Belief in Freedom From the end of the Civil War to the mid 1900’s segregation within a southern society was just the way of life. White Americans were determined to keep the black population under control. Throughout this period of time many African-Americans like Maya Angelou and Richard Wright were put through extreme racism and segregation. Both of these writers shared their experiences through their excerpts I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch" by Richard Wright. The excerpt written by Angelou was written about the time when she was a young child about the age of three, while the excerpt written by Wright was written about him becoming a young adult. Although …show more content…
He was either going to be calling Morrie a liar or admitting to calling Mr. Pease, Pease. Both of which were highly frowned upon for a black man to say to a white man at this time. Basically, no matter what he said he was going to get beaten. Therefore, Wright had no choice but to be silent, and this is a direct result of the extreme racism during this time period. While the silencing throughout Wright’s life was due to physical situations and encounters with other people, the silencing throughout Angelou’s life was a direct result of her opinion of herself and how she looked. "Because I was really white and because a cruel fairy stepmother, who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big Negro girl," (343) This statement shows that if she was given the chance to change everything about herself she would. She wishes that she was just an average white girl because she has noticed that blacks were treated more like objects rather than people. Angelou was always looked down upon because of the way she looked. She wrote, "When our elders said unkind things about my features (my family was handsome to a point of pain for me)" (Angelou 352). Even her own family would ridicule her on her appearance. She never had the courage or the ability to speak up for herself, or to tell people how she truly felt. She always remained silent. Although both Angelou and Wright were often silenced …show more content…
These images portray the ability of someone to have hope and faith no matter the circumstances. Specifically, Angelou uses the image of a caged bird singing to show this idea. For example, during the scene when her grandmother is being made fun of by the three white girls Angelou states, "but of course I couldn't say anything, so I went in and stood behind the screen door" (355). Throughout this scene, Angelou is stuck watching Momma being ridiculed from behind a screen door where there is nothing that she can do but watch. She has the ability to see outside her cage, but there is nothing she can do while she is stuck inside of it. Angelou beings to notice that Momma is humming. During the entire time, Momma was being mocked by these little girls she kept singing on a constant pace, and volume. The fact that Momma is not allowing these girls to have an effect on her is showing Angelou how to be strong. It is showing her that no matter what people do or say to you, you have the ability to make the choice to not have it affect the way you see yourself. She can also learn from Momma that you always have the ability to stand up for yourself no matter the circumstances that you are
People talk behind the speaker’s back and spread whatever rumors they can conjure, even to the point of ramming her face in the mud and really making a picture of her as a dirty, good-for-nothing person. Yet despite that, she still walks with her head high, knowing they're not true. And when people can't seem to understand why she’s not upset, they'll continue putting her down. And she'll just laugh it off, not really caring about what they say or do. The last stanza shows that even if she had a checkered past and no matter what she may have done before, she can still rise, she can still stand up, she can still look the world in the eye and tell them, “I will rise.” In lines 21-24, Angelou states, “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise.” This shows that no matter what came Angelou’s way, she still rose to the occasion and made a difference. Thus, the racism that Angelou went through left its footprints in the making of her poetic
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings was first published in 1969 during a time when autobiographies of women because heavily significant by their exclamation of the significance of women. As a result, Angelou's piece gathered attention from various types of women who could relate to Angelou's journey of sexuality, colour, and the coloured
Maya Angelou once said “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated” and this phrase speaks volume in comparison to Angelou’s life story. She was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. The name Maya was given to her by her older brother, Bailey Jr. Maya Angelou is not only a sister, but also an inspirational role model, a mother, an author, a poet, a civil rights activist, and an actor. In 1969 Angelou’s world renowned book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was first published. Within the book, she speaks on her early life as an insecure young black girl who had to grow up in Southern America in the 1930s and later in California during the 1940s. Written over and over in a multitude of history books, black history still remains in the shadow of being a horrific story that Africans and decedents of Africans had to endure. Angelou’s autobiography is a testimony to first-hand witness accounts of the social injustice people of color had to experience. Within Angelou’s book, she shows her strength and inner will to do better. Along with early life, Angelou also speaks on her resistance against racism during her life in both Southern America and California. Angelou’s resistance is not the only one noticed during this time though. Many other African Americans also resisted racism by installing fear in those of the “superior race”, demanding respect by vocalizing voices of the unheard, and as well as moving forward to desegregation
Maya Angelou is a leader by example, she sets the standard by her actions and the stories she tells teaches the audience a lesson. Majority of her work is to inform us of the past and she wants us to learn from her experiences in life; she is a life teacher. The purpose of this poem was to inform us of the history of our country. The poem is titled “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and her purpose of writing this is to teach the reader why the caged bird sings. Maya Angelou wants to put the reader in her shoes to get the ultimate experience of racial inequality but instead by taking the role of a caged bird or a free bird.
