This blog regards the short story “My Name is Margaret” by Maya Angelou. It includes my argument about the story and also a narrative of my own where I was in a situation to stand up to authority, but chose not to. The narrative is about a time when I was in high school at yearbook club and I could have stood up for myself and other members. In the short story “My Name is Margaret” by Maya Angelou, Margaret struggles with her new job with Mrs. Cullinan and must make a drastic decision whether to keep the position or not. When Mrs. Cullinan is having a gathering with her friends, one of them asks what Margaret’s name was when she set down a tray for them. Mrs. Cullinan replied and the friend said, “...But the name’s too long. I’d never bother myself. I’d call her Mary if I was you” (Angelou). After this incident, Mrs. Cullinan takes up her friend’s idea and starts calling Margaret ‘Mary.’ Margaret, furious by this, wanted to quit her job more than anything but she knew her mother would not let her if it were not for a good reason. Eventually, Bailey helps her come up with a plan to break Mrs. Cullinan’s favorite casserole dish and two green glass cups. When Margaret makes the decision and follows through with the plan, Mrs. Cullinan is devastated and hysterical by what the girl has done. She calls her names and throws broken pieces at her. However, Margaret leaves the house overjoyed and relieved that she would never have to work for the woman again. I agree with Margaret’s decision to stand up to Mrs. Cullinan’s oppression towards her because she used her authority to strip away the first thing Margaret was given at birth: her name. Having your name altered by someone just because the name is an inconvenience to them, is awful and completely absurd. Everyone should be called the name they want to be addressed by, whether someone has authority over them or not. I think for Margaret it was especially hard because she had been oppressed all her life and being called ‘Mary’ instead of her real name, made her realize how badly white people treat her and others. While Mrs. Cullinan was very much in the wrong, I do think Margaret destroying her most prized possessions was a little harsh. However, the woman deserved it and I think it taught her a lesson. At the end, Mrs. Cullinan finally called her by her real name and I think she could finally see that taking away someone’s name is also like taking away a prized possession. Our names are our identities and no one has the right to take that away, no matter how much power they have. Names are a beautiful thing and should not be an inconvenience to anyone. After reading this story, I now wish I could be a little more like Margaret and stand up for myself. When I was a junior in high school, I was asked to join the executive yearbook staff. Meetings were Monday through Thursday for two hours after school which was a lot to handle on top of homework. Having wanted to be apart of the newspaper or yearbook for awhile, it was a huge honor to be recommended by my English teacher to join. I enjoyed my first year of it but when I did it my senior year, the yearbook was a mess. Our editor in chief had graduated and she really kept our faculty moderator on top of making sure she proofread our captions and stories before we put it in the book. The moderator had a tendency to yell at people even for the smallest of things and she would become easily frustrated. People would ask her if she read their work yet, but she kept pushing it off saying that she would do it the next day. Oftentimes, she was not busy and she would just be talking to the football or basketball players rather than helping us. I respected her and I really cared about her opinion, but she put a lot on my plate and it just kept piling up until deadline day rolled around. One deadline day, I thought we were in a good position. However, we actually were not because the captions were never checked by the moderator. She marked up most of them as bad and there were at least thirty that we had to fix on the same day my section of the book was supposed to be sent to the publishing company. On top of that, she added a club that I did not even know existed until two days before the deadline and I needed to scramble for a story, captions, quotes, and pictures. That day was very stressful and I only remember going to two of my classes because I had to skip the rest to work on the yearbook. It was very frustrating and the moderator ended up yelling at the whole club because of how behind we were. Later, she said to me personally that it was not my fault because I had been on the computer all day working. Regardless, the whole situation could have been avoided if she just took a little time to proofread our work before deadline day. Looking back on it, I feel like I should have acted more like our previous editor in chief and kindly asked her to proofread our work. I think if I had just kept asking her about it, she would have done it sooner. Instead, I was too afraid to speak up for fear of getting yelled at. Because I showed up and worked hard every day on the book, I feel like my moderator somewhat abused my work ethic and put a lot of pressure on me. I hope the future of the club will not be like it was my senior year, but I still wonder if it is the same and if I could have done something to prevent it. I wish I could have stood up for myself and the other members of the club even though she was an authority figure. Despite the club causing me stress that could have been avoided, I did love working on the yearbook because seeing the finished product at the end was so rewarding. It felt so good to see everyone looking at the pictures I took or the captions I wrote and loving how the yearbook turned out.
1 Comment
Rosita Carbajal
2/9/2018 11:46:39 am
Hi, Molly
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Molly ZahnerI will use this blog to post my informal writing assignments for my English Composition I class. Archives
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