The human condition is what creates bonds and divisions between people. As people we experience love, hate, anger, joy, fear, life, and death, but people allowed small things such as wealth, education, or race to draw lines in the sand. During the time period Angelou lived in racial discrimination was prominent. She was turned away from jobs and multiple opportunities because employers didn’t like what they saw at surface level. She faced many hardships that began at a young age and spanned to her later years, which inspired some of her best known work along with her autobiography ¨I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” In her autobiography she shares about the time she spent with a woman known as “Mrs. Flowers”, a woman who coaxed Angelou out …show more content…
But those simple things tear them apart from each other. Through sharing her time with Mrs. Flowers it aided in attempts to unite the two “sides” by proving that they both experience pain and suffering whether, it be the loss of someone dear or matters much larger than that. She also showed that they both experience laughter and joy of being surrounded by close friends and family. She taught them that every side has similarities that we should bond over rather than being divided.
“One person standing on the word of God is the majority”(Hercules). This is what Angelou said when police attempted to get the protesters out of the streets. Wanting to be heard, she stood her ground even when she was threatened to be trampled. This shows that all voices deserve to be heard, not muffled.
These quotes together show that both sides have story that deserves to be heard, but with lines in the sand some voices can’t be heard. Maya Angelou made herself heard. She advocated for her beliefs and the beliefs of others. She showed that we all experience the human condition for some in extreme cases some in more mild ones. She did her best to erase the lines that where
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.
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.” In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Maya writes about how she is affected by cultural and contextual issues in that time period , in this book Angelou familiarizes her self as a caged bird because to Maya Being caged in society means to be trapped and unable to find your voice. “The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.” Angelou wrote this book as closure for her life experiences. She wrote this book to have a voice that she once did not have. This book exposes the issues that African-Americans faced . Society viewed African- Americans differently then we do today. The 1930s was all about being prejudice against the black community even today that is less of
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.
Skin color should not make or break money barriers but unfortunately is does. In Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the black community in Stamps, Arkansas where Maya grew up was in severe poverty. The whites were very wealthy and treated the minorities like the trash they associated them with. Blacks struggled to support themselves and their families while whites threw around their money to buy everything they wanted. Maya did not have everything she wanted, she barely had what she needed but she grew to be a successful writer that influences lives. Race should not determine wealth yet one sees how poverty had both a positive and negative impact on the lives of people from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Maya Angelou faces many hardships, yet manages to overcome them all, in her autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” When the book begins, Angelou is a young child, a mere three years old. As she grows up, though somewhat sheltered by her grandmother’s position as a general store owner, her eyes are opened to the current ways of the South. Blacks are lesser people that whites, and that was the way it was for her. On several occasions she watched in horror as young girls
Angelou's last installment in her autobiography series is titled with the first line from her first installment, "A song flung up to heaven." By an examination of interviews with Angelou and commentary from critical interpretations, I think I now know the answer of why the caged bird sings. The cage bird sings because of the hope and optimism in its heart that enables it to sing no matter its dour, trapped circumstances. In similar ways, Angelou often used such hope and optimism to survive terrible life experiences, like living through the Watts Riots in Los Angeles and their aftermath. Over the years Angelou had to make tough choices for a female, especially an African-American woman in a racist society. Nevertheless, she exhibited hope, optimism and courage that enabled her to walk the road seldom taken. In one interview Angelou comments about her character in Caged Bird, Annie Johnson, "each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or uninviting...step off that road into another direction" (Kizis
I am analyzing the character Dr. Lincoln in the book,¨ Why the Caged Bird Sings.¨ Dr. Lincoln is a dentist in a small town named Stamps. I chose him because he is the most recent character we've talked about in the story. He, like many others in stamps, borrowed some money from Maya's mom. He is known by everyone, yet works on only half. His policy is that he doesn't work on black people, only whites.
Three primary problems “cage” Maya Angelou in her autobiographical book I Know why the Caged Bird Sings. The most pressing of these issues was probably the fact that Maya lived in the highly segregated south. Another factor of her imprisonment was because Maya, also known as Marguerite, was a social outcast, with very few friends other then relatives. Finally, the main character was entrapped because of her unusual sexual exposure. Over all, the highly segregated life she led, her exclusion socially, and her sexual experience caught Ms. Angelou.
Maya Angelou was an American author, poet, dancer, actress, and singer. Her many accomplishments speak for her talent; however, Angelou was not always so accomplished and self-assured. Angelou’s memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is a bildungsroman created by a progressive process of affirming identity and resisting racism. Angelou uses a sequence of lessons about identity and racism from helpless rage and indignation to forms of subtle resistance and finally outright protest to illustrate Angelou’s coming of age.
People suggest to Angelou that she write a book about her life experiences. Angelou wrote a memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969. The memoir was about her childhood and young adult’s years. The memoir covered, times growing up in the Great Depression, while living in the segregated South. Her home stay with her grand-parents and relationship she had with her loving brother Bailey. Angelou also touch upon about being raped by her mother’s boyfriend, which desperately traumatized her to the point where she was mute for several years of her life. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings shaded light to racism and oppressing and problems the African American family faced in 40’s. Angelou didn’t have get the chance to director the film
Angelou came up in a period that was checked by racial pressure, abuse, and wrecking circumstances for blacks all through the nation. As the girl of a vivacious, fearless and candid mother,
Maya Angelou and the Theme of Racism Poems provide a new insight and portray many meanings. Maya Angelou, born in 1928, was a highly achieved, versatile woman whom is an author, poet, dancer, and actress. In her poems and in life, racism is integrated. This is seen in Angelou’s familial and other life experiences, the literary devices seen in “Still I Rise,” and the extension of the metaphor in “Caged Bird.” Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, MO and soon later moved to a segregated part of AK, known as Stamps.
The book “I know why the caged bird sings” By: Maya Angelou. Maya has a dream that she wants to be “blond-haired and blue eye “. She wanted to be white because she said that she would be treated different that she is now. I can reflect with this quote because when I was growing up I also dream of being blond and blue eyes and skinny. Why I was not sure I guess every kid dream and expect that it will come true I was 8 years old. In my mind I though been Caucasian and having colored eyes and a slim body there was a chance I can get somewhere in life. I thought you had to be white and skinny to be on TV or be a singer. When I started getting older I understood not by just seeing your color skin or color eye you have or the body shape you have.
In Maya Angelou’s poem, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” she compares the caged bird to a free bird. One stanza in the poem says “ A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky.” Basically saying that the free bird can do what he pleases. The caged bird cannot. This stanza will show you.
Many people do not understand what it was like for African Americans. Mostly because it was hard to tell their side of the story. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” took place in the 1930’s, but the book did not get published until 1970. Many of African Americans in the 1900’s made a living by selling themselves to white people as cotton pickers (Historical context: I know why the caged bird sings). Sociological structures in the south kept African Americans in their place by making it illegal to write literature for African Americans, not being able to have an education, and making it hard for them to find jobs.