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I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou Analysis

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At some point in their life, every person struggles with an issue that cannot simply be resolved, but instead has to learn to be accepted and used to help one grow. In Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya learns to overcome many struggles she is faced with growing up, especially as a minority in the United States during the 1930’s-1940’s. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried tells of his struggles prior to, during, and after serving in the Vietnam War. Each author uses both internal and external conflict in their protagonists to portray their character’s struggles and help readers gain an understanding of not only the leads, but also perhaps themselves.
From beginning to end, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings …show more content…

Freeman, at the age of 8, she is told “If you ever tell anybody what we did, I’ll have to kill Bailey,” (74). Her love for her brother keeps her quiet for a while, until her mother and brother find out she has been raped, he is able to convince her to tell who has hurt her. The aftermath of this traumatic experience continues to follow Maya, until she eventually learns, with the help of Ms. Flowers, how to cope with what has happened to her. Later on in life, when Maya goes on to have her own child, her mother gives her words of wisdom, especially when faced with an internal conflict. “If you’re for the right thing, then you do it without thinking,” …show more content…

O’Brien tells his first tale prior to the war after beginning stories during the war, because of his own continuing internal conflict with cowardice. He tells of when he considered running away from the draft to Canada, finishing the tale with the statement “I was a coward. I went to war,” (58). He continues to fight with this decision long after the war is over, as the story proves. Perhaps his second most important internal conflict of the novel happens later on, a story in which he repeatedly brings up over and over. His first kill brings about many battles on whether or not he truly has killed or not. He

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