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Analysis of Maya's angelou i know why the caged bird sings
Analysis of Maya's angelou i know why the caged bird sings
Do a figurative reading of Maya Angelou's "I know why the caged bird sings
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Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography that describes the coming of age of a Southern black girl who overcomes society’s cruelty as she grows up. Taking place in Stamps, Kansas during the 1930s, the autobiography captures Marguerite Ann Johnson’s, or Maya’s, battle of finding herself and coming to terms with who she is while growing up in a time period comprised of oppression and discrimination. Furthermore, Maya endures many childhood hardships due to her race, and she defeats these obstacles with her intelligence and fortitude. Thus, Maya Angelou utilizes her vividly detailed experiences of racism’s impact on her and her resistance to racism to demonstrate the struggle of the Southern black girl who grows up in a society overwhelmed with white superiority. Initially, Maya is already consumed by the white standards of beauty when she is a child because of the white supremacy that surrounds her. Early in the novel, Maya is excited to wear a “special” Easter dress that would supposedly make her look like the perfect white girls. However, when Easter morning arrives, she realizes that the dress only makes her "skin look dirty like mud.” She wishes that she had long, blonde hair, paired with light, blue eyes, instead of her black features. She feels that she is actually white, and a wicked magician …show more content…
Furthermore, the incorporation of these experiences add a compelling and inspiring aspect to the literary piece, thus putting emphasis on the racism issue. By describing the character’s thoughts and feelings when encountering and conquering racism, the readers’ sense of indignation and hope are provoked. Therefore, the readers are given an insight of the cruelty that the Southern black girl faces in a society where racism is
Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya shields herself against the confusion of St. Louis by reading fairy-tales and telling herself that she does not intend on staying there anyway. Vivian works in a gambling parlor at night. Maya pities Mr. Freeman because he spends his days at home waiting for Vivian to return. Maya begins sleeping at night with Vivian and Mr. Freeman because she suffers from nightmares. One morning after Vivian has left the bed and the house, Mr. Freeman sexually molests Maya. He does not rape her but rather masturbates on the bed while holding her close to him. Afterward, he threatens to kill Bailey if Maya ever tells anyone, but Maya, who does not understand what has happened and who actually enjoyed being held by someone, cannot understand what caused such a threat. For weeks, Mr. Freeman ignores her, and then molests her again. Again, he ignores her for weeks. Maya feels rejected and hurt, but she loses herself in other things, such as books. She wishes she were a boy because the heroes in all her favorite books and stories are male. Bailey welcomes the move to St. Louis and he makes friends, with whom he plays baseball. Maya, however, does not make any friends during this time. She and Bailey begin to grow apart, so she spends her Saturdays in the library reading fantastic adventures. ...
In her narrative, titled “Champion of the World”, the nineteenth chapter of the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou recalls an incident of a heavyweight boxing match between an African American, Joe Louis, and a white contender. Angelou emphasizes the import of the match to the African American community to display the racism in this time period, the oppression people of color face, and the defeat they have to come to terms with whether they lose in one aspect of life or not. To achieve her purpose, Angelou uses dialogue, diction, and the the imbedding of a secondary narrative throughout the primary narrative. She creates parallelism through the use of repetition and utilizes short, staccato sentences to further emphasises her
The novel, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", by Maya Angelou is the first series of five autobiographical novels. This novel tells about her life in rural Stamps, Arkansas with her religious grandmother and St. Louis, Missouri, where her worldly and glamorous mother resides. At the age of three Maya and her four-year old brother, Bailey, are turned over to the care of their paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Southern life in Stamps, Arkansas was filled with humiliation, violation, and displacement. These actions were exemplified for blacks by the fear of the Ku Klux Klan, racial separation of the town, and the many incidents in belittling blacks.
Do you think different adversities are solved similarly? Are there any correlations between different adversities? Is there a way to overcome one’s adversities? Well in the book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, the main character has the capability to solve her most important ones. The main character, Maya Angelou, experiences the wrath of racism while living in the south during the 20th century. Racism is the stem of many adversities such as low-self esteem and poverty which Angelou must face.
