When I Lay My Burden Down By Maya Angelou

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In “When I Lay My Burden Down” by Maya Angelou, Maya is a young girl living in poverty with her grandmother. In addition to living in poverty she must follow two “commandments,” rules that her grandmother has set for her, stay clean and never become imputent. Her grandmother believes that without these rules people become distant from God. Everyone Maya knows respects the rules with the exception of the powhitetrash children, they are always filthy and disrespectful to adults and this causes a deep hatred towards them. When the powhitetrash children come to their store, her grandmother asks that she stays inside the house and let her take care of the children. The children treat her grandmother terribly and Maya is forced to listen and watch the abuse from inside, helpless against it. The powhitetrash children trigger a conflict within Maya between her desire to leave the house and be rude to the powhitetrash children and her grandmother's instructions to remain inside and respectful to everyone. Personal desires can often drive people to make bad choices with large consequences.…show more content…
Although Maya’s grandmother is very clear about her instructions, Maya cannot help the desire of disobeying her to stop the childrens attack. Maya understands that going outside and yelling at the children would be breaking one of the only two rules her grandmother has set, always remain respectful. Protecting her grandmother might be a good excuse to break the rule but she knows that breaking it for any purpose would bring her grandmother’s wrath. Her only desire is to protect her grandmother but she is unable to due to her explicit instructions to stay inside and remain kind to
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