Sadie and Maud

Prepared by:
Ali bin Mohd Amir
Mohd Syafiq bin Azemi
Mohd Ikrimah bin Samson
Syahmi Azri bin Samsudin Shah
Nurul Najwa bt Saaidon
PPISMP SCIENCE 2009
 “Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks, is an
informative poem about life, choices, and happiness. The
poem follows the lives of two women, Sadie and Maud.
What the poem reveals through the life of Sadie hints at
the true source of happiness, and whether or not the
choices made are the sole contributors to that end.
MESSAGES
1) Every people has their own choices in their life

 The first two lines in stanza one illustrated two

sisters who choose different kind of life.
 Maud goes to college, to study for a betterment in
her own future life while Sadie her sister chooses to
stay at home.
 Living in an era where education is very important
for someone’s success in life, one can directly
conclude that Maud will have a better future than
her sister Sadie. 
2)We need to realize sometimes we make a wrong
choice in our life

 Writer depicts Maud who follows the bulk of white

women who go to college in that era, without
realizing what it is for, without trying to like doing
it, only as an “obligation” to be considered as “the
educated” person.
 Doing something because it is an obligation
without knowing the significance why doing it,
without enjoying it will just make Maud unhappy.
3) Be responsible with our own choice

 Life is not easy for Sadie, for she does not go to college, she
has to struggle to survive.
 Her struggle indeed makes her survive, she can handle every
problem coming to her, with her own way of life that she
chooses (by not going to college).
 Sadie is the happiest girl in her community despite the fact
that she has to undergo many severe problems in her
struggle.
 Her struggle to survive by choosing “the best” life that suits
her personality does make her happy.
4) We need to find happiness in our own way

 Before Sadie dies, she “teaches” her two daughters

to follow her step in their life, “Be yourself.
 Do what you think will make you happy.
 Don’t just follow the consensus of “good norm” of
society if you don’t feel happy with that.” 
5) Stereotyping is not good
 The poem also has a very powerful message about
stereotypes, the stereotypes that readers or society bring to
this poem.
Sadie makes what supposedly seem to be the wrong

choices, the first being not going to college, and the

second, having two children outside of marriage.
Maud, who from the little the reader knows about her,

makes “good” choices.

However, the poem leaves the reader with a sense of

extreme sadness for Maud.

    
6) Success is simply being happy
 Writer dispels the false thinking that society has on
what it takes to be successful.
 She proves that ultimately, success is not solely
based on going to college; it is not solely based on
doing what is expected, but instead, it is more basic
than that.
 Being happy in our life considered as success.
THANK YOU SO MUCH…