I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Essay

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.

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

After she stops speaking, Angelou and her brother are sent back to Stamps. Here, she begins to see the solace that many blacks feel in their resignation and acceptance of prejudice and racism. She writes, "They showed me a contentment based on the belief that nothing more was coming to them, although a great deal more was due. Their decision to be satisfied with life's inequities was a lesson for me" (Angelou 86). Angelou learned this lesson, but never quite became satisfied with life's inequities; thankfully, she retained some of her rage regarding inequalities between white and black, which give great depth and emotion to her writing and her life.

In the essay “What’s Your Name, Girl?” Maya Angelou explores the injustice and suffering of her childhood as a black girl living in Stamps, Arkansas. Immediately, as the essay begins, you acquire insight on how Angelou seemed to be envious of white girls: “But Negro girls in small Southern towns, whether poverty-stricken or just munching along on a few of life’s necessities, were given as extensive and irrelevant preparations for adulthood as rich white girls shown in magazines. Admittedly the training was not the same. While white girls learned to waltz and sit gracefully with a teacup balanced on their knees, we were lagging behind, learning the mid-Victorian values with very little money to indulge them.” (17-18). Angelou recognized how unfair black people were treated. They had to scrounge up money whenever they could, while white people would effortlessly “waltz and sit gracefully” whenever they wanted to. She was envious of white people’s social statuses and what little work they had to do in the world and she wanted to be one of them; she wanted to live an easy life.

In the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, author Zora Neale Hurston writes to an American audience about having maturity and self-conscious identity while being an African American during the early 1900’s through the 1920’s Harlem Renaissance. Hurston expresses and informs her audience about how she does not see herself as a color, and instead sees herself as all she is made up of on the inside. Her primary claim is that she is not “tragically colored” and she should not have a single care about how the world reminds her of how she should act about her race. Her essay chronicles her personal experiences in being an unapologetically colored woman and creates the argument that she should not ever feel self-pity for being black. She utilizes her personal anecdotes and weaves them with metaphors, analogies, and rhetorical questions in order to create an immersive experience for the reader. Furthermore, Hurston engages the reader with her slightly sarcastic, strong, and blissfully positive tone effectively creates a way with words that communicate her claims in an entertaining way.

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.

African Americans living in the south face a lot of hate and prejudice. The civil rights movement improved the lives of many blacks. Maya Angelou in her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, uncovers the racism that blacks face and how Maya begins to think she is less equal that whites.

In the reading, Jones explores the relationship between class, race, and gender. She states that African Americans, in general, are oppressed, however, black women

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

Racial bias and discrimination have historically constricted African Americans from living free and prosperous lives. Especially, in America’s Progressive Era when “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” happened to be published. This groundbreaking essay, written by Zora Neale Hurston, provided African Americans with a unique approach to defying racial discrimination. Namely, Hurston’s unique defense from societal discrimination is in her steadfast optimism towards the limitations of being African American. Therefore, Hurston’s essay achieved more than bringing hope to African Americans it also provided a solution in this period of bitter adversity. This is what distinguishes Nora’s essay from other literary works because it focuses on modeling a beneficial mindset rather than listing the hardships that black people are subjected to. Zora Neale Hurston is an influential role model for African Americans, she argues that racial discrimination and unjust biases can be overcome by having pride and optimism in the progression of one’s race.

Throughout the novel it is apparent that everyday instances of racism occur, causing people of color to feel outcasted. There are two very obvious occasions where this happened. In the first instance two African American woman are in a workspace of primarily all white co-workers. When a woman they worked with got these two names mixed up, it was stated that she had a “fifty-fifty chance of getting it right” insinuating that these two women are the only black ones working here. Later, the woman who had the mix-up with the names wrote an apology note; however, in the note she stated it was “our mistake” and seemingly put part of the blame on the to women. This is a primary example of how African Americans can be thrown against a white background making them seem different than everyone else.

The memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography written by Maya Angelou as she grew up in the mid-20th century, where being a black girl and facing racial issues in society, had to overcome many problems that show the larger issue of the time period. I chose this book over the other nineteen memoirs because of the strong recommendations I received from my fellow class mates, and because of my interest in racial issues during the terrible times of segregation. Life was not fair, and Maya Angelou had to face a lot during the 30’s and 40’s in order to try to live a normal lifestyle and become a confident person. Maya shares her story with us to increase our knowledge of racism, prejudice, unequal treatment of women, and sexual

Rosa’s education had a large impact on her view of segregation. At five years old, Rosa began school in a one-room schoolhouse in Pine Level, Alabama (Ashby, 2008). In 1925, Rosa then enrolled at Miss White’s Industrial School for Girls (Ashby, 2008). After the school was burnt down a year earlier by a white mob, Ms. White gave freed black girls the chance of education (Ashby, 2008). Rosa had learned many things from Ms White, but the one that stuck with her was learning about self-respect. As Rosa learns more and more about self-respect and segregation, she becomes more ambitious and vocal about how she is treated and her civil rights (Ashby, 2008).

Marguerite’s mother, while not the greatest role model for her children, did all she could to take care of them, and allowed Marguerite to see the life in a big and bustling city with a beautiful, strong, independent, and free-spirited woman. While she did learn a lot from Vivian, Marguerite mainly gets a new idea of what an African-American woman can be. It seems that these characteristics of her mother are part of what allowed the “real” Marguerite, Maya Angelou, to become a performer, as she worked as an actress and singer for a while. Her ability to put herself out there for entertainment and enjoyment, are probably attributed to her mother, in part.

Religion is the backbone for stability when things are going wrong. It can be used as comfort for the future and can be a moral way of living life. In the novel “I know why the caged bird sings” by Maya Angelou, in this autobiography, it reveals the childhood or Maya Angelou and the hardships of growing up. She was abandoned by her parents when they had sent here and her brother to stamps Arkansas to live with their grandmother. From the beginning to end we see a growth in her character and this essay will explain how religion help shaped her into the person she became. In this paper, you will see the various places where religion is brought up and explained the significance of the event to the growth of Maya Angelou and her environment. This