Caged Bird Sings Thesis

Improved Essays
Show More
I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing written by Maya Angelou is considered to be a banned book. Middle School/ High School students should be allowed to read the book because it a thrilling autobiography that has many life lessons and is based on a true story. Many people complain the book shows too much sexual activity throughout the book. The book also is based on how blacks were treated treated differently than whites. People may take this book offensive due to the graphic content. The autobiography is about the life of a girl named Maya and her little brother Bailey. Students reading this book will be intrigued and will have a hard time putting the book down. The book can provide an emotional bond between the characters and the reader. Maya Angelou has written a book that can provide a sense of how blacks were treated differently than whites …show more content…
Maya struggles to find who she is as a person and how to live her life happily. One day Maya finds out she is pregnant and has absolutely no idea what to do. Maya decides to also keep her pregnancy a secret. By the end of the book she learns that her baby was the best thing that ever happened to her and she is beyond blessed. This event in the book shows how being young and pregnant is life changing and hard to process.
Overall, I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing is a eye opening book. The two specific events in the book as shown above provide an emotional response and understanding. After reading the book you learn about how important life is and never take anything for granted. Students should have the choice to read the book and if they do not like then they have the choice if they want to read the book.. Everyone deserves the chance to read I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing no matter how old you are. Censorship should not take away from someone learning and Maya Angelou’s book shows many life lessons people can learn

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Why Is The Wizard Of Oz Banned
    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Why Is The Wizard Of Oz Banned

    There was a point in time where the book The Wizard of Oz was banned for depicting a woman that had a strong leadership role. The Diary of Anne Frank was banned for being too depressing. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is another novel that has been banned as well. The book was proclaimed as, “Indecent and inappropriate for young readers(Goffe.) ” What is it that leads a book toward getting banned?…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Should To Kill A Mockingbird Be Taught In Schools
    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Should To Kill A Mockingbird Be Taught In Schools

    To Kill a Mockingbird should be kept in schools because it has good morals and an important central theme of equality. In To Kill a Mockingbird: the case…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Caged Bird Sings Accomplishments
    • 60 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Caged Bird Sings Accomplishments

    Marguerite had many accomplishments during the first 16 years of her life. Those are all proven in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings novel. Three of them are very important; securing a job as a conductorette also was the first Negro on the San Francisco streetcar, graduating from high school, and giving birth to her little boy Guy…

    • 60 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou And The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros
    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou And The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros

    Women in literature, like in real life, face adversity and through their journey, they find their identity while coming of age. They show the importance of women in society and the crucial role that they play. In both I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the protagonists were required to overcome adversity as they each discovered a greater sense of self. By being able to overcome their certain situations, Marguerite Angelou and Esperanza became more aware of their place in the world and society.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    To Kill A Mocking Bird Should Be Banned Essay
    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages

    To Kill A Mocking Bird Should Be Banned Essay

    In a few areas a great book, To Kill a Mockingbird, and many books like it are being banned. To Kill a Mockingbird is a very informative book on what life was like in the 1930’s, but it is still being banned for strong language, “strong content”, and strong cases of racism. Many schools have had kids read that book, but because of recent events a few have started to ban it. Some people believe that they can teach messages like the ones taught from this book, but in a better way, so they make it more suitable for kids to read. Some citizens feel that kids should be introduced to strong topics like this when they are in around 8th grade, which is a very common time for schools to have children/teens to read this novel in school, because kids need to be prepared for the real world early on.…

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Maya Angelou Influences
    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Maya Angelou Influences

    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the autobiography of Maya Angelou, is filled with many experiences that shape and mold Maya Angelou into the literary powerhouse known today. The fact that Maya Angelou fearlessly wrote an autobiography she shows the audience that she has confidence in herself and that she likes to defeat social norms because autobiographies are known for being dreadfully boring. The autobiography also includes large uses of humor and the examples of human influences, for the better. The influence of Maya Angelou’s Grandmother helps Maya become a well-rounded and fully knowledgeable person.…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Sympathy Paul Laurence Dunbar Poem Analysis
    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Sympathy Paul Laurence Dunbar Poem Analysis

