Relationship, Independence And Initiation:a Study Of Angelou’s And Marshall’s Black Female Bildungsroman

Influenced by Freudian revisionists’psychoanalysis and Kimberly Drake’s model of American slave development, this thesis analyzes initiation in African American female Bildungsroman I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou (1928-) and Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959) by Paule Marshall (1929-). This thesis argues that relationship is indispensable for the maturing of the black girls in the multi-cultural American society and their social incorporating into American society.This thesis is divided into three chapters. In analyzing Maya’s coming-of-age story in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first chapter explores how a black girl in American South with trauma experiences learns to articulate herself and becomes an independent working woman under the support and care of her grandmother and Mrs. Flowers. The first chapter argues that the supportive relationship with black women enables Maya to recognize her worth and construct her identity under the guidance of her surrogate mothers. She completes her initiation in asserting her sexual identity and seeking the same job opportunity as whites, becoming an economically independent woman. It further argues that in black female initiation, maturation comes from young girls’control of her sexuality and the forming of her social identity.In analyzing Selina’s coming-of-age story in Brown Girl, Brownstones, the second chapter argues that Selina retrieves her ethnicity and blackness through recognizing the value of and renewing her relationship with her mother and Barbados black community. More importantly, Selina realizes the conflicting values in the multi-cultural American society. Her relationship with community of conflicting values urges Selina to pursue anew and hybrid self at the end, attempting to reconcile her individuality and ethnicity, which shows Selina spiritual independence and her development. This chapter further suggests that a mature woman is one taking control of her destiny and developing her own goals, not restricted in marriage or conformity with the mass community.The third chapter is a comparative study of the different models of relationship and independence in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Brown Girl, Brownstones. Maya’s supportive relationship with her surrogate mothers enables her to become an independent working woman in the end, while Selina’s relationship with her mother and black community is conflicting so that she has to choose with fine tradition but shake off the bad customs and values. In the two Bildungsromans which are both highly autobiographical, Angelou’s economic independence as the result of initiation of a working class black woman inspires many other African American women to strive for equality and improvement of themselves even with the "cage" prison. While Marshall’s received college education and Barbados immigrant status make her focus on her protagonist’s spiritual and psychological journey into independence. African American girls follow the relational model of female initiation but achieve an independent outcome of traditional male development. The two African American female writers, by presenting the growing path of Maya and Selina, show that young African American women incorporate into American society as independent individuals though they need to establish social relation in their maturing process.