Maya Angelou overcame a difficult and traumatic childhood to become a prize-winning poet and the author of several best-selling autobiographies, including her celebrated first volume, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). She was also the first African American, and the first woman, invited to read a poem at the inauguration of a president of the United States. Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, Maya was three when her parents were divorced. She and her…
According to Angelou, the African American family was almost always held together entirely by the woman. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) became a great inspiration to black feminists, especially since the experiences of black women have been so different from those of white women. The poem “Still I Rise” is written specifically with a feminine voice. It gives praise to the black woman's courage, identity, and self-worth. It recognizes the pain and…
of race, age, or sex.” Only 50 years ago did the Civil Right Act get passed, in retrospect it was not very long ago that people were lynched in public by radical groups such as the KKK. Discrimination is a central theme in the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings authored…
undergone a molding, their character will never quite be the same even through meticulous manipulation. Whether the change is futile or effective, the result will somehow advance one’s life in a foreseen or an intended manner. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography of the author’s life up to her seventeenth year. The main character…
form for the books read over the summer, these are the exception to the rule. When most people are placed into the situations that the individuals of each novel were, they do not succeed in overcome the hardships that they are faced with. The reason why these people have books written about them is because they were different. Though…
When examining I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou from a postcolonial literary perspective, it becomes clear that your skin colour impacts the way you will be treated and the way you are treated will impact your confidence. When you have a high level of confidence you do not shy away from opportunities which can lead to a better life. This is shown through many examples in the book such as which services are available to the black members in society, the treatment they receive from…
The paper deals with the comparison and contrast between the two novels; Beloved by written Toni Morrison and I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Both the writers were black females and very aptly describe the lives of the blacks in their respective novels. Introduction: Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison were two influential women in the literary world, especially in the black community. These ladies discussed about the miseries of black community in their own unique style. Both of…
In the two poems, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “Sympathy” by Laurence Dunbar, these short works share many similarities as they both speak on being a minority in a white world. As Maya Angelou describes her childhood in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and the ways of which the world became portrayed to her because of her race and the time that she grew up in, she was a visual representation of being a minority in a white world. Also, in “Sympathy” Laurence Dunbar…
Parents object to the book “raising sexual issues without giving them a moral resolution” (Sova 212). The explicit scenes led to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings landing third of the top one hundred banned books on the American Library Association’s 1990-2000 list; it has been challenged publicly 39 times…
Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird”, we straightway as the readers can tell from the title “Caged Bird” that the poem involves boundaries forced upon the bird inside due to the cage it’s in. Throughout the poem the bird in the cage is compared to a bird with freedom, this in depth symbolizes the struggles African Americans had during the era of white superiority. The free bird represents a person who is living a fortunate life and is free to do as he or she wishes, while on the other the caged bird…