I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings works by singer, poet, writer, and actress Maya Angelou, it is one of the most widely read and taught book by an African American woman. The title of the book comes from Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, "Sympathy." The connection of the poem with the novel is where a little persistence bird (Marguerite) struggles against the bars of the cage life barriers , but she gets up, she rises and pushes forward. Although I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings covers different aspects…
The first autobiography ‘’I Know why the Caged Bird Sings’’ unravels a number of questions posed in regards to feministic reading. Questions such as whether the characters of main focus are strong, aware females, whether these females bond with each other in the pervasive patriarchal social order, and whether…
Imagine the world being divided into two separate groups. All the optimists are separated into one section and all the pessimists into the other. Amongst the optimists, the conversation would consist of fantastic plans for the future and how things can only get better. Meanwhile, the pessimists are having, what might seem to the optimists like, a depressing discussion. Far from working out how to make their dreams come true, they’re worrying about all the things that might go wrong. They’re…
Sincere Selfhood It is fair to say that in today’s day and age our identity is often defined by rather shallow attributes such as name, age, or appearance. A common example would be the basic information, like height, weight, and home address that is required on a driver’s license. With that said, one could make the argument that these everyday societal formalities and public perceptions, which are mostly out of our control, do make up our full identity. However, identity is not something given…
On April 4th, 1928, a girl, who later becomes an inspiring author and woman of the performing arts, was born. Her name was Maya Angelou. Throughout her life, Maya faced racial discrimination and the effects of the Great Depression. However, this never stopped her from expressing herself through her writing. Maya lived with her parents for 3 years at Long Beach, California before being sent her brother, Bailey, who was 4 at that time, to live with their father’s mother in Stamps, Arkansas. Their…
Still I Rise is one of 32 poems that Maya Angelou wrote in her book And Still I Rise. When I saw first saw the title of the poem I was immediately interested and reading it was inspirational, so I decided to write my art critique on it. I choose this poem because I could relate to it because no matter what happens in my life I always keep positive and know better days are ahead. I like this poem because it focuses on a hopeful determination to rise above difficulty and discouragement. Still I…
Alice Walker, in full Alice Malsenior Walker was born on 9th February 1944 in Eatonton Georgia U.S. and is now one of the country’s best-selling writers of literary fiction. Alice walker’s life was life of any African American in 1940s. She was deprived of all the basic amenities and discrimination was rampant all around, which Alice later started expressing through her short stories, novel, poems etc. More than ten million copies of her books are in print." Walker has now become a focal…
She wrote the film Georgia in 1971. She wrote many poems and books for people telling about her life. After her book, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, she became the first black woman who was capable of discussing her personal life to the public (Biography of Maya Angelou). The most famous of all of her autobiographies is I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. She ended up writing six autobiographies about herself (Maya Angelou). She also made many poems such…
James Baldwin, an African-American author, had encouraged her to start writing with her feelings and tell her story. First, she wrote, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969, which was the autobiography that I read. In it, she tells the story of her childhood and how she had believed that her words were what killed the man, when she was younger, but now, being the “caged bird” and “singing.” Another…
The Vulnerable Heart “Joyas Volodoras” is a poetic essay written by Brian Doyle. In this essay, he first mentions about different creatures and their hearts: hummingbirds, their amazing features including torpor, and them having very little emotions, blue whales, their “yearning cries,” them being very emotional, and always longing for something, even when they have a mate. Then he talks about how the heart is vulnerable. He says no matter how strongly we try to defend ourselves from emotions…