Custom «Whats Your Name, Girl» Essay Paper Sample

In the better part of the story Maya Angelou's tone is full of contempt and anger for her employer. This however, is not the only tone that keen readers can identify in Angelou's story. At some point in her narration, the author shows pity and mildness. She has a human heart and where necessary she shows pity on her employer.

Margret a black lady employed by a white family narrates her encounter with her boss. Most of the time, Margret is always complaining about her mistreatment by Mrs. Cullinan. She feels that one of the main reasons she is being mistreated is because she is black. Working alongside another employee who goes by the name Glory, Margret seems to have issues even with the appearance of her boss. She (Margret) describes her boss as "singularly unattractive until she smiled". Margret even goes ahead to say that her boss had to keep smiling all day so as to mask her ugliness. The narrator, to show her contempt indicates that Mrs. Cullinan with her ugliness was lucky to have a husband "above or beneath her station.

At some other point in the story, the author changes her mood from that of full contempt and anger to a mild tone. This is witnessed in Margret's dialogue with Miss Glory. Margret gets to learn that Mrs. Culllinan has no children of her own because she is barren. Margret pities her and wonders why such a fat woman could not deliver a single child for her husband. It is only at this point that the tone of the story is mild otherwise the rest of the story the narration is full of anger and contempt.

Maya Angelou uses the narrator (Margret) to show the anger she has against the white family of Mrs. Cullinan. The narrator at some point in the story is angered by the fact her boss cannot call her by her name. Being called Mary instead of Margret annoys her a lot and she sees this as a good reason why she should stop working for a white boss. She realizes that her mother would not like to see her stop working because of a silly reason. She then ponders her next move. To show how she is determined to leave stop working for Mrs. Cullinan, Margret goes ahead and breaks valuable utensils which her boss claims are from China.

To wind up, it must be stated that Maya Angelou has used her narrator (Margret) to show her anger against a certain class of people in the family. The full story's tone is that of anger and contempt except for small section the tone turns to mild. It is only after learning that Mrs. Cullinan is barren that contempt filled Margret allows pity to take control.