: Maya Angelou's Quest for Self-Acceptance" by Sidonie Ann Smith from Southern Humanities Review, 7:4 ( Fall 1973). Auburn University.
• Susan Gilbert, "Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Paths to Escape"- Mount Olive Review 1:1. 1987
• Joanne Braxton. A Song of Transcendence: Maya Angelou. Black Women Writing Autobiography: A Tradition Within a Tradition. Temple University.

More papers on "Cotton Picking Time":

• Analytical Essay # 22568 : "On "After Apple-Picking"
• Essay # 7321 : "Critique of the Cotton Slavery System"
• Analytical Essay # 124633 : "Social Theory and Picking Up Trash"

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