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Caged Bird Sings By Zitkala-Sa Summary

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Mobility is a New Perspective of the World
Richard N. Coe writes in When the Grass Was Taller that “mobility is of the very essence of the Childhood” (17) which is proven by the 3 essays “Impressions of an Indian Childhood,” “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” “An Indian Teacher among Indians,” and “Why I Am a Pagan.” by Zitkala-Sa, the book Black Boy by Richard Wright, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou which all exemplify that mobility is what makes this genre, childhood narrative so captivating and vivid. Coe says those who live their life in the same place can’t separate their adulthood from childhood. They only experience a comfortable familiar mode whereas in these 3 texts they have not only experienced the regularities of a childhood but encountered abnormalities
Zitkala-Sa begins her essay as a girl on the reservation. It is in this time where she is in the commonplace and familiar …show more content…

This time in her life is not different from the other children’s lives on that reservation; she followed a consistent routine and her mother cared for her, she felt loved. Zitakala-Sa was “...as free as the wind that blew my hair, and no less spirited than a bounding deer” (Zitkala-Sa “Impressions of an Indian Childhood). However, after leaving her home at age 8 to attend a boarding school intended to reform Native Americans into the White’s culture this wild and spirited child began to lose that confidence in her identity. Her first time returning home was uncomfortable though school was much worse; she realized when she came home that she “was neither a wee girl nor a tall one; neither a wild Indian nor a tame one” (Zitkala-Sa “The School Days of an Indian Girl”). She was caught between the values and expectations of white society and her Native American values as well as traditions. As she moved on to be a

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