Preview

Caged Bird Sings Thesis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
348 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Caged Bird Sings Thesis
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is the story about Maya angelou’s traumatic experiences that include hardships and changes that she went trough. In Maya Angelou’s,”I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” she is able to use the theme of racial segregation through the use of literary elements of imagery, characterization, and setting. Maya Angelou wrote many books, but her most famous was, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,”. This story is an autobiography about how when Maya was seven years old she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. The man who raped her was murdered by her uncles, and Angelou felt responsible, so she stayed mute for five years. During her time of mute, she happened to gain a love for language. She especially liked African American

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the book, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, she shows rather than tells. She allows the reader to develop a mental picture of everything she explains. The descriptions of the characters are vivid and captivate the reader's imagination. Certain situations are explained perfectly by Maya Angelou, such as Momma's discussion with Mrs. Flowers. Because of such articulate descriptions, the reader is pulled into the story as if they were actually there. This makes reading Caged Bird more interesting.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maya Angelou, the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was a young influential black girl in Stamps, Arkansas. The three most remarkable people in Maya’s life were Bailey, Vivian Baxter, and Grandmother Henderson. Bailey, her brother, was there for her when she needed someone, and Vivian Baxter taught her how to express herself. Grandmother Henderson was the person who always supported Maya Angelou and taught her almost everything she knows.…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vivian Baxter Quotes

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings” Maya Angelou writes about her life from the ages 3 to 16 years old. Angelou writes about her experiences with her mom in part of her autobiography. Vivian Baxter, Angelou’s mother, despite not being there for most of her childhood, she is a major influence to Angelou. Vivian is a young woman who works hard and learns from her life experiences. Vivian Baxter is a strong resilient individual because she has insight, that prevents her from making brash decisions, independence, which allows her to do what is best for her, initiative, that makes her strong and confident, and morality, that lets her know right from wrong.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why The Caged Bird Sings

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1. In the text "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" a young black girl is growing up with racism surrounding her. It is very interesting how the author Maya Angelou was there and the way she described every detail with great passion. In the book Maya and Bailey move to a lot of places, which are, Stamps, Arkansas; St. Louis, Missouri; and San Francisco, California. Maya comes threw these places with many thing happening to her and people she knows. She tries to hold onto all the good memories and get rid of the bad but new ones just keep coming. That is why this book is very interesting. It keeps readers on the edge of their seats.…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maya Angelou's turbulent experiences through late childhood and adolescence transformed into an almost positive force in her adult life as they helped enlighten, inspire, motivate and shape her very being. They provided her with the vehement fuel that drives her achingly powerful words and allowed her the knowledge and wisdom that led to self-discovery (finding one's inner self) and eventually knowledge of self (understanding one's inner self), two endeavors that most of humanity is never able or perhaps willing to acquire. In Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Marguerite Johnson experiences a particularly difficult childhood where she is often displaced geographically, socially and racially, and is even raped at a young age,…

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Meanest Influence

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages

    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the autobiography of Maya Angelou’s life. She tells the story of her life in Stamps, Arkansas as well as her life moving from place to place. She deals with many problems including prejudice in many forms. Because of this prejudice, Maya must deal with the extremely influential actions of segregation, racism, and sexism.…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Johnson continuously confuses the different aspects of love because of past experiences that have given her the wrong idea of what love actually is. The absence of the feeling of love in her life has led her to develop an understanding of love on her own from the things around her. The experience with Mr. Freeman has caused her to develop this perception of love at such a young age which continued on to misguide her through life.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Caged Bird Banning

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Her autobiography starts in the small town of Stamps Arkansas. Maya recalls her youthful escapades with her brother Bailey in their Grandmother’s store. Their Grandmother was a harsh woman, who scrubbed them clean every Sunday (much to the children’s dismay). She recounts her first fearful encounters with racism and sex. Later, Maya moves to California with her beautiful mother. Her mother is a graceful dancer who likes to say that she, “Hopes for the best, prepares for the worst, and is unsurprised by anything in between.” It is by her Mother’s boyfriend that Maya is sexually abused and raped. Although she tells the story in an unattached fashion, it is clear that the incident affected her entire life. She returns to her Grandmother’s home for a few years and begins to develop into an avid reader. For a summer, Maya lives with her father and his spiteful girlfriend. She moves out into a junkyard and becomes a free-dancing, confident girl. From the Junkyard on, Maya is sure of herself in a way that she never was before. The book ends in Maya’s pregnancy. She gives birth at just sixteen years of age. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is primarily a coming of age story. Through the book, Maya finds herself and develops into the poetic thinker and writer we know of…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Caged Bird Essay

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Prose exposes numerous straw man arguments with To Kill a Mockingbird. Prose critiques the novel in a confident, yet slightly harsh manner. She believes that the novel could’ve been different if there was just a bit more detail. Prose interprets To Kill a Mockingbird in a way that focuses on prejudice and racism.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Maya Angelou Influences

    • 1555 Words
    • 7 Pages

    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Lots of trouble came with that piece of literature back then, due to Maya’s honesty about being sexually assaulted at a young age. In 1954 and 1955, Maya toured Europe with the opera Porgy and Bess. She also studied Modern dance with renowned Martha Graham, danced with incredible inspirations like Alvin…

    • 1555 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Specifically it will discuss the themes of racism and segregation, and how these strong themes are woven throughout this moving autobiography. Maya Angelou recounts the story of her early life, including the racism and segregation she experiences throughout her formative years. With wit, sincerity, and remarkable talent, Angelou portrays racism as a product of ignorance and prejudice. However, she finds the strength to rise above this crippling condition.…

    • 2750 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The article relates to Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” because it explains what happened with the civil rights movement during the memoir and shortly after. Angelou describes her life as a minority, specifically in the 1930s. As the memoir progresses and the 1940s approach, Maya Angelou discusses her experience with the civil rights campaign, as it becomes more popular. Similarly, the article explains segregation in world war two, when Maya was growing up. People can see how racial minorities were affected by new policies, and how they chose to react to the unjust treatment. Maya Angelou does the same, as she reveals her experience with discrimination. Both the article and memoir give an understanding of racial segregation…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Names are very important. A name sums up the individuality of a person. Names are what define people and their personality. The name you are given at birth by your parents sticks with you the rest of your life. Nobody has the right to call you something else.In the novel by Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings, many black people had nicknames because the people they worked for didn't want to call them by their real name.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is the first in a series of autobiographical works by Maya Angelou, an African American author and poet. Published in 1969 the novel captures and amplifies the socio-political zeitgeist in Black America. It is a bildungsroman that follows a young African American girl with an inferiority complex on her psychological and characteristic development to become a more socially aware and proactive individual. An individual beginning to adopt or preparing to adopt the attitudes that Bo Bennett discusses in the above quotation. This essay will explore the extent to which Angelou achieves self-actualisation in the novel.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “I was really white and because a cruel fairy stepmother, who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth that would hold a number-two pencil” (Angelou 2-3). This quote from Maya Angelou’s memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings acts as an example of how racism had already made its way into Maya Angelou’s life, despite her being such a young age. Maya Angelou portrays this theme of racism throughout her book. Within her memoir, she explains the racism she faced throughout her life and illustrates how, in a way, this racism made her self aware and led her towards being the person who she is today. The theme of racism contributed to Maya’s journey to self-awareness, as the racism she faced motivated her to accomplish unheard of tasks, revealed to her the difficulties of being a black person, and eventually gave her the pride of being black.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays