Character Analysis: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri (1928) as Marguerite Johnson; however she grew up in Stamps, Arkansas where her grandmother ran a general store. Angelou has acted and written several plays, poems, and a six-part autobiography “I Know Why the caged Bird Sings” making her one of this country’s foremost black writers. In this story Angelou tells about how her grandmother (momma) triumphs over a pack of taunting neighborhood children. I feel very strongly about this particular piece given the time set and the way black people were treated by the whites, and how without harsh words or threats some black people overcame the taunting and cruelties of the whites.

The audience of this poem are the people who want to learn about how America was during segregation. Teachers have taught us what they have been told to teach. However, Angelou has lived through this time and has experienced segregation. She is a credible

In an excerpt from her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings called “Graduation,” Maya Angelou narrates the anticipation surrounding graduation in her small town of Stamps, Alabama. Angelou effectively contrives noteworthy differences between paragraphs 1 through 5 and 6 through 10 through the use of emotional and descriptive diction, powerfully bold comparisons, and a shift in perspective in order to instill pride and dignity in Angelou and her race despite the era’s highlighted social injustices which she endures.

Throughout her life, Marguerite experiences many different situations and people that all contribute to the way she grows up and the person she becomes. Despite some of her tragic circumstances, she learns a lot growing up, mainly because of the African-American women in her life who teach her all different life lessons. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Marguerite gets to absorb teachings from her mother (Vivian), Mrs. Bertha Flowers, and her grandmother (Momma). These women allow Marguerite to learn and grow as an African-American female, all while paving her own way.

At the time of Marguerite Johnson better known as Maya Angelou 's death on the 28th of May 2014, she was an Activist, acclaimed American poet, storyteller and autobiographer. However, all her accomplishments were born out of abuse, violence, neglect and pain, that she wrote about in her autobiographical novel, "I know why the caged bird sings" which was published in 1969. In the book, she wrote not only about the conflicts that plagued her for much of her life but also how the role they played in her life. Particular problem areas discussed include, the difficulties she experienced during her childhood, such as debilitating displacement, racism and segregation, sexual abuse and gender. Despite the fact that the autobiography cover 's Angelou 's life from age three to sixteen and records her victories and successes well, her achievements of adulthood are left for the other volumes and the events described are intended to relate a very personal portrait of her life thus the work is told from a first-person perspective. Based on the chapters of the book, this essay will analyze Maya Angelous autobiography and also the particular problem areas and the role of violence and hierarchy of racism and segregation in the text that Maya Angelou faced as a child and how the hierarchy of age led to her silence, and also how it affected her ability to love.

“Censorship is the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.” (Censorship) The First Amendment gives Americans the right of free speech. Maya Angelou writes that,“we write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans because we can.” Writing empowers the author and the reader to share and grasp knowledge of people and the lives they live. Though Maya Angelou’s story is sometimes difficult for the reader to hear, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings should be taught in the 10th grade classrooms.

Throughout the novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, the main character, Marguerite Ann Johnson, goes through a lot during her childhood. When Maya was little she was living with her grandmother, which they called mamma. Maya’s brother Bailey also lived with them. One day their father came and took them to St. Louis and left them to live with their mother. Their mother, Vivian, lived with her boyfriend Mr.Freeman. For a while Maya started having nightmares and slept with her mother and Mr.Freeman. One day after Maya’s mother left for work, Mr.Freeman help Maya close and started to masturbate. After this first incident many more came after.

Maya finally tells Bailey what happened to her and who did it, he tells the

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.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century, racism was something new that came about and through time has affected a numerous amount of people in America. Not only has it impacted people’s lives, but it has created a stigma against other cultures. Maya Angelou the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings recounts what she went through in her life-time and how she overcame racism through the different surroundings she was exposed to, the use of polysyndetons, and the tone throughout the novel.

Many people that are exposed to racism tend to become insecure about their skin color and ethnic background etc. When people constantly treat someone different because they look different the person begins to feel different, and wish they were someone or something “better”. In Maya Angelou’s autobiography she demonstrates what its like growing up in a racist community and how it feels to be the outcast. Angelou continuously speaks about being someone different her ideal self, something she is completely different from. She feels this way due to the racist society she lives in. In "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" Maya Angelou demonstrates in her autobiography in 1969 that even with love and affection in a household, it is difficult to view themselves in a positive way, living in a racist society.

From an apprehensive child growing up in a small town in Arkansas, Maya Angelou has evolved into an influential, wise, and respected woman. She has overcome obstacles and has grown into one of the élite intellectual people of this country, and perhaps the world. Along her numerous struggles, various people have given her positive guidance and passed down their knowledge to her. Among these people was Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a person in which Maya respected greatly. She was a dignified person that Maya could strive to achieve the gratitude that Mrs. Flowers gave to the people around her, a sense of appreciation. In her life story, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou attributes her

In I know Why The Caged Bird Sings written by Maya Angelou, the author shares her experiences she had as a young girl to adulthood in the 1950s and 1960s. She writes from a view of an innocent child and the view of an adult who has learned all too well what it means to be black and oppressed racially and sexually and the loneliness that comes with. Maya Angelous uses a symbol of a caged birds and acts of communion as a way to advance the important themes of freedom and family.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, is an autobiographical work with fictional elements of Angelou’s life. It tells the story of Marguerite, or more affectionately known as Maya, living in the racist climate of America in the 1960’s. The prevalence of racism in Stamps, Arkansas seemed greater than any other state in the country at that time. With Maya being a black, young girl in the South, she felt that she had drawn the short straw in life. She often found herself believing that she was born in the wrong body, and fantasized about having pale skin with long, flat, and blond hair. Maya and her brother, Bailey, were dropped off in Stamps by their parents to live with their grandmother, Momma. Momma is the lady one would pictures when they think of an old, black, southern,Christian mother. Momma was one of the richest people in the black community because she owned the local convenience store, and she was respected by all because she was stern and fair at the same time. The only person Maya loved above Momma was Bailey, who she would consider her closest comrade and partner and crime.

As a black female in a racist and sexist world, Angelou overcomes barriers and obstacles to tell an empowering, deep-felt story about the value of growing up by accepting oneself. Though Maya endured traumatizing events and periods of intense insecurities, her ability to rise above and learn from them helped her grow and mature. Similarly, oppression and injustice define most societies, but transcending such restrictions and learning to love oneself are vital to the formation of an individual’s identity and forming an identity and growing