a symbol of racism, and in this regard it further represents the black girl's difficulties in controlling, understanding, and respecting both her body and her words in a society that does not value those words from someone like her. Angelou links a number of elements in white society with rape, including the white view of beauty that is imposed on society and on black people, who can never live up to the white ideal. She makes the link in her autobiography between the violation of her body on the one hand and the devaluation of her words on the other.
A related line in the autobiography is the child's struggle with her emerging womanhood, but this as well is linked with the child's admiration for white literary discourse. Maya finds that her body and her words
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