Essay on I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

This is a clear example of how her childhood experience scarred her and added her to resentment of her race. Throughout her youth, Maya also felt as if she was hideous and often compared her unattractive physical appearances to those of “sweet, little, white girls” (Angelou 1). Maya Angelou recounts her feelings about being an “ugly” black girl:

When Maya has friends over she tries to keep them sheltered from that part of her life, because she doesnt want them to know about the kind of culture she belongs to. When you look out into the world many people relate to Maya, they all want to hide the kind of culture they grew up in and the kind of lifestyle they live in. These people will hide who they are on a day to day basis because of their culture. These people try to avoid the question “whats that” or “why is that hung up and what does it mean” or they just want to avoid being bullied because of

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.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Specifically it will discuss the themes of racism and segregation, and how these strong themes are woven throughout this moving autobiography. Maya Angelou recounts the story of her early life, including the racism and segregation she experiences throughout her formative years. With wit, sincerity, and remarkable talent, Angelou portrays racism as a product of ignorance and prejudice. However, she finds the strength to rise above this crippling condition.

For one thing, not only is Maya a girl, but she is an African American as well. This means there is the added factor of racism on top of society’s expectations for her. These two combined lead Maya to have very little self-esteem and confidence in herself. From a young age, she believed she was ugly, comparing herself to her brother Bailey saying, “When I was described by our playmates as being shit color, he was lauded for his velvet black skin” (22). She is constantly teased for her appearance because of her skin color, and believes the horrible things people say about her. Angelou shows us that the pressure from society to be attractive and beautiful suffocates her, and that she is under the belief that she is ugly for the majority of her childhood. This, along with her parents leaving her and her brother when they were only three and four respectively, makes Maya feel unwanted. Incidentally, it does not help when she notices a pattern for the heroes in the books she reads. Maya praises an author named Horatio Alger, claiming he was “the greatest writer in the world. His heroes were always good, always won, and were always boys” (75). Maya notices that heroes were always depicted as boys, and it makes her wish she had been born a boy as well. The lack of representation of female heroes makes her, and possibly many other little girls, feel as if there is no possible way they would achieve

An example of Maya facing racism is during her eighth grade graduation. Maya was so excited to graduate. The school she attended enrolled both whites and blacks. First of all during the assembly the blacks had to recite their own national anthem titled “ The Negro National Anthem”. The principal gave a speech the the students and instead of treating the kids equal, he proudly stated the new achievements the whites were going to have, and

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

Maya meets Mrs. Flowers who wanted Maya to talk with someone and let out her guilt about lying in court. After staying with Mrs. Flower Maya started wanting to be like her, Maya wanted to be white. Maya moves back to Los Angeles with her dad, where she and her dad invade a party in Mexico where her dad gets drunk and for the first time in her life she drove a car, as soon as they reach home Maya make decision to move to junk the yard to live independently “being born black is itself a liability in a world ruled by white stands of beauty which imprison the child prior in a cage of ugliness” (Smith “Opening” 121). Throughout the novel it runs a theme of ugliness, where Maya is not comfortable with herself and calls herself ugly several times in the novel. Maya finds out a lot about herself after she experiences all the ups and downs, where she learns to live happy and independently. Though Maya and her struggles with acceptance Angelou suggests that a person needs to love themselves in order to have a successful life.

When Maya made the decision to not work for a person like Mrs. Cullinan it gave her courage that she could carry with her as she continues to live her life. Maya became intimidating to the whites that did not like the African Americans by not standing by and be disrespected but by having a voice that was not given to them. She was mature enough to realize that no one should be treated the way Mrs. Cullinan treats her African American workers. Maya’s actions characterized her as a strong

As a result of her intelligence, she decides to get a job working on streetcars. She goes to the “Market Street Railway Company” to apply for a job. Angelou shows her determination

“Why would I assume a woman wouldn’t be involved in this kind of research? The wonderful thing about working on this film is, historically in movies, lead characters are played by women who are defined by men, whether it’s a love interest, or they’re the victim of a man, and Maya’s not like that.” This critical element is one of the driving points of the film: the fact that Maya is simply a character, and not “just” a female character (a.k.a. “plot device”) to further a male character’s story, is crucial.

Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson, the author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” details her coming of age experience. Maya faces the ever rampant oppression in the deep south which impacted her dearly in her childhood. She lives in the lower class and wasn’t given many opportunities to succeed. In the duration of this paper I will explain how Maya Angelou was effected by racial differences and her socioeconomic position and how she used them to mold her.

From the first portion of the novel, Maya seems to be a very carefree child. She had many obstacles to overcome in her youth (Mr. Freeman), but she did have many joyus moments, always talking in great detail about her adventures with Bailey, and their little inside jokes, which no one else could understand, but them. Be that as it may, as the reader approaches the remaining chapters, they begin to realize that she has been alone for most of her life. The only person she really had to depend on was Bailey. Her grandmother and uncle were there, but they were not people that she could open up too and really express her feelings with. As the novel continues however, Maya develops into a young girl once again, who is truly carefree and exuberant.

Maya writes “ I don’t remember much of the trip, but after we reached the segregated southern part of our journey, things must have looked up. Negro passengers, who always traveled with loaded lunch boxes, felt sorry for the poor little motherless darlings and piled us with cold fried chicken and potato salad.” This is showing how the way that people change depending on your environment and it also emphasizes how young she was when all of this was

Maya felt strongly about oppression and this pushed her to make this poem to achieve social justice and to