Maya Angelou

“What’s in a Name?” who “could not have been more than five or six” (Gates 6). There is a little girl named “Marguerita Johnson” in her “tenth year” (Angelou 108) in “Finishing School”. Both characters experience a situation where names, other than given names are used, and lack of respect is…

“Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but hasn’t solved one yet.”-Maya Angelou. This is one of my grandmother’s, Glenda Kay Smith, favorite quotes. Glenda’s life began on January 25, 1945. She was born at her grandmother’s house in Wolfpit, North Carolina. Her father was away at France fighting during World War II. Glenda lived in Greensboro, North Carolina. When she was seven, her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Her neighborhood was filled with older duplexes and newer…

What is your Cage? What keeps you back from freedom? Maya Angelou wrote an amazing and entertaining autobiography titled I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, about her hard life growing up as a black girl from the South. Among the hardships are things known as "cages" as stated as a metaphor from Paul Dunbar's poem "Sympathy." "Cages" are things that keep people from succeeding in life and being everything they want to be. Some of Maya Angelou’s cages include being black in the 1940's and her…

Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Like many other coming of age novels, Angelou’s biography is a story of finding identity. Maya is a young girl from Stamps, Arkansas, who moves many times throughout her life. 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…

Poets commonly talk about issues in society by using figurative language to avoid offending civilization. “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou addresses the huge issue that some humans are repressed while others live free. Angelou uses figurative language such as synecdoches, juxtaposing a caged bird to a free bird, which signifies the natural born rights and freedom that people have, while the caged bird represents people who are repressed and, unfortunately, do not have these rights. The overall…

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou describes her coming of age as a mature but insecure black girl in the American South during the 1930s and later on in California during the 1940s. Maya’s parents divorce when she is only three years old and ship Maya and her older brother, Bailey, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, in rural Stamps, Arkansas. Annie, whom they call Momma, runs the only store in the black…

Though Beneatha matured observing Mama’s relationship with Walter Sr., her actions rebel against the archetypical ideal molded by Mama. She developed her own ideal mindset. Just as in “Phenomenal Women”, Angelou creates a paradigm that helps women clearly understand how to define themselves. Angelou does not necessarily refer to her appearances, importance, or social class of herself, but rather the image she portrays to herself. Phenomenal women believe in themselves, just as Beneatha believes…

common good. Maya Angelou measures up to these qualifications based on her heart for people, giving spirit, and unwavering mindset. Maya Angelou grew up…

first is that we have more in common than some think. The second is that even though our skin color differ we are all a family. Lastly they both believe that we DO have differences, but in the bigger picture we are the same. To start things off, Maya Angelou displays her belief by using repetition to show that people, no matter their skin color are more alike than they are unalike. She says, “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” She repeats this statement two more times…

“I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people” said Maya Angelou, poet and social activist. This quote by Maya Angelou helps to explain many of the characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. I feel that this quote really helps explain that everyone can be a hero, and that it doesn’t matter if you’re a black man fighting the Jim Crow laws, or a young boy trying to protect his sister. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the theme of heroism is illustrated…