Preview

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
766 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Journal #3
(Chapter 21-27)
|Quote # 13: "At eleven years old, death is more unreal than |My Opinion: An eleven year old is less focused on death because |
|frightening (Angelou 160)." |it is more unreal then frightening. Death is one of the last |
| |things on a child's mind because they are more worried about |
| |today then tomorrow. This connotative phrase is used in this |
| |story to suggest that death is the least of Maya's worries as a |
| |young child, and that the funeral is a waist of time to her. |
|Quote #14: "I'd rather stick my hand in a dogs mouth than in a |My Opinion: Whenever Momma brings Maya to a dentist, on the white|
|nigger's (Angelou 189)." |side of town, the dentist refuses to look at Maya's teeth because|
| |of her racial color. During this time in history, the black race |
| |was highly looked down upon and treated less than someone would |
| |an animal. This metaphor is used in this story to describe to the|
| |reader how poorly African Americans were treated. They were |
| |treated so poorly that in this statement dogs were considered |
| |higher than blacks. |
|Quote #15: "If you ask a Negro where he's been, he'll tell you |My Opinion:
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Character Analysis: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Character Analysis: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

    In this novel you really get to see how bad racism once was. And how Maya dealt with it. Smart and imaginative, Maya nevertheless feels that people judge her unfairly due to her awkward appearance. Feeling misunderstood, she always puts herself in a nice mind set. She imagines she is an attractive blonde hair blue eyed girl. Maya describes her social and familial displacement as “unnecessary insults” on top of the general difficulties associated with growing up as a black girl in the segregated American South. The South presents Maya with three tremendous obstacles:…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Huckleberry Finn: Controversy Paper Essay Example
    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Huckleberry Finn: Controversy Paper Essay Example

    we all have hidden inside of us. Ralph Ellison said, "The Negro looks at the…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Letter from Birmingham Jail
    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Letter from Birmingham Jail

    “With his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice.”…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Handmaid's Quotes And Analysis
    • 1568 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Handmaid's Quotes And Analysis

    Quote- “My heart racing, I drive fast on the paved town roads, heading for the colored part of town. I’ve never even sat at the same table with a Negro who wasn’t paid to do so. The interview has been delayed by over a month.”(167)…

    • 1568 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dolores Influence On Maya
    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dolores Influence On Maya

    Dolores impacts Maya, but does so indirectly. For most of Maya’s life, decisions for Maya were made for her by other people. By stabbing Maya, Dolores indirectly causes Maya to make a decision for herself- run away. Maya describes that because of Dolores, she is “out free” and “set thinking of my future” (213). Throughout the rest of the memoir, Maya continues to make decisions for herself as a result. Dolores also indirectly causes Maya to stay in the junkyard with the people that “welcomed me” (215). The junkyard allows Maya to become friends with people of different backgrounds and cultures. Maya feels that she will “never again...sense myself outside the pale of the human race” (216). Maya’s decision to stay at the junkyard shows that Maya…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Being Black In America By Andrew Hacker Analysis
    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Being Black In America By Andrew Hacker Analysis

    “In the eyes of white Americans, being black encapsulates your identity.” In reading and researching the African American cultural group, this quote seemed to identify exactly the way the race continues to still be treated today after many injustices in the past. It is astonishing to me that African Americans can still stand to be treated differently in today’s society.…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Black Like Me
    • 1292 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Black Like Me

    “I learned a strange thing, that in a jumble of unintelligible talk, the word “nigger” leaps out with electric clarity.”…

    • 1292 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Theme Of Death In The Epic Of Gilgamesh
    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Theme Of Death In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

    Death is something that every human must face. It is the inevitable conclusion to life and is something that humans have had to come to terms with since the dawn of their existence. This is very clear in many of the writings and stories that human beings have told throughout history. This obsession about the ultimate culmination of life is heavily expressed in literary works like The Epic of Gilgamesh, Virgil’s The Aeneid, and Beowulf.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay On The Masque Of The Red Death
    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Essay On The Masque Of The Red Death

    Do you fear death? It can be a terrifying thing. We can prolong it, but we can not escape it. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Masque of the Red Death,” is an allegory of how unavoidable death is. There are many visual descriptions in the story to symbolize death. The use of this language and symbolism can be seen in the seventh room, the ebony clock and the fire. In this complex story, Edgar Allan Poe incorporates gob-smacking diction to portray the fearfulness of this “red death” along with vivid imagery of the situation, and symbolism to fully convey that death is inevitable.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Overlooked People In To Kill A Mockingbird
    • 1691 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Overlooked People In To Kill A Mockingbird

    “You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted with women- black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men” (204).…

    • 1691 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    How Different Cultures React to Death and Dying
    • 1918 Words
    • 8 Pages

    How Different Cultures React to Death and Dying

    Death is one of the few experiences shared by all humankind. In her groundbreaking book, Death and Dying, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross begins her book with a discussion of Western man’s fear of death and dying and by pointing out that this subject has become, for many individuals, a taboo. Kubler-Ross (1969)…

    • 1918 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Short Essay: The Validity Of Good Death
    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Short Essay: The Validity Of Good Death

    Death is inevitable. No matter how much an individual clings to life hoping and wishing to escape death, death always follows. Yet, in the presence of those who cling to life, there are individuals who accept that death is a part of life. Those individuals realize that from the moment of birth death is inevitable. In light of these two polar responses to death I find it important to try to understand the concept of “good death.” For the purpose of this short essay I will not dive into whether death is good. For now I will only explore the fluidity of “good death” by highlighting specific attitudes that have endured over the past 150 years and offer personal suggests for why I think these attitudes have persisted.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Effects Of The Civil War On African American Soldiers
    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Effects Of The Civil War On African American Soldiers

    African Americans fought for their freedom at every opportunity during the hundreds of years of enslavement. They fought by running away and seeking freedom in northern territories and they fought for their freedom during the War for Independence. But no time in history was the fight more organized, more determined, and more sacrificial than their fight for freedom during and after the Civil War. Since the time of the Declaration of Independence when African Americans realized that if all men were created equal, then if applied to them as well, their fight for freedom was a part of every waking moment.…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Literary Analysis of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
    • 2750 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Literary Analysis of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

    Editors. "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000." American Library Association. 2007. 27 Feb. 2008.…

    • 2750 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    African American Inequality
    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    African American Inequality

    From the time our country was founded, many African Americans lived a life of hardship merely because the color of their skin. In many instances they were treated as animals, being sold and traded in shackles and chains. At the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence when the country was founded, most African Americans worked as slaves. Working conditions for slaves were inhumane, who were often forced to work long hours in the sweltering summer heat. In 1865, the ratification of the 13th amendment made slavery illegal everywhere in the United States. However, this was not the end of inequality and segregation for African Americans. The racism in the south did not…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics