Maya Angelou has celebrated her diversity in life and work through poetry using clear repetition and symbolism. The United States first female African American Poet Laureate was Maya Angelou("Poetry Foundation" 2018). She was born on April 4,1928 in St. Louis Missouri. However, in her early life Maya had extreme family problems ("Maya Angelou" 2018). Her parents got a divorce while she was very young, she was back and forth from home to home ("Maya Angelou" 2018).
The book finishes after she graduates high school and gives birth to her first son. Essentially Maya Angelou describes the most relevant decade of her life. Which, overall was full of ups and downs but most importantly success. "Maya Angelou Not Just a Poet, but Civil Rights Activist". The Clarion ledger.
In the book she goes through many hard times and has tough choices to make. The town she is from is in Arkansas, and it is a very racially divided town. Her grandmother is also raising her. One thing that Angelou loves to do is read. She meets a woman who shows her how to read, and well!
She shows us that despite the injustices that may occur, there will always be victory for those who truly deserve it. Maya Angelou's perspective as a young African American girl is described in Chapter 19 of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, titled Champion of the World. Her community is gathered to support Joe Louis, the former champion, in a boxing match that determines if he'll continue being champion or not. As the story progresses in her grandmother's and uncle’s store, the tone transforms from hopeful to defeated, to triumphant. For example, the following quote, “It was another lynching, yet another black man
“The asian, the hispanic, the jew. The african american and the native american, the sioux, the catholic, the muslim, the french, the gay, the straight, the preacher, the privileged, the homeless, the teacher, they all hear” (Angelou 44-49). Because of Cady Stanton's efforts all of these people were equal and because of Maya Angelou she helped to end segregation. However, just because they had similar beliefs about women achieved similar
Biographical Analysis of “Champion of the World” In “Champion of the World”, Maya Angelou tells a story of her childhood where the success of one man changed the future of her entire race. Maya Angelou, an African American woman, took a stand against racial segregation in form of her writing and words. She experienced many of the hardships that the people of her race were going through, and she knew it needed to stop. In the 1930’s, America was still separated between white and black, even in sports. One man, Joe Louis, ended that by defeating a white man in the boxing ring.
‘’Maya says that Momma would have called herself a racist rather than a coward’’ The reason why is because momma thinks of herself as a smart person rather than a coward. ‘’Poor old Mrs. Cullinan’’ Maya Angelou explains with detail that Mrs.Cullinan was hurt in some type of way or something that caused her to be called that.’’The Rover Boy’’ Angelou explained this title as one of the characters reading a story to another character, another is ‘’The Katenjammer Kids.’’ Bailey read these books to Maya. All in All these are quotes, experiences that Maya Angelou thought of and how she explained what each quote meant throughout my ideas and details that I have provided and explained throughout this essay. This was similar to a time when I was name called or pronounced in a certain name that I did not like it at
Throughout Maya Angelou’s autobiographical series, we get to know a lot about the relationships she gets involved in throughout her life. As the reader, some of her relationships made you want to yell at your book, but in some cases, you rooted for the both of them because you hoped she would find love. Over the course of the books, you learn why her relationships failed and how they influenced her and her decisions later on in life. Although you learn early on how independent Maya is, you see her with a variety of men in her life: some for pleasure and others who she really cared for. For example, Maya’s marriage with Tosh was something she didn’t expect to happen or was necessarily looking for, but this failed relationship made a crucial impact on her which led her to the successful life she had later on.
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1931, after her parents’ divorce, Angelou and her older brother, Bailey, moved to Stamps Arkansas to live with their paternal grandmother, Mrs. Annie Henderson, and her crippled uncle, Willie. Their family resided in the living quarters attached to the back of the small store that they owned. As a young African American girl, Angelou experienced harsh racism and discrimination while in Stamps (Angelou, Maya). At the age of 14, Angelou moved to San Francisco because she had earned a scholarship to study dance and drama at the California Labor School.
Throughout her life, she faced many things, ranging from her early life to her adult years with her travels and friendships. Maya Angelou’s works were deeply inspired by what happened to her throughout her life, ranging from her early life to when she was in Africa and even when she returned back to America. A work of Maya Angelou was deeply influenced by her early life due to what happened at this time of her life. When she was seven she went to Chicago, Illinois to visit her mother since she lived with her brother at her paternal grandmother’s house. While visiting her mother in this time, her mother’s boyfriend raped her.