Will this do? (people who have read Maya Angelou's book 'I know why the caged bird sings'?

Question

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/barbie-doll/

In english we have to analyze this poem through Maya angelou's eyes and here is what I have so far:

In the poem the “girl child” felt ugly because the standard of beauty was Barbie which had blue eyes, blonde hair, a perfect nose, and long legs. The “girl child” did not have long legs, and a perfect nose, she had short legs and a wise nose. Maya Angelou also felt this way during her childhood because during that time “White was right” and “Black was wrong” so the closer you were to looking white the prettier and purer you were.

First, the title Barbie doll is coincidental because Maya often looked at being black as a curse instead she wanted to look like a Barbie doll with blonde hair and blue eyes “wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blonde would take the place of the kinky mass that momma wouldn’t let me straighten. My light blue eyes were going to hypnotize them all…”.

The second stanza of Barbie doll tells us that the “Girl child” was healthy and strong, but she still was not happy because she didn’t look like Barbie. However Maya said her intelligence made up for her lack of beauty and she was fine with just that…

I have a feeling I'm not doing it right. I don't feel that I'm really anaylzing it through Maya's eyes instead I am comparing Maya's feelings of uglyness to The "girl childs" in Barbie doll.

Answer 1

your right, you need to do the paragraph in first person.  use I.  pretend you are maya angelou writing this and what would you, maya, think when you read the poem.  

I am not sure that you understand the poem all that well.  the poem really makes no reference to barbie, only the title.  the girlchild though is unhappy because she doesn't meet up to this standard of beauty that everyone places on women.  she is so unhappy in fact that it sounds like she commits suicide.  and only then, when she is sitting in a casket, all made up, do the people look at her and comment that she is pretty.  

so, what would maya think reading this?  she would have agreed, she would have felt like this person understood her totally.  maya know she was smart and that wasn't good enough, she had to be beautiful, which was whiter.  what would maya think when she read the part that the girlchild died?  would she have sympathized?  would she have wished she could do the same, or would she have felt that she was stronger than that?