Response Essay- "Momma, the Dentist, and Me" by Maya Angelou
Living in an age where racism, color discrimination and disparity are almost nonexistent the essay on ‘Momma, the Dentist and me’ is a touching account on the days bygone. It is basically about a child having toothache due to cavities but it touches the hearts of those who understand discrimination based on skin color. When the basic necessities like emergency health care are denied the child recounts the agony of pain and also the imaginative irony of revenge in a humorous way. This leads us to think that freedom, as we enjoy today – freedom from discrimination, to visit any place, freedom to use health facilities, freedom to think- are very precious.
With great difficulty Marguerite takes a bath , wears clean, starched clothes and brushes her teeth as she is going to the white dentist for the first time. Her pain is so excrutiating that opening her mouth gets imposible. Getting ready to walk to the dentist's office indicates that the commute was primarily by foot. A towel is tied arround her face to hold the jaw and here signifies a proper attire to walk in the white neighbourhood. The essay details the child’s pain and the circumstances leading to the visit to the dentist in a humorous and endearing way that we look forward to know what might happen next. As they walk to cross the bridge and the pond between the colored and white communities and reach the steps of the clinic the metaphysical world of differences between the white and the blacks can be envisaged. The streets are better paved, the tress shadier, the breeze seems to be cooler, but the sneers of white children and the songs of the prisoners potray the pathos of the scenario.
The dentist makes Momma and Marguerite wait for one hour on the landing of the stairs in the hot sun and then denies to see a black girl’s teeth as a matter of policy. There is a slight discussion on the policy of Momma when she lends money to the dentist even though he did not beg for it and she lets herself be called Annie rather than Mrs Henderson in the hope that Marguerite gets treatment. Shut doors and minds show the helplessness of the pair but Momma ventures to converse with the dentist privately. Here the essay takes a dramatic turn, when Marguerite imagines Momma threatening the dentist and his nurse which we all might have done in our minds when we face adersity. Marguerite thinks that the dentist would leave the town permanently and tend to animals in the future. Denial of a facility based on color or race is touchy matter and we are tempted to get aggressive to fight for our rights. How we wish we could weed out the wrong doers like a spoilt tooth?
Denied care at the white dentist Momma and Marguerite go to Texarkana by Greyhound bus to see a negro Dentist prolonging Marguerite pain’s and Momma’s quite anger and insult. As the teeth are extracted under the supervision of Momma and Marguerite gets an icecream to cull the pain, Marguerite is assured that Momma will take care of her no matter what may come. As a grandparent incharge of a child Momma exhibits authority and assurance that the child needs. Both return home Marguerite boasts about the empty sockets of the extracted teeth and Momma’s agression with the white dentist. Imagination has no boundaries and the best way to say wound-up emotions is to put them in a humorous ways. Marguerite imagination was close to what Momma had actually said to the white denstist. She demanded the interest of ten dollars for the money she loaned him and its kind of pay back to the humiliation she suffered in front of Marguerite. Revoking fear in the mind of the dentist Momma acheives what she wanted to, gaining respect of her family and a good story to laugh about.
The essay is an account of day to day battles that colored people faced during the olden days. Here Momma, the grand mother has a role of the protector and she plays it perfectly well, leading as a role model to Marguerite. Marguerite as a child in awe conveys that pain and wonder are enduring aspects of human nature and cannot be ignored. Though Momma never thought about the interest on the money she lent to the dentist, she used it as a ploy to get some amount that helped her go to Texarkana. She talks about what is right thing to do but she had to do it to make the dentist pay for the way he treated her. In a very short length the essay covers the key elements of discrimination - Poverty (Marguerite unable to go the dentist when needed), lack of facilities ( non availability of black dentist in the locality), denial of care ( white dentist denies treatment to black people), unsaid words of insult ( waiting in the hot sun with a child, called by first name), hidden anger (Marguerite’ imagination of Momma threatening the white dentist) and many other aspects of it. It links us to the current age where these previlages are enjoyed without a second thought. It also warns, in some invisible ways, not to get back to the old days where people were judged by the skin color and not by their capabilities. The essay also potrays that the human needs- food, shelter and clothing are not the only necessities for living. Caring, compassion, understanding, respect, cross cultural tolerance go a long way in people’s social well being.
Sources
Maya Angelou (1969), I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, extract from Vol I, titles Momma, The Dentist and me.
