I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

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.

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.

Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928-May 28, 2014) was an American author, actress, screenwriter dancer and poet. She was known for her memoir, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings (bibography.com). “Her parents divorced when she was only three and she was sent with her brother Bailey to live with their grandmother in the small town of Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, the young girl experienced the racial discrimination that was the legally enforced way of life in the American

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.

The novel is described as a coming of age story starring a young, insecure black girl. Living in the south and in California during the 1930’s and 1940’s, Maya was exposed to the harsh and limiting effects of racism. As young kids, Maya and Bailey struggle with being abandoned by their biological parents. For some time, their grandmother is the only influential figure in their lives. Their grandma, who is eventually called “Momma” runs a general store in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya spends time at her Momma’s store, watching the cotton-pickers travel to and from the working fields.

Maya Angelou, named at birth, Marguerite Johnson was on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her and her family moved from St. Louis to Stamps, Arkansas, where she was raised growing up. Maya Angelou was an American author, dancer, screenwriter, actress, poet and civil rights activist. Angelou gained a majority of her fame with the memoir she wrote in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This memoir made literary history as being the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. Angelou received many awards and honors throughout her entire career. These awards included two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009. Angelou became one of the most legendary and influential

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

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

Maya and her brother move in with their grandmother at a very early age, hence why they call her Momma. Momma has lots of grit and is very strong. She exposes Maya to the everyday life of an African-American worker in the early to mid-1900s. She also exposes Maya to the harsh segregation that African-Americans endured. Momma didn’t just reveal the harsh realities to Maya and just leave it at that, she shows Maya how to deal with it, by praying.

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.

The most important lesson that I learned this year was about self-acceptance, more specifically accepting myself for who I am and not being ashamed of my cultural background. The main two texts that I felt expressed this lesson the most was the autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings written by Maya Angelou and the graphic novel American Born Chinese written by Gene Luen Yang. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou describes her life as she goes through a life-changing events that change her point of view about herself and her community. One of the most transformative event that happened in her life would be her middle school graduation. When the graduation speaker, Henry Reed gave everyone in her school hope, after the previous

As “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” is an autobiography and therefore a work of nonfiction. Essentially, this means that the book is the first person, meaning that the story is being told from one character’s perspective. In this case. the narrator is Maya Angelou and we, the reader, tail along with her. Maya goes to describe the situations that she gets stuck in. An example of how her book is a first person narrative is the way she talks about the feelings that wash over her. In the following line from the book, she is describing the fear of sleeping with her baby as she does want to squish her during the night. “I lay on the edge of the bed, stiff with fear, and vowed not to sleep all night long” (Angelou).

“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” was a fascinating and charming autobiography by none other than myself, Maya Angelou. My book was about my hard life growing up as a black girl in the south. The word “Cages” are known as the hardships. “Cages” are the things that keep humans from accomplishing in life and helping them being everything they want to be. Some of my cages includes me being black in the 1940’s and my dictatorial grandmother.

Maya Angelou explains how family supports each other in her memoir, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings to people who don’t support others because Angelou didn’t have a traditional family. Angelou uses tropes and syntax to have an emotional appeal. Angelou uses tropes through comparison. Angelou says, “There was no doubt that he was trying to butter up Dad; he even started to laugh like him, a Santa Claus, Jr., with his ‘Ho,ho,ho”(48). This shows how Bailey gets compared to Santa.

There are many themes associated with the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings but I think the theme most present throughout the entire book is “Growing up black during a time of racial injustice can be very hard on someone emotionally and physically”. As Maya is raised in the southern town of Stamps, Arkansas, she is exposed to a vastly different society than in her hometown of St.Louis. The novel takes place during the depression time period so segregation in the south of course is one of the many injustices Maya faces in the novel such as when the dentist, Dr.Lincoln, refused to treat Maya’s toothache simply because she is a person of color. Maya begins to grow a fervor of hate towards the “powwhite people” that live on her grandmother's