I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Essay

about a bird that is isolated in a cage from its habitat and makes an effort in trying to escape the cage. In “Caged Bird” Maya Angelou compares a free bird to a caged bird and their how different their lives can be when in two different scenarios. In both of these poems the birds are alike in many ways and also very different. In “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird” both of the birds have the same desire of escaping the cage but their physical approach of doing so is what sets them apart. The two birds…

great poets by the name of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes wrote two extraordinary poems called “I know why the caged bird sings” and “Democracy”. These two poems open your eye to the word freedom. I choose these two poems because, me personally being of Haitian decent I see how my people are treated and thought of. We think we leave Haiti to be free by coming to America but are we really free in America. I plan to further describe these to poems by analyzing what critics say about both the…

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…

behind a legacy so great it will never be forgotten. She was a scholar, reading the works of great writers such as “Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois” (Angelou, I Know Why 15-16). Maya Angelou was a teacher, as stated by Oprah Winfrey, “The world knows her as a poet, but at the heart of her, she was a teacher. ‘When you learn, teach. When you get, give’ is one of my best lessons from her” (Duke). She was a civil rights activist, working with…

Maya Angelou told her story in her autobiography; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, as a chapter…

a multitalented person. She wrote poetry and books, had parts in movies, plays, and television shows, and even had a weekly radio show. After living abroad in the 1960’s, Angelou returned to the United States to write her first memoir I Know Why The Caged Bird…

Maya Angelou was born with the name Marguerite Annie Johnson, Angelou had a very tough childhood. Her parents parted ways while she was still undeveloped, she and her elder brother, Bailey, were both sent to live with their fathers, mother, Anne Henderson, In Stamps, Arkansas. As a Black American, Angelou endured racial discrimination and prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas. During a visit with her mother, Maya Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend at the fresh age of seven. Her…

She has many poems out and many known books around the world. Three of her works are: Rainbow in the Clouds, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Amazing Peace. These are three of her top poems she has written. Rainbow in the Clouds has a quote saying “Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” What she means by this is that it takes so little to brighten someone else's day.…

It describes her childhood of living in a racist Stamps, Arkansas, which was commonly visited by the KKK, and the aftermath of the Great Depression. (Collier 3) “I Know Why…” was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970. Later, Maya Angelou came out with 2 new autobiographies named “Gather Together in My Name” and “Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry like Christmas.” These tell about Maya’s meeting of a lesbian…

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage we can not practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous or, honest". -Maya Angelou Marguerite Annie Johnson, better known as Maya Angelou, was born on April 4, 1928 in St.Louis, Missouri. Due to their mother's addiction problem, Maya and her brother Bailey, grew up in Arkansas with their grandmother. Eager to adjust, she learned lot about life from her grandmother,…