I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou Analysis

Home is many things, for it can vary from the place where someone lives or even just a plain meaning that is different for everyone. In many cases, the thought of home is where people believe they belong. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the story of a girl named Marguerite Johnson and her life from an early age to her passage through adolescence to finally her young adult stage. Throughout her early life, she moves from home to home, two important ones being Stamps, Arkansas, and San Francisco, California. During her time in these two locations, there is an overwhelming amount of symbolization pondering the idea of belonging and where eden and exile is for her. At first, she does not know where she belongs, if she does belong

“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

In Graduation, a chapter in her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, Maya Angelou talks vividly about her middle school graduation in the segregated South. Graduation is an important milestone in most people’s life, as they get a degree and move on to their next level, something better and more important, with the hope that they can use their new knowledge to achieve their life goals and ambitions. This is what the all black children of the graduating class of 1940 in the grammar school in Stamps, Arkansas, believed as well, including Maya Angelou. In this passage, the author persuasively uses ethos to expose, as an African American girl, how her graduation ceremony was another episode of the unfinished struggle for freedom and against racial segregation.

In Maya Angelou’s I Know the Caged Bird Sings (1969), the reader is absorbed into a personal account of her life starting from her childhood to young adulthood during the 1930s and 1940s. From a young age, Maya witnessed the first-hand effects of racism in the South for blacks growing up alongside her brother, Bailey. In the novel, Angelou faces racial discrimination and displacement inside and outside her own community that act as metaphorical cages barring her from the freedom to be her true self.

Society today has an upheaving amount of problems that span from racism, poverty, persecution, and war, etc. Banners of books are attempting to eradicate any written piece that touches on the mere obstacles of society. The people who hold the vandalism tools in this situation are parents, who have children in the public school system. One book at a time, they annihilate authors and classic novels, themes, and genres in order to get their agenda across. The First Amendment to The United States Constitution prevents congress from making any law that abides from the freedom of speech. Equally, authors like Maya Angelou have the freedom of speech in our country to write, and in Angelou's case, the freedom to write about her life. Maya Angelou,

Growing up in the South during the years of segregation as a young black girl was difficult. As we will see in a short story written by Maya Angelou, having someone to look up to can make a lasting impression and encourage young girls to make better choices in their lives. There are too many girls, both now and then, that have no role model to look up to. For some, they have no one to set good examples. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, it is evident what a good role model can do to someone's life. By analyzing this text, we will take a deeper look into not only what the text says but what I feel is the underlying meaning behind the words Angelou wrote. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has 36 chapters as well as the prologue. In this paper,

Vivian played the part of a friend to her daughter throughout the novel however that helped get Maya out of her little bubble. Maya described her “ mother was the only warm, outgoing personality among her siblings” (Angelou 67). Maya’s opinion about her mother is essentially key for the reason that if she likes the qualities of person they will essentially look up to them and want to grow into their shoes. While keeping that in mind Maya mentions how “Mother had cut my hair in a bob like hers and straightened it” (Angelou 64). Keeping previous idea said in mind a reader can infer that Maya is allowing to be change whether it hair or her hobbies so willingly because she saw how her mother was and she thought that the more she changed to be like her, she would become a person very similar to her mother. By doing this and having the desire to be like Vivian, Maya changed from a person that was so insecure to someone that felt good in their skin because when she looked at herself she saw mother. This later lead to the decision to take theaters classes and

This quote could also be seen as an example of the psychological theory in of object permanence. This theory states that if a child cannot see an object, the object must not exist. Maya was experiencing this phenomenon because she had never seen a white person before, so it was difficult for her to understand that white people actually existed. As she grew older, she grew out of this and began to see the truth about her reality and began to see the world for what it was,

Growing up as a African-American girl in California and the south during one of the most segregated times in American history, the 1940s. Maya Angelou was faced with three main deterrents growing up in these times, the racism and

Her life was never easy. From the time she was born, Maya Angelou was subjected to racism, rape, grief and dehumanization. She beared enough emotional stress in a time frame that most people don't experience in a lifetime. Yet she prevailed. She forced herself to become stronger.

Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya shields herself against the confusion of St. Louis by reading fairy-tales and telling herself that she does not intend on staying there anyway. Vivian works in a gambling parlor at night. Maya pities Mr. Freeman because he spends his days at home waiting for Vivian to return. Maya begins sleeping at night with Vivian and Mr. Freeman because she suffers from nightmares. One morning after Vivian has left the bed and the house,

I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing is one of the perfect examples of showing oppression, segregation, racism, lack of freedom, etc. Marguerite Ann Johnson (Maya Angelou) is an African American, who were mainly known as “negroes” or “blacks” back in her time due to the color of their skin. The “whites” were the ones who were rich and powerful. How does being “black” impact Maya’s daily life? Does Maya have the same rights and privileges even if she’s black? Will being black affect her education in any way?

The poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou tells the story of two birds: one bird has the luxury of freedom and the second bird lives its life caged and maltreated by an unknown tyrant. Maya Angelou wrote this poem during the Civil Rights Era, the period when black activists in the 1950’s and 1960’s fought for desegregation of African Americans. This poem parallels the oppression that African Americans were fighting during this time period. In “Caged Bird”, Angelou builds a strong contrast that shows the historical context of discrimination and segregation through the use of mood, symbolism, and theme.

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.

The feeling of displacement leaves a painful hole in one's heart. Whether a person is a male or female, white or black, lives in the North or South, or young or old, displacement takes a toll on their character and personality. Maya Angelou creates a theme of displacement in her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou's novel has been critiqued by many notable scholars for being a classic autobiography. The critics note the importance of the setting to show universal displacement and the use of characterization to display the influences in Angelou's life. The critics also note that Angelou's diction and tone allow her pain and suffering to be evident throughout her novel and into her life. Angelou's use of setting shows how she was personally affected by displacement. She also uses characterization and tone to personalize her childhood experiences. Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is critiqued to have a theme of displacement based on the setting, characterization, and tone.