Written Comprehension – Broken Dreams (p.149)
1. Introduce the document (type, title, author, date,)
an extract from a novel
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
1969
2. Who is the narrator? Who is the main character?
The narrator, who is also the main character (internal focalization), is a young black
girl.
3. Where does the scene take place (building, state)?
It takes place in a church, because we can read “the children’s section of the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church” line 2 and “everyone in church” line 27.
This church is located in Arkansas because the narrator mentions her legs “powdered
with the Arkansas red clay” line 26.
What is the full name of the place? What is remarkable about that name?
“the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church”. “Colored” suggests / reminds us that
segregation also included churches – some were reserved for whites, some for
“coloreds”
4. When does the scene take place?
It takes place on a Sunday, because she is – I quote the introduction - “dressed up in
her best Sunday clothes”.
She also mentions “Easter’s early morning sun” line 21, as well as Easter Day line 46
so we can (safely) conclude/deduce that the scene takes place on Easter Sunday.
5. Sum up the situation in plain words.
The narrator/girl has to recite a poem in church, in front of the congregation, but she
has forgotten the lines, so she is ashamed./ uncomfortable / ill-at-ease / embarrassed,
especially because the otherø children are laughing at her.
6. Observe the verbal forms in the text (“conjugation”):
a. Which actions are real? Which are imaginary?
1. Children - wiggle and giggle
2. The narrator - breathe / the dress - rustle
3. The narrator - watch Momma / Momma – put ruffles (…) and cute little tucks (…)
4. The narrator – look like a movie star
5. The narrator – look like one of the sweet little white girls
6. People – run up to the narrator and say (…)
7. The narrator – answer generously (…)
8. Legs - greased with Blue Seal Vaseline
9. Legs – powdered with the Arkansas red clay
10. Everyone – look at the narrator’s skinny legs
11. the narrator – wake out of her black ugly dream
12. the narrator’s light blue eyes – hypnotize them
13. they – say things about the narrator’s daddy
14. the narrator – never pick up a Southern accent
15. a cruel fairy stepmother – turn the narrator into a too-big Negro girl
16. the minister’s wife – lean towards the narrator
17. the narrator – repeat, jamming the words together
7. b. Set (= put, place) the real actions in chronological order.
13 14
3
8 9 10 1
2
16 17
8. The dress: pick all the words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) used to describe the dress.
Classify them into 2 groups: dream / reality.
dream
silk (l.10)
looked like magic (l.14)
reality
ruffles on the hem (l.8)
cute little tucks (l.9)
lavender taffeta (l.5)
rustled (l.6)
sounded like crepe paper (l.7)
awful color (l.11)
plain ugly cut-down (l.22)
once-was-purple throwaway (l.23)
old-lady-long (l.24)
age-faded color? (l.26)
9. Which features (=characteristics) of her physical appearance are real? Imaginary?
imaginary
real
hair
long and blond (l.30)
kinky mass (l.31), nappy black (l.42)
eyes
light-blue (l.32)
small and squinty (l.36)
skin
white (l.39)
black / Negro girl (l.42)
other
too-big (l.41), broad feet and a space
between her teeth…(l.42-43)
10. What is remarkable about the first line of the poem?
“What (are) you looking at me for…?” is a line of the poem, but it is also what she is
thinking, what she could be asking to the children and everyone in church!
11. Explain the title “Broken dreams”
The narrator/girl dreams of being white, but in reality she is an African-American girl
and she thinks she is
ugly.
sees herself as
She dreams of having long blond hair and light-blue eyes, but she only has a kinky
mass of nappy black hair and small, squinty eyes.
She dreams having a beautiful dress, but she only gets to wear an ugly, plain dress,
made out of fabric taken from a “white woman’s throwaway”.
l.8: “As I’d watched Momma put ruffles on the hem…”
l.10: “once I put it on I’d look like a movie star.”
l.11: “I was going to look like.”
l.15: “when people saw me wearing it they were going to run up to me…”