[General] "What you looking at me for? I didn't come to stay."

[Elena22]

Our class will do something related to Maya Angelou's "I know why the caged bird sings"
in winter session. I take so much time to read books in English and even if I have read the book,
it is hard for me to catch up my friends... So I decided to read it properly
beforehands.
I opened the book and the first paragraph is below:
'
"What you looking at me for? I didn't come to stay."

I hadn't so much forgot as I couldn't bring myself to remember. Other things were more important.

"What you looking at me for? I didn't come to stay."

Whether I could remember the rest of the poem or not was immaterial.
The truth of the sentence was like a wadded-up hankerchief, sopping wet in my fists, and the sooner
they accepted it the quicker they could let my hands open and the air would cool my palms. '

I was so surprised that I've got no idea what this short paragraph means....
I love reading, but when I read English books I just go blank.
What pops into your head when you read the above paragraph?
That is the very first paragraph in the book. Page 1.
Is 'What you looking at me for?' even grammatically correct?

 

[emsr2d2]

"What you looking at me for?" is the causal informal spoken version of "What are you looking at me for?" which means "Why are you looking at me?"
We frequently use "What ... for" to mean "Why?" or to denote purpose.

What are you doing that for?
What's that big red button for?
I don't know what it's for but I want to press it.

 

[Raymott]

Our class will do something related to Maya Angelou's "I know why the caged bird sings"
in winter session. I take so much time to read books in English and even if I have read the book,
it is hard for me to catch up my friends... So I decided to read it properly
beforehands.
I opened the book and the first paragraph is below:
'
"What you looking at me for? I didn't come to stay."

I hadn't so much forgot as I couldn't bring myself to remember. Other things were more important.

"What you looking at me for? I didn't come to stay."

Whether I could remember the rest of the poem or not was immaterial.
The truth of the sentence was like a wadded-up hankerchief, sopping wet in my fists, and the sooner
they accepted it the quicker they could let my hands open and the air would cool my palms. '

I was so surprised that I've got no idea what this short paragraph means....
I love reading, but when I read English books I just go blank.
What pops into your head when you read the above paragraph?
That is the very first paragraph in the book. Page 1.
Is 'What you looking at me for?' even grammatically correct?

"What you looking at me for?" is grammatically OK in Black American English. It's grammatically wrong in standard English.
As far as the wider question goes, I can't distinguish your questions from the paragraph. So it's hard to guess.
Have you done any research on this author?

 

[Elena22]

Oh I meant after reading them I can't visualize what is going on in the paragraph.
I read the paragraph out loud but actually it is just reading words out, not really getting them...
And yes, I've watched Oprah interviewing her and gone through wikipedia.

 

[5jj]

"What you looking at me for?" is grammatically OK in Black American English. It's grammatically wrong in standard English.

I wouldn't say it was wrong these days.

 

[Raymott]

I wouldn't say it was wrong these days.

It's not a correct English sentence though. There's no finite verb. It might be acceptable to some as a fragment. The "are" could be very minimal, but I can't imagine myself ever leaving it out.

 

[Elena22]

Was the girl who is speaking reading a poem?

 

[5jj]

It's not a correct English sentence though. There's no finite verb.

What are you looking at me for?
Why are you looking at me?
Where do you come from?

Don't we have finite verbs in those sentences?

 

[Raymott]

What are you looking at me for?
Why are you looking at me?
Where do you come from?

Don't we have finite verbs in those sentences?

Sure we do.
But we don't have one in "What you looking at me for?", which the sentence we're discussing. If you believe there's a finite verb there, what is it?

 

[5jj]

Sure we do.
But we don't have one in "What you looking at me for?", which the sentence we're discussing. If you believe there's a finite verb there, what is it?