Sympathy Poem

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Toothaches: Exploring the Emotional Impact and Roots of Racism In the poem “Sympathy”, the caged bird sings to express the anguish of watching opportunity available to those outside the confines of it’s prison pass by. Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, explores similar themes of limitation and pain created by a racist and discriminatory society. Throughout her youth, Angelou dealt with overt displays and subtle effects of racism. One of the book’s most blatant scenes of racism, Maya’s trip to the dentist, obsesses with both physical and mental pain that exists in a social hierarchy riddled with discrimination and examines the destructive effects of a broken, racist society. After eating too many sweets, poor …show more content…
their position as When she asks “how could…a mouthful of angry tooth roots meet a wagonload of powhitetrash children, endure their idiotic snobbery and not feel less important”, she touches on the conflicting attitudes she and Momma share when confront by racism. Unlike Momma, whose takes a passive approach and believes pain should be hidden, Maya actively desire to change her surroundings and acknowledge the affects of racism as unjust. While Momma can hum as powhitetrash children ape her, Maya cannot ignore the …show more content…
The italicized narrative break, in which Angelou chronicles her version of Momma confrontation with Dr. Lincoln, suggests teeth are metaphors for individuals. Throughout the book, Angelou contemplates how to combat racism in America and what a system free of oppression looks like. These visions, such as plowing down the powhitegirls with a rifle and constructing a “pyramid of flesh” (181), often required an escape into a fictional world that provides Maya the tools to explore her visions for society. Angelou’s italicized break during the dentist scene represents the most distinct divergence from reality and advanced contemplation of a world where the power hierarchy has been inverted. Momma, physically larger and stronger than her real world counterpart, banishes Dr. Lincoln from Stamps and his occupation for his failure to aid Maya. In Maya’s fantasy the removal of the dentist alleviates both the pain he caused by discriminating against her and her toothache, which she forgets while engrossed in her vision. “Momma had obliterated the evil white man” and, therefore, the toothache quieted. Dr. Lincoln was the symbolic equivalent of the rotting tooth in this world, and required extraction from Stamps to ease the pain he caused. If a racist individual represents a rotten tooth, normal teeth are metaphors for people without prejudices. Removing the teeth with cavities, or prejudiced individuals
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