ange the way society works or thinks. In another incident, Mrs. Cullinan calls Marguerite by her new name Mary for the first time. In Marguerites culture, it is a form of disrespect. She claims that is a dangerous practice to call a Negro anything that could be loosely construed as insulting (6). It is evident that Mrs. Cullinan surely does not see the severity of her insult. Angelou agrees with Barnlund, where Mrs. Cullinan sees Marguerite as not being a true human figure, and a subhuman form of life (51). Barnlund suggests that one will always view his/her own culture as the highest form of human life, like Mrs. Cullinan does and degrade on cultures preceding the white race. Again, Marguerite fails to respond to Mrs. Cullinans response because of the barrier. Without a response from Marguerite, Miss Glory automatically sees the fury in Marguerite and responds with sticks and stones may break your bones, but words [should never hurt you] (7). Angelou shows that people within cultures have a connecting vibe, and reassurance to ask how the other person is feeling is not necessary. However, because Miss Glory and Marguerite are on different scales of traditionalism and newness, they still have different levels of understanding. For example, when Miss Glory explains how her original name was Hallelujah, and changed to Glory for short, they both share different views on the change. Miss Glory claims she likes her new name, and Marguerite wants to laugh. The understanding that Miss Glory does not see in Marguerite agrees with Barnlund and his claim of best friends failing to understand each other. The best friends, who represent replicas of us can also be used to represent people of the same culture. There is also so much variety within each culture, which presents challenges of communication between each other. Barnlund raises the fact that because there is variation within cultures, it is even harder to communicate when ther...