She is then threatened and told not to tell an adult if she wants to save her brother’s life. This leads to a long period of time where she refuses to speak to anyone. She writes of this time, "There was an army of adults, whose motives and movements I just couldn't understand and who made no effort to understand mine" (Angelou 72). This may be one of the loneliest periods in Angelou's life, but in some ways, it made her stronger and more able to survive in the white's world, even though it was a terrible ordeal.
The authors message in this poem is that never ever give up in whatever situation we are in and to express ourselves even though the stronger wants to suppress the weaker. This poem can be considered as the poet’s personal expression. Maya Angelou can be symbolised as the caged bird in the poem. The poet feels like a caged bird because she had no freedom when the African Americans were fighting for equality during the civil rights movement. Maya Angelou is said to have a strong personality as she overcame many adversities and became the famous figure she is
In his essay, Wright explains that the simple act of a black person writing was astounding to white Americans. Black artists were never taken seriously or treated with the same respect as white
As Wright continued working, his “Jim Crow education” resumed (253), he learned that not listening to or obeying what a white person told you would lead to serious consequences. A lady was beat up by two white men simply because she didn’t pay her bills, “I heard shrill screams coming from the rear of the store. Later the woman stumbled out, bleeding, crying, and holding her stomach” (253). And if the beating wasn’t enough, a white cop was there waiting for her when she came out and she was thrown into his car after being accused of being drunk. After telling his friends about the horrendous incident, they weren’t shocked. In fact, they were surprised that that’s all they did to her and actually
Angelou was born in Missouri in 1928. She spent most of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, pre Civil Rights Movement with her grandmother and her older brother. Angelou is most known for writing the poem Caged Bird. In the first stanza about the caged bird, Angelou declares that the bird, “can seldom see through/ his bars of rage/ his wings are clipped and/ his feet are tied/ so he opens his throat to sing”(Caged Bird). Angelou uses the bird as a metaphor for oppressed African Americans during this time period; the bird is held back by a barrier, just like African Americans were held back by unjust laws, a corrupt legal system, and their white peers who saw them as inferior. Similar to the bird, Angelou felt held back by others, but she did not let the “bars of rage” hold her back from her potential so, like the bird, she “opened her throat to sing” and used her voice to protest for herself and those who could not advocate for themselves.
Richard Nathanial Wright was born on September 4, 1908, in Roxie, Mississippi on a plantation. He was the grandson of slaves. His father was an illiterate sharecropper and his mother was a schoolteacher. Throughout his early life, he experiences different forms of racial oppression. He encounters his first racial experiences in Arkansas. These experiences would mark the beginning of his awareness of the reality of being a black person in the 20th century.
Many are unaware of the effects that race has played in their lives over the years. Some may not understand its implications, but are very oblivious to it. Race can influence such things like attitude and behavior. Nowadays being white or black means something more than just a Crayola color. No longer are they just colors, they are races with their own rules and regulations. People of color have been inferior to the white race for centuries. In their own way Zora Neale Hurston shows this concept in her story “How it feels to be Colored Me” as does Richard Wright in his autobiographical sketch “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”.
Growing up in the South during the years of segregation as a young black girl was difficult. As we will see in a short story written by Maya Angelou, having someone to look up to can make a lasting impression and encourage young girls to make better choices in their lives. There are too many girls, both now and then, that have no role model to look up to. For some, they have no one to set good examples. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, it is evident what a good role model can do to someone's life. By analyzing this text, we will take a deeper look into not only what the text says but what I feel is the underlying meaning behind the words Angelou wrote. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has 36 chapters as well as the prologue. In this paper,
Dr. Maya Angelou were born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, MO on April 4, 1928, Maya were childhood name given to her by her brother Bailey. She were a child of a divorced parent raised by her grandmother (whom she called momma) along with her brother in Stamp, Arkansas. A single mother that held many titles to her name that evolve from experience she dealt in her lifetime. To the world, she is an educator, dancer, poets, activist, author and many more. Angelou publishes numerous bestselling book during her career-breaking barrier for African American and women that isn’t expected for a single African woman. Her career had earned her a nomination for Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘For I Diee. She became one of the first African American
The poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou tells the story of two birds: one bird has the luxury of freedom and the second bird lives its life caged and maltreated by an unknown tyrant. Maya Angelou wrote this poem during the Civil Rights Era, the period when black activists in the 1950’s and 1960’s fought for desegregation of African Americans. This poem parallels the oppression that African Americans were fighting during this time period. In “Caged Bird”, Angelou builds a strong contrast that shows the historical context of discrimination and segregation through the use of mood, symbolism, and theme.
Near the end of the poem it is revealed that the bird “opens his throat to sing” Maya Angelou felt this way in her own life. She wrote, sang and danced because it was her way of expressing her longing for freedom despite being oppressed for most of her life. Although freedom, to the caged bird, is “fearful” because it is “unknown”, he still sings “a fearful trill”. The cries of help are heard but the overarching parents only hear it as background noise.