Caged Bird Sings

Why do people get made fun of for their names when they have no control over them? Firoozeh Dumas’ “The “F Word”” tells about how she gets made fun of for her name. It also is about how Dumas feels about her name. She uses many examples of times in her life when her name has caused problems and made situations difficult for her. Dumas is from Iran, but moved to America when she was young. Her name is “Firoozeh,” which is very different from American names, so many people couldn’t pronounce it. Many of the children in her classes made fun of her name and didn’t want to talk to her because it was so different.

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.

Everybody in the town of Stamps always trembled with the anticipation. Today is the day that all the large classes from grammar school and high school were finally graduating. As the ceremony began the principal welcomed parents and friends. The principal talked about the “great leader” Booker T. Washington our great leader. Like a river diminishing to a stream and then to a trickle his voice became quiet.. He cleared his throat and said “ Our speaker tonight, who is also our friend, came from Texarkana to deliver the commencement address, but due to irregularity of the train schedule, he’s going to, as they say ‘speak and run’. He said that we understood and we wanted the man to know that we were most grateful for the time he was able to give

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a famous autobiography by Maya Angelou who narrates her life. In the book, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, it teaches people how to overcome racism and sexism. Maya Angelou has experienced and struggled through these obstacles and this book shows how she overcomes each obstacle to becoming a strong and independent woman. At a young age Maya and her brother, Bailey have been sent off to Stamps, Arkansas because their parents had gotten a divorce. They were taken care off by their father’s mom, whom they called Momma, and their disabled uncle, Uncle Willie. Stamps, Arkansas was a heavily segregated town and this taught Maya how to act around the white folks in her town. Maya also faced many struggles getting

In “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, Marguerite is a lonely girl who lives with her grandmother. She loves to help around the store and listen to people’s voices. When a friend introduces her to poetry, Marguerite is ecstatic. As Marguerite grows up, she struggles with having a person like her for who she is.

She also has a different attitude towards them as well. When they met again when was so Nice and found everything so interesting. Although she has a new name which is wangero. She didn’t like to be called that because of who she was named after. Then as she was wandering the around the house she found some quilts of her grandma.

In the memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou presents the theme: coming of age. This theme is shown throughout the book many times, especially when something big happens to her, changing the way that she reacts to things and the way that she sees things. Another way that this theme is shown throughout the book is the way that she words things in the beginning, vs the way that she words things in the end. The change in her writing style and her language shows this. Not only was she growing up mentally but she was also growing up physically, I believe that even though she was older when she wrote this book she did a good job portraying her younger self at the beginning and her older self at the end. Maya Angelou shows the theme coming of age in her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, through the wording and structure of her writing, the events that happen to her in the book, and the way that she reacts to them.

In “Champion of the planet,” AN excerpt from her life story, i do know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou presents U.S.A. with the portrait of a rural African-American community within the Forties, those that the world riveted to the broadcast of the heavyweight world championship match. The contenders ar a white competition and therefore the black champion, the good Joseph Louis Barrow. On the surface it's simply a sporting event, however at a lower place the surface their fate as nation looks to ride on whether or not the champion loses or another time prevails.

According to Willard Scott, “Positive Feelings come from being honest about yourself and accepting your personality, and physical characteristics, warts and all; and, from belonging to a family that accepts you without question.” Maya Angelou illustrates this in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography on herself. It illustrates Maya Angelou’s struggles of accepting herself because of some cruel experiences in her life. Maya was an African American girl who was struggling on living because of her parents divorce. She was pretty strong and she decided to move to Stamps, Arkansas from Long Beach, California with Bailey; her brother, to stay at her grandmother’s, because Maya’s parents are going

The novel, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, is a touching story. It is mainly about a young woman named Maya and it is about her life. Maya isn’t like other girls. She grew up much different that most people; for instance, instead of growing up with her birth mother she has been raised by Momma Henderson. Momma Henderson is Maya’s paternal grandmother. Maya and her brother, Bailey, were sent to Momma Henderson when they were young. She might have well been there birth mother because she was there more often for them, than, their actual birth mother. Maya had an extremely difficult life and her ties with Momma Henderson, Bailey, and her birth mother altogether played an important role in her upbringing.

In "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", a young African American woman tells of her experience in dealing with issues all females face at a point in their lives, such as self-esteem issues, gender oppression, and rebellion. She faces the struggle of who she wants to be versus living in the reality of whom she actually is. In various points of the reading, she often finds herself drifting off into her thoughts with the wishes of being someone she isn't, with references to "movie stars", and "one of those sweet little girls who were everybody's dream of what was right with the world ". When in reality she was a Southern girl, donned in hand me downs, preparing herself to give a speech in church on Sunday morning.

“If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat” (Angelou, 4). In the novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, the readers see a six-year old Southern Black girl who hopes to fit into society and to be a “long and blond” (Angelou, 2) haired, “light blue” (Angelou, 2) eyed, White girl, transform into a mature adult who is proud to be an African American. From a shy and insecure little girl, she transforms into a self-confident young woman who despite going through many struggles, triumphs. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, one sees Marguerite Johnson’s ability to mature and grow by dealing with the matters of prejudice, rape, and abandonment.

Beth Becker English 12 December 9, 2014 Dual-Credit Book Report I Know why the Caged Bird Sings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a nonfiction autobiography, written by Maya Angelou in the late 1960s. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings takes places in Stamps, Arkansas; St. Louis, Missouri; and San Francisco, California. It follows Maya’s life from her early childhood until she is sixteen years old.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou is an autobiographical coming of age story set in the midst of the racially charged era of the Jim Crow Laws. Angelou’s novel explores the enormously influential first seventeen years of her life, as she struggles to overcome the seemingly insurmountable personal and societal adversities such as rape, race, instability, and insecurity. Angelou’s powerful depictions of the events of her early life immediately immerses her readers in the fact that life as a black woman in the 1930’s and 1940’s, meant forging a place in society that was not created for you. Angelou depicts her young life lacking stability and having a revolving door of people, both good and bad coming in and out of it. However,

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is an autobiography. That tells the story of Maya, from her childhood to her adolescence, and how she deals with oppression and racism in her life. The book tells the struggle of not only being African American during segregation, but being a woman too. A wide range of events happen in this book that deal with racism, abuse, and sexism. The title of this book came from a poem “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar that describes the little freedom a bird has in a cage, so all they can do is use their voice for some sympathy. This is similar to Maya. In Spite of the struggles she experiences, and because of incredible, inspiring, and influential people in her life, she learns the power of one’s voice.