Analysis Of Style In I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings And Tim O Brien

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical novel written by Maya Angelou, was published in the year 1969. The novel follows Maya as a young girl facing challenges such as racism and sexism following the civil rights movement. While reading the book, the reader is introduced to events in history such as the Great Depression and World War II.

Congratulating All Women In the impactful novels I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, both authors set out to tell the story of women learning to obtain their voice when facing a society that deems them as unworthy. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an exquisite memoir about the unforgettable events of Maya Angelou, set in Stamps, Alabama in the 1930s. It follows Angelou’s life from childhood to young adulthood, growing up as a minority, and never being fully considered.

An example of Maya facing racism is during her eighth grade graduation. Maya was so excited to graduate. The school she attended enrolled both whites and blacks. First of all during the assembly the blacks had to recite their own national anthem titled “ The Negro National Anthem”. The principal gave a speech the the students and instead of treating the kids equal, he proudly stated the new achievements the whites were going to have, and

Maya Angelou is a leader by example, she sets the standard by her actions and the stories she tells teaches the audience a lesson. Majority of her work is to inform us of the past and she wants us to learn from her experiences in life; she is a life teacher. The purpose of this poem was to inform us of the history of our country. The poem is titled “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and her purpose of writing this is to teach the reader why the caged bird sings. Maya Angelou wants to put the reader in her shoes to get the ultimate experience of racial inequality but instead by taking the role of a caged bird or a free bird.

In “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, Maya Angelou uses her personal experiences growing up as an African American female to present her primary claim that even in trying times there is something to be grateful for. Angelou’s secondary claims are mainly comprised of stories from her upbringing as well as the description of her grandmother’s attitude even though they are living through times of extreme poverty. In Each of the stories she speaks of one circumstance that seems completely unbearable but yet ends with some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. This structure can also be seen in her description of her grandmother’s outlook on life. By formatting her essay in this way, Angelou is able to develop pathos as well as ethos with the audience.

After Maya started speaking again at the age of 13, thanks to one of her teacher and as well as a family friend, Mrs. Bertha Flowers who helped her cope though that ruff time period, she had a whole new outlook on what she wanted to do with her life . “It was through literature that she found her voice again. And what a voice it was and is.” (Emilie M. Townes). By the age of 14, during World War II, Maya was living with her mother and brother in Oakland California. She attended the California Labor School where she had won a scholarship to study drama and dance at San Francisco’s Labor School. Three weeks after graduating from school at the age of 17, she gave birth to her son who was named Guy Johnson. Shortly afterwards, she dropped out of school and became the first African American female cable car conductor.

Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya shields herself against the confusion of St. Louis by reading fairy-tales and telling herself that she does not intend on staying there anyway. Vivian works in a gambling parlor at night. Maya pities Mr. Freeman because he spends his days at home waiting for Vivian to return. Maya begins sleeping at night with Vivian and Mr. Freeman because she suffers from nightmares. One morning after Vivian has left the bed and the house,

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings was first published in 1969 during a time when autobiographies of women because heavily significant by their exclamation of the significance of women. As a result, Angelou's piece gathered attention from various types of women who could relate to Angelou's journey of sexuality, colour, and the coloured

“The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered only the crumbs from his country 's table but by ingenuity and courage is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast. Hence the janitor who lives in one room but sports a robin 's-egg-blue Cadillac is not laughed at but admired, and the domestic who buys forty-dollar shoes is not criticized but is appreciated. We know that they have put to use their full mental and physical powers. Each single gain feeds into the gains of the body collective” (Angelou 218). Maya believes that blacks are being robbed of their lives and freedom to explore, grow, and succeed. This statement shows that ones with the very little they have will utilize it completely and have that to their advantage, and then they will succeed. Racism and prejudice are large factors that shapes Maya’s autobiography and eventually motivate her to ignore all of the negative influences and build her confidence. There are also many violent events towards blacks that show Maya the severity of prejudice in her society. One day when Maya was at the store a fight was on the radio where a black man and white man were battling in a boxing ring. When the black fighter Louis was getting beaten Maya thought, “It was our people falling. It was another