    In his poem “Sympathy”, Dunbar writes, “I know what the caged bird feels” (ll. 1, 7). He uses the caged bird to symbolize the oppressed black minority. A bird, by nature, wants to be free and in its natural habitat, a bird can go wherever it pleases. However, a caged bird can not go far; he is restricted to where he can go. During the time the two poems were written, blacks were restricted as to where they could and could not go, too.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Rhetorical Analysis
    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Rhetorical Analysis

    Maya Angelou’s use of imagery explaining how Bailey has turned out gives you a better understanding. The diction she uses throughout the novel helps us readers better understand the seriousness of certain situations and also the anger, rage, and hurt in other situations. Maya Angelou conveyed the mood of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sing in a very superior, well thought out, and detailed way. Although this was what she has actually been through in her real life, she makes a enjoyable story out of it and tells it in a interesting way. Not only do you just read the novel and learn Maya’s story, but you actually walk away with something that you know now but you didn’t know…

    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, By Maya Angelou
    • 1661 Words
    • 7 Pages

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, By Maya Angelou

    She then said “I was no longer simply a member of the proud graduating class of 1940; I was a proud member of the wonderful, beautiful Negro race.” Maya overcomes the discriminations of this time and starts to slowly mature. She has many other hard things to overcome on her path to becoming a mature young adult. Maya has to deal with the hardest thing that anybody could imagine a child to go through. She deals with a rape.…

    • 1661 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Fahrenheit 451, And Anthony Burgess: A Comparative Analysis
    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Fahrenheit 451, And Anthony Burgess: A Comparative Analysis

    Censorship is a practice that is continuously used to shield people from reality- banning and suppressing speech that is considered “harmful” to others. Banned books have continuously played a significant role in our contemporary American culture- depicting both civil and ethical issues in our society. Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, and Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, were both novelists who produced books that fell victim to censorship, being banned for their artistic and realistic views. Offering both controversial and persistent protests against societal issues, Fahrenheit 451 and A Clockwork Orange foster impactful messages that changes the way the reader perceives the world. Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange with three questions in mind- “Is freedom of choice really all that…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Why The Book Should Not Be Banned Essay
    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Why The Book Should Not Be Banned Essay

    Book banning and censoring is something that happens in this country to stop children from being exposed to topics that are sometimes deemed too explicit to be suitable for children. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, keeps getting banned from the curriculum of a Mississippi middle school. This is happening for the books inclusion of rape and derogatory language, particularly the overuse of the n-word. Many also do not like how some of the characters in the novel are portrayed, and do not realize how this portrayal is very accurate to the time period. Because of the truthfulness of the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, along with every other book, should not be banned or censored because books reflect and bring awareness to real life problems, the practice of banning books violates the First Amendment, and reasons for book banning are often easily contradicted.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou Analysis
    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou Analysis

    To understand the purpose of life, it must live to its fullest potential. Before becoming an author, activist, and a performer, Maya Angelou overcame many obstacles in her life. Born as an African American in 1928, she was raised during an unyielding time of racial oppression. Many of her works talk about love and segregation, but, her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is what she is truly known for. Having witnessed and experienced the injustice placed on colored people, Angelou developed an identity crisis, devaluing herself as a, “too-big Negro Girl” (Angelou 4); however, she refrained from fully believing that a life of conforming to a certain society’s standards is inescapable.…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Language Analysis
    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Language Analysis

    In addition to these many places shaping who she is, she matures through experiences with religion, womanhood, and most importantly language and silence. As she matures, Maya discovers that language and silence have power; words can kill and define one's identity. Maya realizes the power of language for the first time when she…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Graduation By Maya Angelou Summary
    • 1578 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Graduation By Maya Angelou Summary

    Michael Maciel ENG 001A Prof. Sudderth Maya Angelou’s “Graduation” is a short story describing Maya Angelou’s high school graduation from her own point of view. In this story Maya does an exceptional job in making the reader feel the same emotions that she felt during this major event in her life. The way Angelou describes her surroundings and the emotions felt during the event makes the reader feel as if they were right next to Maya watching her class graduate.…

    • 1578 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Toni Morrison And I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou
    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Toni Morrison And I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou

    The title, “I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings”, is the struggle of a black lady to get freedom and identity and she wants to get out of the cage. The cage is the restrictions and difficulties of life and the song of the bird is the scream and struggle of bird to get rid of this…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings