Graciela Limón's Song Of A Humming Bird

“Song of the Hummingbird” was written by Graciela Limon . The book is about an Aztec princess Huitzitzilin who talks about what happens to her during the Spanish conquest. Huitzitzilin decided to tell her story to Father Benito who is one of the main characters in the book. At the end of the book, Huitzitzilin dies and Father Benito finally sees the truth through her eyes and her story. The main idea or the lesson that this book is trying to teach a person is that you should not automatically judge a person until you get to know them. The book “Song of the Hummingbird” caused me to have a rollercoaster of emotions and the lesson that I liked the most from this book was that you should give someone a chance before you judge them. The lesson that the book teaches the students is that you need to have the strength and you need fight for what you believe in no matter what the punishments are.

“The free bird thinks of another breeze….a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams…” The two literary works “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” can be seen as mockingbirds that have flown over fields of prejudice and repeat what they have seen for all to hear. Jem Finch, a young boy and lawyer’s son from “To Kill a Mockingbird” clearly symbolizes a mockingbird because of his youth and innocence, and because of his innocence he cannot fully understand the racism in the story. Jem also has many similarities to the caged and free birds in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, whether it be Jem’s

Beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans made the voyage to a “new world” in order to achieve dreams of opportunity and riches. In this other world the Europeans came upon another people, which naturally led to a cultural exchange between different groups of people. Although we commonly refer to European and Indian relations as being between just two very different groups of people, it is important to recognize this is not entirely true. Although the settlers of the new world are singularly referred to as Europeans, each group of people came from a different nation and with different motives and expectations of the new world. Similarly, the Indians were neither a united group nor necessarily friendly with each other. Due to the

Imagine living in a civilization that practiced human sacrifice and ritual dances, and then one day that civilization no longer exists because another culture decided to conquer them. These people are known to modern society as the Aztecs. In Graciela Limon's novel, Song of the Hummingbird, she illustrated how a culture like the Aztecs or Mexica, can quickly diminish when there are people such as the Spanish that have very limited understanding about certain subjects. Some people may say that the Aztecs were slaughtered because the Darwinian principle of natural selection even applies to mankind. This concept was perceptible when the Spaniards marched with horses, advanced technology, and armor. But through this novel,

During the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Europeans started to come over to the new world, they discovered a society of Indians that was strikingly different to their own. To understand how different, one must first compare and contrast some of the very important differences between them, such as how the Europeans considered the Indians to be extremely primitive and basic, while, considering themselves civilized. The Europeans considered that they were model societies, and they thought that the Indians society and culture should be changed to be very similar to their own.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Europeans started to come over to the new world, they discovered a society of Indians that was strikingly different to their own. To understand how different, one must first compare and contrast some of the very important differences between them, such as how the Europeans considered the Indians to be extremely primitive and basic, while, considering themselves civilized. The Europeans considered that they were model societies, and they thought that the Indians society and culture should be changed to be very similar to their own.

The conditions the California Indians were forced to live, or rather, survive under lead to a dramatic drop in the population of the various different tribes who had to figure out ways to preserve both numbers and culture. One of these methods was to lie about many if not all aspects of their identity as seen within the poem “Lies My Ancestors Told for Me” (Miranda 38). This poem presents readers first with a riddle calling into question the veracity of a lie and the validity of the truth, then goes on to explain how a lie can be the truth when it “saves the lives of your children, grandchildren, and five generations forward” (Miranda 38). This poem highlights not only the lies that Indians had to tell about their ethnicity, but also explains how they would give their children name in Spanish to further the believability of the lie that they were Mexican. The poem’s author also makes the claim that the lies of the ancestors must deflect the truth of genocide and even require them to chastise their children for running around barefoot by scolding them publically and asking “what are you Indian?” (Miranda 39). California Indians had to uphold a generational lie constructed with the sole purpose of keeping them and their predecessors alive and

The Indians had an identity all their own, and were in many ways reluctant to open up to the English settlers, fearing the effects of their highly controversial way of life. Regardless, despite the devastating bouts with foreign disease that accompanied the settlers, and issues regarding the land the colonists claimed in the name of the king, the Indians were still relatively accepting and hospitable to the setting Puritans. (Drake 3) They traded openly, worked together in establishing villages, and notoriously, the Indians aided the Puritans in teaching them the ways of the land, and in guiding them through the difficult New England winters. Over several years, the two cultures began to mesh, and the bits and pieces

During the eighteenth century, European settlers began settling in the Cherokee lands located in the interior southeast. After the revolutionary war though the Cherokee Indians gave up over half of their land to the American government. Over the years the American citizens continued to overstep onto Cherokee native land. In the late 1780s, the United States officials began to pressure the Cherokee to leave their traditions and way of life behind. They wanted the natives to learn to live like all Americans citizens. The Indians did conform a bit. They did this by

Live Indians were seen as problematic because they refused to die out and they were not wanted in society (61).

portray the early life of Ernesto Galarza, it also does a tremendous job of capturing the essence of

Indians from this point began to be dehumanized even further. Due to the color of their skin they were associated with the Devil. The settlers believed that Indians must be removed in order to progress in the settling of our land. ?God was making room for the colonists and hath hereby cleared our title to this place? (Takaki, 40). The early Puritans believed that they were meant to spread their religion and beliefs across the entire land.

Between 1790 and 1920 it was a tough time for the Indians. During that period Native Americans were forced to convert to the European-American Culture. Their whole life changed, the way of living, religion, and especially their children’s future. It was wrong of Americans to convert natives into a different society that they saw fit and not letting them express their own culture and treating them as an unworthy society.

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

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a novel by Maya Angelou, where she writes about her childhood and her experiences while growing up. This non-fiction novel illustrates Maya Angelou’s childhood, being tossed around by her parents, and having to experience different cultures. Maya struggles particularly in finding friends, she is reserved, and will only open up to Bailey, her brother. Maya moves a couple of times to different places, which may contribute to her not having friends. The novel revolves around Maya Angelou, Bailey, and her grandmother, evolving through life from being a child to a teenager. This novel is set in the “South”, in America.