Analysis: Chapters 1–5 The lines from the poem Maya cannot finish‚ “What are you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay . . .” capture two of the most significant issues she struggles with in her childhood and young adulthood: feeling ugly and awkward and never feeling attached to one place. First‚ Maya imagines that though people judge her unfairly by her awkward looks‚ they will be surprised one day when her true self emerges. At the time‚ she hopes that she will emerge as if in a fairy-tale
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A Lifetime of Influence Marguerite Johnson had a harsh childhood growing up in the South during the days of cotton picking and slavery. All of the adversity she encountered when she was young inspired her to write the book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In it‚ she depicts what life was like growing up in the small town of Stamps‚ Arkansas‚ and illustrates the daily hardships that were roadblocks throughout her life. Many people help her overcome these obstructions in her young life‚ but it was
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6. Independent Reading Assignment I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is an autobiography detailing evens in her life from when she was just five years old to when she has her first child at the age of 16. As I read the novel‚ I felt as though Angelou wrote it so that she could shine a light on the racism in America. Even though Maya Angelou is “black” and I am “yellow‚” I was able to relate to her story on a very personal level. Although I have never been sexually molested as she
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The Darkest Struggles When Maya Angelou wrote the book “I know why the caged bird sings” she was speaking from her very on soul and pouring out the deep feelings she had felt when she was younger‚ all the way up until she was a young adult. African American women will always have more on their shoulders more than any other race especially white women will. No one really knows if all of the discrimination started because of the color of our skin or the attitude that lingers in our voice. Only
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measurement of events‚ happenings‚ and interactions with other human beings. If every person was charged with the task of compiling their own autobiography‚ they would carefully select particular occurrences from their past‚ and pointedly omit others. It is this selection process‚ and the reasoning behind it‚ that makes the autobiography such an interesting and unique literary genre. In reading Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings‚ one is able to directly detect several events in her life‚
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“Wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream‚ and my real hair‚ which was long and blond‚ would take the place of the kinky mass Momma wouldn’t let me straighten? My light-blue eyes would hypnotize them ...” - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Colorism is a standard of discrimination by which people with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. Colorism mirrors white supremacy in that those with lighter skin are awarded privileges
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In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings‚ Maya Angelou describes her experiences growing up as an insecure black girl in Stamps‚ Arkansas in the 1930’s and later moving to California in the 1940’s. Maya’s parents divorced when she was three years old. Her older brother‚ Bailey and Maya were sent to Stamps‚ Arkansas to live with their grandmother‚ Anne Henderson. Anne‚ whom they called Momma‚ ran the only general store in the black section of Stamps‚ Arkansas. Momma became a strong moral female
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time period that she lived in. One of her most famous pieces is a memoir. Her poems are about women empowerment. Some of her other poems are about racial discrimination. Through her poetry she has inspired lots of people. Her memoir Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is about her childhood and teen years. There were many event in her memoir that shocked me. In it she talks about how was molested and raped by her mother’s boyfriend‚ and after he was beat to death she kept quiet for years. While she
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In 1969 segregation and racism were separating the people of America‚ not only physically but also emotionally. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings‚” written by Maya Angelou‚ captured the separation and unfairness of society. This poem is an accurate representation of the pain and hardship of the African American community. Marguerite Ann Johnson‚ now known as Maya Angelou‚ was born on April 4‚ 1928 in St. Louis Missouri. She was a civil rights activist as seen in many of her poems. Angelou experienced
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings follows Marguerite’s (called "My" or "Maya" by her brother) life from the age of three to seventeen and the struggles she faces – particularly with racism – in the Southern United States. Abandoned by their parents‚ Maya and her older brother Bailey are sent to live with their paternal grandmother (Momma) and crippled uncle (Uncle Willie) in Stamps‚ Arkansas. Maya and Bailey are haunted by their parents’ abandonment throughout the book – they travel alone and are labeled
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