I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Moving on was rough especially growing up in the 1930’s-1940’s deep within the south. Maya being the young child that she was expressed large amounts of resilience towards the “powhitetrash” living within her mother property. Not fully understanding just how racist people living in her time are. Maya at first commences are as static character, showing complete hatred to those she deemed “trash” and believed that by if she “pinched it” things would get better. So in a sense that she would cause a revolution. Maya remain static throughout a majority of the story until she faces the main

Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, author, and poet. She wrote many books and poems that conveyed the vivid experiences in her life. Maya Angelou’s works are well known and she is an eminent writer. One poem in particular that is well known is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” written in 1969. In this work she described racial inequality, and the lack of freedom African Americans experienced in the 1930’s and 40’s. Maya Angelou uses many Rhetorical strategies and literary devices to describe the lack of racial freedom in the world at this time.

When Maya returns to Stamps after spending time with her mother, she endures the shame of having been sexually abused by Mr. Freeman, her mother’s boyfriend. Maya stops speaking to everyone except her brother, Bailey. Her real mother accepts her silence at first as trauma, but she later gets angry at Maya’s “disrespectful behavior”. Much to Maya’s relief, she is sent back to live with Momma in Stamps along with her

What was the effect of the Black fighter, Joe Louis ' victory over his white opponent?

She raises Bailey and Maya as if they are he own kids. Through the novel Maya never had a father figure, but she had Momma. An independent black woman. Momma owned her own store, took care of her crippled son and took care of her two grandchildren. She is a religious and a strong woman. Growing up Maya always questioned why Momma did some of the things the way she did, for instance one time some white children called Momma names and mistreated her, but she did not budge. Maya thought, “Who owned the land they lived on?... If there was any justice in the world, God should strike them dumb at once!” (23), Maya is thinking about retaliation, but does not realize that there can be serious consequences. Kinsolver exemplifies with this quote that society separates black and white and gives power to only the whites. Maya thinks otherwise, in that they should be equal and this is her first step of breaking societal expectations. As Maya matures she learns how to be more womanly and independent from

“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

Maya’s upbringing as a child is very parallel to Taylor’s because she is raised by her grandma, whom she calls Momma, without an affective paternal figure in her life. As a child, Maya sees that her grandma successfully raised her and her brother on her own. Momma owns a shop in their town called, The Store and she runs it generally by herself. She makes an effort to protect Maya and Bailey from being mistreated in society because when the dentist refuses to attend to Maya’s needs, Momma tells the dentist, “I wouldn’t go press on you like this for myself but I can’t take No. Not for my grandbaby” (Caged Bird 189). Momma asserts her power in demanding service for her granddaughter and shows Maya that she is strong and possesses the power to be successful in society and overpower a male in some circumstances. Maya watches her grandma in this situation and instantly categorizes her as a powerful woman and looks up to her even more now. Maya visualizes her Momma as a form of a hero because, “Momma had obliterated the evil white man” (Caged Bird 191), because she stood up to the white dentist that is seen as evil in her family’s eyes. Maya then realizes that Momma is one of the more powerful black women in society that is able to stand up to the white race when the blacks are mistreated. Maya can then exert her

However, Maya, the viewpoint of the novel, as a woman who hasn't lived this TRUE American life style. Like said, “In Stamps the segregation was so complete that most Black children didn't really, absolutely know what whites looked like. Other than that they were different. To be dreaded, and in that dread was included the hostility of the powerless against the powerful, the poor against the rich, the worker against the worked for and the ragged against the well-dressed. I remember never believing that whites were really real. ” (Angelou, 25) Maya illustrates the quantity of racial discrimination between the white and the blacks. That the segregation was in a sense said “complete” and never had the black seen the whites. Maya is once told in the novel that she was “the Uglies” and had told Bailey that was actually a beautiful blonde hair and she was in a nightmare trapped in this “African American” body. This act by Maya really says her individual characteristics that she is equal upon all American, and is not to be look down upon. In a sense, American isn't supposed to be a point to be judged upon racial features, but an individual who wants to strive and succeed for greater

