I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Thesis

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 tells of her life experiences and struggles in her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” that gives us insight about Maya’s life as a young black girl growing up in a time of racism. The novel discusses various forms of oppression that she had to face as well cope with them. Robert A. Gross wrote an analysis for Newsweek about the book and claimed that Angelou’s book is not only an interesting story of her own experience, but also a portrayal of a Southern black community, thus being a historic reference of the 1930’s. Joanne Megna-Wallace backs up Gross’s claim in her critique of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and also stresses the importance of the novel as a historic book, and also discusses how Maya Angelou intended the autobiography to target the historic circumstances of the time period. However, these two analyses portray the novel in two completely different ways. Robert Gross views the novel as a well-written story that was cleverly thought out and racism has a slight impact on the main character’s life. He views the autobiography as being a beautiful story that portrays the warmth and understanding within the black community, whereas Wallace argues that Maya Angelou’s autobiography is way of exposing the horrific racist conditions that made up her childhood. She focuses on Maya Angelou’s struggle and the tragic events that made her the woman she is.

She reflects on the segregation in her small town, and what her life was like as a child. At this point in Maya’s life, she sees “whitefolks” (25) as something that she isn’t sure exist. She didn’t know what they looked like, and they didn’t live in her world on her side of town, so they weren’t considered people to her. Maya understood what other people were telling her, especially that people on the other side of town were something to dread because they had all of the power in the segregated world, and African Americans had none

Champion of the World is a chapter in Maya Angelou 's book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" where the focal point describes a very significant event to the African American people during her adolescence. It shows a 1930’s black community fired up about a fight over racial resentment build up over the past years. The famous African American boxer, Joe Louis, it fighting for his title against a white contender. The story explains in detail the overwhelming amount of excitement and eagerness coming from the store. The black community was trying to overcome the overwhelming amount of defeat, superiority, and power that the white people portrayed.

Throughout her life, Marguerite experiences many different situations and people that all contribute to the way she grows up and the person she becomes. Despite some of her tragic circumstances, she learns a lot growing up, mainly because of the African-American women in her life who teach her all different life lessons. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Marguerite gets to absorb teachings from her mother (Vivian), Mrs. Bertha Flowers, and her grandmother (Momma). These women allow Marguerite to learn and grow as an African-American female, all while paving her own way.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was written in 1969 by Maya Angelou, a female African American author and a poet. Although this book has been published many times, it was originally published in 1969 by Random House. This intriguing autobiography was also copyrighted in 1969 and it has a total of 285 pages.

Racism and Segregation circad in the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. As the novel progresses and the main character Marguerite Johnson grows into a woman she clearly sees and describes the reality of being an African American in her time. The theme of intolerant ethnic diversity is shown and progresses to us through different aspects. Her daily life going to school and working at her grandmother's shop, to going to church and later getting a job shows the struggle and push that was needed to make it through those times.

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).

Most novels have at least a bit of history in them. The Law of Now and Then is the conflict between novel and history. It can be applied to Maya Angelou’s life changing novel, I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings, because she writes her own point-of-view about events that happened in history; however, she is able to write the novel in a literalistic way. Also, Angelou wrote this novel with a child then adult perspective while she tells her own story. It may also be applied because we now can feel the pain and suffering that blacks then had to deal with and that will always be in history. A major event in history included in the book is when she became the first black and female streetcar conductor which was a pretty big deal back in the day. Ever

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

Theme (Racism and Segregation) - At a very young age Maya is confronted with racism. In her early years her perception of beauty is white washed. This puts the thoughts that because she does not have blonde hair, she is just a fat ugly black girl. In her early childhood Maya rarely ever encountered a white person, this led her to the belief that they didn’t exist. As she got older she encountered overt racism within the community she lived. She worked for a woman who refused to call Maya by her real name. She also walked up on a dead black man 's body, and experienced a white man making a mockery of the situation. Also during this time the black community was struggling to find a way to thrive in our society. Maya noticed we were only succeeding within athletics and not

In her poem, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou-- The bird sings because it wants her freedom. I think the caged bird also sings because she is bored or probable she needs distraction because she does not have nothing to do alone. I guess the bird is also calling someone because she might need something. Also i think the bird is ignored by the people that have the bird captured. I think this paragraph has to do with “The Long Walk Home” because Odessa can not do nothing by her choice. I also think she can't do nothing by herself in the movie. I think people should know this because it's sad that in the past people had to do that for white people. For me i think the poem and the movie are at least alike. Odessa cannot do stuff in the house because the owners might get mad at her but the wife stands up for the black people for me that was a good choice because black people are people they are not toys.

People have always said they know who they are, but how can that statement be true without even trying to discover your limitations and pushing yourself to learn? The struggles of finding yourself and maturing are shown multiple times in the book, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. In the book, Maya and her brother, Bailey, were sent to their paternal grandmother’s home at the age of three and four respectively. Told in Maya’s perspective, she learns the harsh realities of life, becoming mature, and facing challenges of growing up, the book, being her biography between the ages of three to sixteen. This book shows many young adult readers what it is like to handle life and to find out who you are as a person. The author has shown how young adults are now at the age of making harder decisions, self discovery, and learning, or even experiencing, reality. This is the starting point in the lives of teenagers to be at the age of understanding and making mistakes to learn from. Growing up can be difficult, but it is apart of living.

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

In “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, Marguerite is a lonely girl who lives with her grandmother. She loves to help around the store and listen to people’s voices. When a friend introduces her to poetry, Marguerite is ecstatic. As Marguerite grows up, she struggles with having a person like her for who she is.