In this research paper, we focus on the Maya Angelou’s life. The author is being researched for her history, life, best-known works, and their relevance in the classroom. Maya Angelou is a well-known poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer. Maya Angelou, named Marguerite Johnson, was born on 4 April, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. As a child, her parents, Bailey Johnson and Vivian Baxter, divorce. In the middle of this divorce, Maya and her brother, Bailey, are sent to live with their grandmother, Annie Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. Growing up Maya and her brother were sent back and forth between Arkansas and California. Maya’s entire world would soon become the William Johnson General Merchandise Store. Maya …show more content…
She was the first black streetcar conductor. Maya was at the age of where she was learning about her sexuality. She would have sex with a boy and became pregnant. Her family was understanding, which was unusual for the time. She gave birth to Clyde Bailey Johnson in July 1945. Maya would make the decision to raise Clyde on her own. Eventually, she found a job as a cook. She would soon start over in San Diego as a waitress in the Hi-Hat Club. However, a disagreement soon had her packing to Stamps, but racial prejudice was still existing and she returned to San Francisco. She unsuccessfully tried her hand at showbiz. Maya then moved to Stockton and worked as a fry cook. However, Maya would soon start a fall into the dark side of life. She took to prostitution, had a cocaine addiction and nearly lost her son. It took a stranger to help snap her out of it. She went back to San Francisco. She took two jobs but soon found one she liked. However, at this point, she wanted to find a husband. In 1950, she married Tosh Angelos, a Greek sailor. Unfortunately, the marriage would not last and they divorced in 1952. She took a job as a dancer in a nightclub but was fired three months in. On the bright side, she would soon get a job for the Purple Onion. This would make her a star. She even was interviewed by newspaper and radio
Maya Angelou is one of the most respected African-American women figures. Maya is a poet, actress, civil rights activist, dancer, singer, writer, educator, and director. Maya’s real name is Marguerite Johnson. Maya was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. Maya’s parents divorced when she was three.
"Angelou, Maya (née Marguerite Annie Johnson)." Encyclopedia of African-american Writing. Amenia: Grey House Publishing, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 12 March 2014.
Being a young black girl in the 1940’s was not the easiest thing to be. At that time, the two kinds of people who were believed to be of little or no importance were blacks and women. Throughout the book Maya never really accepted the fact that she was not going to get anywhere because of her status. She always tried to be the best in whatever she did, and always felt that she was just as good as or even better than many of the white people. It was not until she went to live with her mother that she really put action behind her feelings.
Angelou, Maya, Diego Rivera, and Linda Sunshine. Still I Rise. New York: Random House, 2001. Print.
This is the official website with critical introduction to the works of Maya Angelou, and the criteria’s surrounding her success as a global renaissance woman. The author points out Angelou's life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. Her influences include William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, Langston Hughes, among others. This website also points out that her poetry is vast and wide but lacks cultural boundaries, yet her trademark lies in the secular chants, songs, and games of the black vernacular tradition. The author discusses dialect and vernacular rhythms in several of Angelou's poems, and compares several of her works to the racy dialect of Sterling Brown and Langston Hughes.
This newfound search for independence led Maya to move out on her own. She tried to get a job as a telephone operator, tried to enlist in the Women’s Army Corp Service (WACS) and after failing to get several jobs, she finally accepted a job as a Creole cook. She also became a nightclub waitress, which slowly but surely led to a life of prostitution in San Diego, California. “.I was a madam and thought myself morally superior to the whores. I was a waitress and believed myself cleverer than the customers I served.”
Maya’s dream college is Syracuse University. Maya has been hoping to get into Syracuse University for a long time. She sees herself in college majoring in Mass Communications and minoring in Political Science, focusing on law in five years. She wants to either be a journalist, politician, or a sociologist as a career choice once she graduates out of college. When Maya gets her whole life planned out and settled; she would love to go to Paris, France for a dream
Maya Angelou is an author and poet who has risen to fame for her emotionally filled novels and her deep, heartfelt poetry. Her novels mainly focus on her life and humanity with special emphasis on her ideas of what it means to live. The way she utilizes many different styles to grab and keep readers’ attention through something as simple as an autobiography is astounding. This command of the English language and the grace with which she writes allows for a pleasant reading experience. Her style is especially prominent in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", where the early events of Angelou’s life are vividly described to the reader in the postmodern literary fashion.
Maya Angelou's life growing up was not always perfect. Given the birth name of Marguerite Ann Johnson, Maya Angelou was borin in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4th, 1928. Although she was born there, she spent most of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas with her Grandmother, Annie Henderson and in San Fransico, California with her mother. Maya Angelou is still living today and teaches at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Maya had to deal with many hard things growing up and although it wasn't perfect, she's lead a very eventful life.
The poem “On The Pulse of Morning” written by Maya Angelou, this poem explains the effects of cultural diversity among the American people during the late 20th century. Maya states in the sixth stanza of her poem; “Each of you, a bordered country, Delicate and strangely made proud, Yet thrusting perpetually under siege. Your armed struggles for profit Have left collars of waste upon My shore, currents of debris upon my breast. Yet today I call you to my riverside, If you will study war no more.” (Angelou, 6)
Maya begins her story in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. At three, Maya moves into a small town in Arkansas called Stamps. Her parents are divorced and no longer want her and her brother, Bailey. So, she lives with Momma, Bailey, and Uncle Willie. Momma owns a store in the town where many white folks come in and out of the store usually. Maya wishes she could be as pretty as the white girls in the town and she also feels not as equal as the other African-American children. Momma, Bailey, and her all undergo racist comments from some customers of the store. Now Maya as eight years old, Maya’s father shows up in Stamps to take Bailey and her to live with her mother in St. Louis. While in St. Louis, Maya’s mother’s boyfriend sexually abuses her and
The early 1930’s a time where segregation was still an issue in the United States it was especially hard for a young African American girl who is trying to grow and become an independent woman. At this time, many young girls like Maya Angelou grew up wishing they were a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. That was just the start of Angelou's problems though. In the autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou goes into great depth about her tragic childhood, from moving around to different houses, and running away and having a child at the age of 16. This shows how Maya overcame many struggles as a young girl.
Maya Angelo was born marguerite Johnson in Saint Louis in the year 1928. Broken family, raped at the age eight, unwed mother at sixteen years old she had an unpleasant eventful youth. She wrote six book of poetry, produced a TV series in Africa, and acted in a television series and serve as a coordinator for a southern Christian leadership conference. She is best known for her books I know why the caged bird sings, song flog up to heaven, hallelujah! The welcome table. She was also a Reynolds professor of American studies at wake Forest University.
Society creates the thought of what makes an ideal woman; however, Maya Angelou shows us what truly makes an authentic woman in her poem, “Phenomenal Woman.” The word “Phenomenal” is defined as something that is magnificent, remarkable, breathtaking, as well as extraordinary. This poem illustrates confidence and beauty from within, instead of the conventional view that society tends to have, which only focuses on the appearance. She shows how to acknowledge womanhood. One is able to appreciate the poem, even further, by analyzing many of the poetry elements that Maya Angelou illustrates, such as imagery, tone, and diction.
Civil rights activist and writer, Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. At the age of three, Angelou witnessed a divorce between her parents and was sent to live with her grandmother. At the age of eight, she was removed from her comfortable lifestyle