When Maya was raped, she blamed herself for the death of her rapist, and became muted for 5 years. She used this story as a growth mechanism. She wrote a book titled, “I know why the caged bird sings” (Angelou), which is about the civil rights movement and a young lady struggling to make it through. The book reflects her life from when she was an insecure little girl to growing up and realizes people cannot be mad at the world forever. She learned that she can trust herself and be who she really is. This book is what got her noticed. She translated a message so clear throughout the book,that black girls can conquer independence and be great at it. New York Times Journalist Katherine Schulten says, “Maya Angelou’s often-taught “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” already know, for Ms. Angelou, “finding her voice” meant something much more than just learning to write well”(Schulten). What this quotes means is Maya Angelou purposely wrote this book to teach and become an inspiration to everyone. She found her voice and not its time for everyone else to find their voice ! She is such a great soul that blessed so many people's hearts with her inspirational teachings and poems. Ultimately, Maya Angelou defied expectations by finding her voice and becoming such a strong independent woman during rough times when everything seemed impossible. Her actions were worth every minute spend, til

As an African American women living in the segregated era. She became involved in the civil right movement alongside Dr. Martin Luther king. As an activist to civil right movement, she many of her works express the frustration of the oppression of African American were dealing with in a prejudiced world by speaking about the issue through her writing, like many great leaders. Maya can connect with her reader with from her writing. Maya is writing give hope for those who suffer from in the past of segregation. In her autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings she talks about the anger of watching her grandmother staying silent until a disrespectful white girls, because she was raised to believe children should respect elderly and act properly. As a child, she could not understand why black people treated as a second-class citizen to the point where they could not eat a certain color ice cream on a certain day even if they hold a higher standard in the community. She speaks of her experiences of seeing her uncle hiding in the potato bin because the fear of being Lynch by angry racist seeking revenge. She dealt with being called out her name by employee who doesn’t acknowledge her and dined medical treatment by a man her grandmother help because he rather touch a dog mouth then an n*gger. As a child her grandmother teach bailey and her the proper way to behave but it anger her

She reflects on the segregation in her small town, and what her life was like as a child. At this point in Maya’s life, she sees “whitefolks” (25) as something that she isn’t sure exist. She didn’t know what they looked like, and they didn’t live in her world on her side of town, so they weren’t considered people to her. Maya understood what other people were telling her, especially that people on the other side of town were something to dread because they had all of the power in the segregated world, and African Americans had none

Maya Angelou tells of her life experiences and struggles in her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” that gives us insight about Maya’s life as a young black girl growing up in a time of racism. The novel discusses various forms of oppression that she had to face as well cope with them. Robert A. Gross wrote an analysis for Newsweek about the book and claimed that Angelou’s book is not only an interesting story of her own experience, but also a portrayal of a Southern black community, thus being a historic reference of the 1930’s. Joanne Megna-Wallace backs up Gross’s claim in her critique of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and also stresses the importance of the novel as a historic book, and also discusses how Maya Angelou intended the autobiography to target the historic circumstances of the time period. However, these two analyses portray the novel in two completely different ways. Robert Gross views the novel as a well-written story that was cleverly thought out and racism has a slight impact on the main character’s life. He views the autobiography as being a beautiful story that portrays the warmth and understanding within the black community, whereas Wallace argues that Maya Angelou’s autobiography is way of exposing the horrific racist conditions that made up her childhood. She focuses on Maya Angelou’s struggle and the tragic events that made her the woman she is.

Maya Angelou describes what her life with her grandmother is like while constantly being discriminated against her race. She then found her father, and he leaves Maya and Bailey off to their mother’s house. There, the mother’s boyfriend rapes Maya. After suffering from psychological shock, Maya then moves back to her grandmother’s. As a teenager Maya gets nervous about her sexual identity and tries to discover it. Through these harsh times, the naïve and softhearted Maya grows to become a strong, independent woman.

Personification, similes, metaphors and imagery are just some of the poetic styles incorporated within I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Mary Angelou did a great job at making the reader stay engaged through her passion for poetry as it painted a picture of what it was like to witness the stark divide between two communities. “A light shade had been pulled down between the Black community and all things white, but one could see through it enough to develop a fear-admiration-contempt for the white “things” (Angelou, 49). This quote not only paints a picture in the readers’ mind of what her community environment was like, it encompasses her poetic style utilizing