Finishing School - Maya Angelou

Finishing School is an essay written by Maya Angelou. Angelou's main character Margaret went through her own " Finishing School" that happened to be inside a white woman's kitchen. In this essay she explaining how, young girl were put through unnecessary 

preparation for adulthood and briefly explained the difference between what white girls learned and what colored girls learned. In this essay she wanted respect and to be treated as a human being rather than just a "slave".

Margaret is a ten year old black girl who lives in the south in 1930's at the time when slavery has long passed gone, but racial segregation and discrimination are still very strong. She comes to work as a servant in a home of a white wealthy women, Mrs. Viola Cullinan. She observed Mrs. Cullinan quite alot, and commented on many things that involved her such as her smile, the lines around her eyes, and even that "The exactness of her house was inhuman". Margaret is willing to accept the new rules and work as hard as possible for the white rich and ugly lady, because Margaret feels sorry for her. She feels pity for Mrs. Cullinan because she couldnot have children for being too " delicate - boned".

Sadly,  she soon  realizes that no one is interested in her feelings and her pity. To her employer she is just a stupid, wordless, and black servant. After one of Mrs. Cullinan's friends said that calling her  Margaret was such a hassle to just her  call her "Mary". After that incident, Mrs. Cullinan began to call her Mary. The fact that her name, her own name that was given to her by her parents, is just now so easily being changed by this white women, makes her very mad. Margaret feels  that she was just robbed of something important,her name. 

Once she was told Mrs. Cullinan's favourite contents of cupboard and particular plates she  liked best, she had  just the  perfect plan. Margaret decided to destroys the casserole like fish and two of the green glass cups. When Margaret was order to serve Cullinan's friend again, she deliberately dropped the empty serving tray that was left to Mrs. Cullinan by her wealthy parents. This collapse Mrs. Cullinan to collapse into tears. She started to insult Margaret by calling her a clumsy nigger. The same old speckled face women who had the idea to call her Mary asked "Who did it, Viola? Was it Mary?  Who did it?". Mrs. Cullinan responded by screaming " Her name's Margaret, goddamn it, her name's  Margaret". In the ending of her narrative, she states “I left the front door wide open so all the neighbors could hear. Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasn’t Mary.” showing her revenge was successful.