As I stated before, the time she’s referring back to was very vile and evil. This only nourished her condition of self-hate. For every conflict that arose I felt bad and then enraged that her esteem was so low. I was disappointed that she didn’t expect more for herself. When her father came around she was embarrassed because he was so good looking and she was afraid they’d compare her to him. She felt that his presence would only magnify her “ugliness”. The whole time he is there she barely speaks. It was so bad that she was holding herself back. The fact that she felt her parents had abandoned her added to the equation. When she was molested, she couldn’t understand that what Mr. Freeman was doing to her was wrong because she finally felt wanted. Her feeling of misplacement totaled out the damage that she would have to later fix. It’s said that before an arrow could move forward, it has to be pulled back, this reminds me of Maya because once she got pinch of confidence in herself she made history. (First streetcar

Communication and expression of emotions is imperative when overcoming a hardship such as rape. However, upon being informed that Mr. Freeman had been murdered, Grandma Baxter immediately makes it clear that she “never wants to hear this situation nor that evil man’s name … again” (87). Maya quickly comprehends that she must never speak of her adversity, even with her trusted family. Oppressing emotions and discussion of the topic can only worsen the suffering, particularly for a young girl like Maya. It is evident that Maya is severely depressed and confused, her extended period of silence indicates this in her memoir. Once back in Stamps, Maya was uncertain whether her family “had been told about the incident in St. Louis”(91). Maya and those around her, including Bailey, simply cut out the part of her life in which she had been raped. Her adversity was “swept under the carpet” by her family and her most trusted individuals. This neglection results in Maya beginning to feel a new impression of loneliness, and a further deterioration of her

As a result of the size of Stamps, and the people that inhabited the town, there was very little you could do without the whole town knowing. Throughout Maya Angelou’s and Bailey’s childhood they were constantly limited by the narrow-minded town and in San Francisco they gained the freedom to expand their minds. In San Francisco they left Momma’s disciplined ways and benefited from Vivian’s laid back ways. Considering this independence that they children were given, they reacted well and due to it, they realized who they were as a person and were able to

In the era, Maya grew up in men are considered accomplish and successful than a woman. Often women are homemakers with children based on the typical stereotype of what a woman supposed to be in society. Maya Therefore, Maya questions her sexuality after reading about lesbians because of her lack of interest in affection from men and appearances that isn’t considers a normal girl behavior. Maya had her first consensual intercourse with a classmate to ensure herself that she is normal, which result in her becoming a mother after she graduated high school. In her path of becoming a mother, she became better woman then the own mother because, unlike her mother, Maya raised her son as a single mother regardless of the outcome of her life. Therefore, Maya is also a great example of how much a woman can do even with a child. She never let the outcome of her life stop her from achieving greatness, showing that women don't have to sacrifice to achieve their goals. Maya learns to survive and thrive in a racist dominated society earning respect and title as an African-American and as a

She succeeds and becomes the first African American woman to work on San Francisco street cars. Going back to school, she didn’t really feel like she belonged. At one point of her life, Maya feared she was a lesbian and decided to experiment with having boyfriends etc. She encounters two brothers, and decides to be in a relationship with one of them. After realizing that it is not satisfying her, she ends it. Three weeks later, she finds out she’s pregnant. She ends up giving birth to a son, and is so amused by the baby that she is afraid to even touch him. However eventually, her mother makes her sleep on the bed with her son to prove to her that nothing will happen to him, and from then on, she wasn’t afraid anymore. This book was a very detailed view of Maya’s life, especially because it was an autobiography and she was the author. I found out so much that I never knew about her, and I was very interested. She had such a hard life, but still managed to make it a life worth living, and worth

Maya feels caught in a trap when the attorney asks her whether there were any sexual incidents with Mr. Freeman prior to the rape. She fears rejection from her family if she admits to the previous incidents, but

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.