One of them is Momma’s store, which is a symbol and is a archetype. She says that, “Until I was thirteen and left Arkansas for good, the Store was my favorite place to be. Alone and empty in the mornings, it looked like an unopened present from a stranger” (13). This line is effective because firstly, this is an archetype and she is talking about how this was the most important place to her. Secondly, she is also using another technique in this line and it is a comparison. By using the comparison of a store to a gift, it shows how this was the most important place to her and that given it was unexpected, it made it even more special to her. Another technique that is used is an allusion. She says, “He was my first white love” (13). This was when she was referring to Shakespeare and how much she loved him. This is effective because it also creates irony. This is ironic because she coloured skin and Shakespeare is white and white people are the ones who are discriminating black people, and it makes her feel guilty of liking a white man’s work because of her skin colour. Shakespeare could be a trickster archetype because it could be tricking Maya in liking white people when they treat coloured people in her town with no respect. Finally, Maya uses a simile to talk about her hate towards love. She says, “There was that hateful word again. That treacherous word that yawned up at you like a volcano” (144). The word that she referring to that she hates is “love.” This simile is effective because by comparing it to a volcano, she is saying that love is dangerous and she does not have a good feeling towards that word. The word also shows a archetype because of how negative she is towards love and fully expresses this archetype with the simile. Overall, it can be seen that there are many stylistic techniques that are used effectively to see the
In Maya Angelou's autobiographical novel, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", tender-hearted Marguerite Johnson, renamed Maya by her refined brother Bailey, discovers all of the splendors and agonies of growing up in a prejudiced, early twentieth century America. Rotating between the slow country life of Stamps, Arkansas and the fast-pace societies in St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California taught Maya several random aspects of life while showing her segregated America from coast to coast.
In “My Brother Bailey and Kay Francis,” a snippet from autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, author Maya Angelou and her brother Bailey face the challenges of segregation and the abandonment of their parents while growing up in Stamps, Arkansas. Their sense of identity is tarnished through incidents of racial discrimination and the historical conditions of this time period and location further depict the tone of this story. Throughout their lives, racism towards blacks during this time period is evermore present and is the main cause of Angelou and Bailey’s struggle to find security in their identity.
Similarly, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, which I first read the summer after I graduated high school, is a tale of oppression that translates into a deeply moving novel chronicling the ups and downs of a black family in the 1930’s and 1940’s. A myriad of historical and social issues are addressed, including race relations in the pre-civil rights south, segregated schools, sexual abuse, patriotism and religion. Autobiographical in nature, this tumultuous story centers around Marguerite Johnson, affectionately called "Maya", and her coast-to-coast life experiences. From the simple, backwards town of Stamps, Arkansas to the high-energy city life of San Francisco and St. Louis, Maya is assaulted by prejudice in almost every nook and cranny of society, until she finally learns to overcome her insecurities and be proud of who she is.
Maya Angelou’s excerpt from her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” reveals the challenges facing a young black girl in the south. The prologue of the book tells of a young Angelou in church trying to recite a poem she has forgotten. She describes the dress her grandmother has made her and imagines a day where she wakes up out of her black nightmare. Angelou was raised in a time where segregation and racism were prevalent in society. She uses repetition, diction, and themes to explore the struggle of a black girl while growing up. Angelou produces a feeling of compassion and poignancy within the reader by revealing racial stereotypes, appearance-related insecurities, and negative connotations associated with being a black girl. By doing this she forces the
Walker, Pierre A. Racial protest, identity, words, and form in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Vol. 22. West Chester: Collage Literature, n.d. Literary Reference Center. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
According to the Huffington Post, self-image has affected over 60% of social media users (Silva 1). Self-image is the way that one perceives themselves based off of what is happening in his life at a given time. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou tells the story of a young Maya Angelou and her coming of age. Although there was not social media when Maya Angelou was young, the outside world was able to affect her self-image. Her book gives great insight into her life, including the terrible parts, such as the heavy racism in Maya’s hometown, Stamps, the effects of her rape, and her struggling sexuality. Maya’s self-image significantly changes because of these factors in a way that she can never
The book thus explores a lot of important issues, such as: sexuality and race relations, and shows us how society violated her as a young African American female. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou clearly expresses the physical pain of sexual assault, the mental anguish of not daring to tell, and her guilt and shame for having been raped. Her timidity and fear of telling magnify the brutality of the rape. For more than a year after the rape she lives in self-imposed silence, speaking only very rarely. This childhood rape reveals the pain that African American women suffered as victims not only of racism but also sexism.
The novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings goes through the childhood of Maya Angelou as she faces the difficult realities of the early South. This novel does not do a very good job at portraying the hardships of the blacks because she
Throughout I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, racism is a frequent obstacle that non-whites had to overcome. When Maya is young, she doesn’t recognize the racism and discrimination as well as her grandmother does. As Maya gets older, she begins to recognize and take notice to the racism and discrimination towards her and African Americans everywhere. Maya may not recognize the racism and discrimination very well at her young age, but it still affects her outlook on life the same way it would if she had recognized it. The racism and discrimination Maya faced throughout I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, affected her attitude, personality, and overall outlook on life in a positive way.
Maya is scared for life and is led to believe that the very sound of her voice