I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Rhetorical Analysis

Angelou, Maya. I know why the caged bird sings. New York: random house, 1970. Print.

The essay I chose is “The Top Reason to Adopt a Pet” by the Humane Society. The reason I chose this particular essay is adoption is very near and dear to my heart and I think everyone should adopt pets. The author organizes the essay using eight different points of why you should adopt a pet. Also the author doesn’t use high style to get her point across. The style of the essay is persuasive and really pushes you to adopt pets.

People throughout their lives are constantly discovering who they are and who they want to grow into. The same statement accurately describes Maya Johnson, a strong woman who wrote about her life in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. As a little girl, her mother’s ex-boyfriend raped and she had to rediscover herself whilst navigating through the grim veil of trauma - a process that burdened her for many years. Throughout her life, she encountered many different people, some good, others bad, but they each helped her eventually discover her identity. ‘Identity’ is how people define themselves as a human being, and, therefore, nobody else can dictate it. Maya’s experiences throughout her childhood and “adulthood” convey the idea that nobody can dictate someone else’s identity except the person themselves.

Some may say that educational systems are superior, however, some can argue that the educational system needs a change. Francine Prose’s purpose in “I Know Why The Caged Bird Cannot Read” stood out clearly, to inform parents on how the current system of education is ineffective to young learners. Her use of words, ethos, logos and pathos appeals to educators and students to inspire change in their education standards.

Some people feel unwanted, as if they don’t belong. Often they have just not found the right place to reside. Sue Monk Kidd, author of, “The Secret Life of Bees” which discusses a girl named Lily who grew up with her abusive father and the guilt of accidentally murdering her own mother. She never felt at home, especially because she hand many questions about her mother, Deborah. She ran away with her nanny, Rosaleen, in hopes of finding a place to call home. In “The Secret Life of Bees,” Sue Monk Kidd’s use of pathos gives her the ability to portray the purpose that one day everybody will have a place to call home, no matter one’s past life or skin color; she takes her audience deeper into this purpose by using the strategies of foreshadowing

Once again, Maya Angelou manages to touch our hearts again with her poetic skills in Chapter 19 titled The Champion of the World in her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She recalls a time in her life where the African American community gathered at her grandmother's and uncle's store to hear a boxing match via radio. The boxing match was between the former champion Joe Louis and a white boxer. Maya Angelou takes the meaning of a simple boxing match into something more complex; she demonstrates the suffrage of her people fighting against oppression during that time period. She shows us that despite the injustices that may occur, there will always be victory for those who truly deserve it.

In her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelo commemorates and admires strong independent black women and strives to become a well-educated woman herself. Through the use of visual imagery, Angelou describes Mrs. Flowers as a refined black woman to convey to the audience a feeling of pride and recognition for all sophisticated black women and a sense of empathy for Maya. Maya compares Mrs. Flowers to the “women in English novels” who had the luxury to sit “in front of roaring fireplaces” and drink “tea incessantly from silver trays” (93). The visual description of the “fireplace” and “tea” demonstrates to the reader the value that white women have in this society. Maya Angelou

In America, living an adequate life is dependent on having sufficient financial capital. Having money allows Americans to live successful lives. Because money is such a necessity, a large emphasis is placed on doing what needs to be done in order to gain such capital. In "Birds and Bees? No, Let's Talk about Dollars and Cents," Ben Stein successfully argues that one must convert human capital, which is obtained through self discipline, into financial capital in order to lead a successful life. He is writing to his son whom is on the verge of entering the real world, where he will be forced to make decisions himself, including financial decisions. The lawyer, economist, law professor, actor, comedian, and former White House

a. Maya Angelou was an avid writer, speaker, activist and teacher. As a result of the many hardships that she suffered while growing up as a poor black woman in the south she has used her own experiences as the subject matter of her written work. In doing this she effectively shows how she was able to overcome her personal obstacles. Her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) tells the story of her life and how she overcame and moved forward triumphantly in spite of her circumstances. She asks her readers to rise above their defeats, to not allow anyone to stop their dreams. In demonstrating how she succeeded she has been a role model for women of all cultures and races. The “Phenomenal Women” poem is a celebration

Would you have ever thought that elephants are much smarter than what they are believed to be? Well, they definitely are because shown in recent experiments, and as shown in the different selections, elephants have had better results than other competing animals. In the video, “Elephants Show Cooperation”, by Discovery Channel the article, “Elephants Can Lend A Helping Trunk,” by Virginia Morell and the passage, “Elephants Know When They Need A Helping Trunk In A Cooperative Task,” by Joshua M. Plotnik. All three pieces of information give the reader an overview about the experiment, while conveying information to the reader in their own unique way. All three selections show information about the experiment, and show the information in

While everyone will have their own assumptions of this song, I presume that it is about drugs. In the very first stanza, it mentions the word ’’colitas’’. Colitas are also known as the bud of marijuana; therefore, I believe that diction sets the mood for the rest of the song. Another example for diction is when they said ‘’bends’’. The Eagles are telling us that the mind is morphed by drugs. In the first refrain of the song, it says ‘’You can find it here’’. I assume the Eagles are talking about drugs when they say ‘’it’’. Later on in the song it says ‘’some dance to forget’’. Marijuana can cause people to forget things for short periods of time. In stanza five, it says ‘’You can checkout any time you like But you can never leave!’’ I assume

Maya Angelou recalls the first seventeen years of her life, discussing her unsettling childhood in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya and Bailey were sent from California to the segregated South to live with their grandmother, Momma. At the age of eight, Maya went to stay with her mother in St. Louis, where she was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. Maya confronts these traumatic events of her childhood and explores the evolution of her own strong identity. Her individual and cultural feelings of displacement, caused by these incidents of sexual abuse, are mediated through her love for literature. In this research paper I will be analyzing if the sexual abuse, molestation, and/or rape Maya

In two poems “Sympathy” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou talk about a poor bird that is trapped in a cage and wants to be free. It longs for everything that the free bird has but it cannot achieve it. In both of the poems, there is a use of comparisons between freedom and nature. It is also interpreted from the poems that the use of a song is a form of coping for the birds. Both of the birds sing for their freedom and sing through their pain. The two poems “Sympathy” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou are so similar, yet so different.

“A Caged Bird” is a poem by Maya Angelou, that describes the struggle of a bird ascending from the restrictions with adverse surroundings. The poem renders the oppression that has affected African Americans over the years. As Angelou explains, the bird fights its imprisonment even with fear, but rises above with the stance of freedom. “Phenomenal Women” by Maya Angelou discusses beauty being in the eye of the beholder. You don’t have to have a perfect physique or focus entirely on outer beauty. Inner beauty has more definition, she explains that women should appreciate their flaws. After all there is only one of you and everyone was created differently.

Literature is never written – or read – for entertainment alone. There is always another purpose.