I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Literary Analysis By Aaliyah Smith 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 from 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
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by author Maya Angelou‚ is a gripping tale of a young girl‚ Maya‚ and how her world is evolving around her. The book is an extreme tale of racism and abuse‚ two concepts that would make one forget that this novel is non-fiction. Reading through it‚ I constantly have to remind myself that this is someone’s life story. This book has multiple strong characters who show archetypal characteristics which makes this easy to examine from an archetypal perspective. We see
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The Transformation of Maya Through Childhood Experiences In this novel‚ the main character‚ Marguerite Johnson or Maya‚ experiences many events that put her through a variety of psychological states. From the time that she is abandoned as a child and sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps‚ to giving birth as a sixteen year old woman‚ Maya experiences a wide variety of events and challenges‚ each having their own outcome and own effect on her state of mind. Angelou embodies these effects
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Triginhall Mrs. Teacher Honors English 10 18 November 2012 Response to Literature “The free bird thinks of another breeze….a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams…” The two literary works “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” can be seen as mockingbirds that have flown over fields of prejudice and repeat what they have seen for all to hear. Jem Finch‚ a young boy and lawyer’s son from “To Kill a Mockingbird” clearly symbolizes a mockingbird
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Racism and Segregation Maya confronts the insidious effects of racism and segregation in America at a very young age. She internalizes the idea that blond hair is beautiful and that she is a fat black girl trapped in a nightmare. Stamps‚ Arkansas‚ is so thoroughly segregated that as a child Maya does not quite believe that white people exist. As Maya gets older‚ she is confronted by more overt and personal incidents of racism‚ such as a white speaker’s condescending address at her eighth-grade graduation
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Still I Rise Maya Angelou The poem ‘Still I Rise’ written by American author Maya Angelou is written from the perspective of Maya herself. She is speaking to her audience of oppressors about how she has overcome racism‚ criticism‚ sexism‚ and personal obstacles in her life with pride and grace. It describes her personal struggle through life and how she managed to pull through and how she will continue on her life journey. This poem is historically rooted with mentions of slavery‚ a “past of pain”
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Compare the ways in which Charlotte Brontë and Maya Angelou present male characters‚ through detailed discussion of Jane Eyre and wider reference to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Jane Eyre is an early insight into how proto-feminists were regarded in the 19th century‚ where a women’s role was stereotypically to be seen and not heard. Charlotte Bronte uses the character Jane Eyre as a platform to express the imbalance of equality between the two genders and uses a series of male characters
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Writers have devoted many essays to trying to change this prejudice. Throughout the development of their essays‚ Maya Angelou in "Graduation" and James Baldwin in "If Black Language isn’t a Language‚ Then Tell Me‚ What Is?" show that their struggles have shaped them into people of character and integrity through an important lesson that is taught to them about self worth. Facing the reality of prejudice in a society that insists on equality
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Caged Birds Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour touches upon numerous aspects of the struggles women face in their daily lives. At the time it was written in 1894‚ women were governed by their husbands. They were the homemaker‚ the mother‚ and the wife. The expectations of women did not permit them to be much else without being an abomination to their communities. Chopin provides a woman’s perspective way ahead of her time‚ enabling her readers to contemplate the freedom or lack thereof which women
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# Quote Reaction 1 pg. 8 Chap. 1: "The sounds of the new morning had been replaced with grumbles about cheating houses‚ weighted scales‚ snakes‚ skimpy cotton and dusty rows. In later years I was to confront the stereotyped picture of gay song-singing cotton pickers with such an inordinate rage that I was told even by fellow blacks that my paranoia was embarrassing. But I had seen the fingers cut by the mean little cotton boils‚ and
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