ipl-logo

Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird

910 Words4 Pages

Maya Angelou was one of the most influential literary phenomenons, who created numerous inspiring works and paved the way for many African Americans, while facing discrimination and prejudices. She gave people hope through her countless works of literature and gave people an understanding to what it really feels like to be an African American. Throughout her life, Maya had a very traumatic childhood. Her parents, Vivian Baxter Johnson and Bailey Johnson, had gotten a divorce when she was 3 and she as well as her brother, were sent to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. There, she felt the prejudices that the town was filled of. On a visit to her mother, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of 7. He was later sent to prison but released and was killed by Maya’s uncles as an act of vengeance for his crime. She felt as though her words she used to testify against …show more content…

She helped him establish the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which later disbanded when Malcom was assassinated in 1965. Maya also became friends with Martin Luther King Jr in the 1960s. He was assassinated on her birthday in 1968 which made her stop wanting to celebrate her birthday for a number of years. With the two tragic deaths in Maya’s life, she wrote a memoir indicating the experiences that happened throughout her life.”I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” talks about the childhood that Maya had, all the way to the birth of her son. This poem became the first nonfiction bestseller written by an African American female. This was a New York Times running bestseller for two years. The hardships that she encountered in her life made her strive to make change in the world by writing poetry and books about her life and feelings. Most of her works have shown people the true emotions and feelings of what it means to be a African American female in one of the most discriminating times in

Show More
Related

  • The Assassination Of Maya In Stamps By Maya Angelou

    405 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marguerite, “Maya,” Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of three, Maya’s parents divorced, and she and her brother, Bailey, moved to Stamps, Arkansas to live with their grandmother. The family owned and operated a general store at which many people shopped. When Maya was seven, she and Bailey moved back to St. Louis to live with their biological mother. One year later, Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Graduation By Maya Angelou

    797 Words  | 4 Pages

    Graduation: Rhetorical Analysis Maya Angelou was a very well-known writer as well as a Civil rights activist. Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4th, 1928. She always showed a love for writing, most well-known for her work I know why the caged bird sings, she also wrote many essays that put her on the map in the literature community. Throughout her career as a writer, she received many awards including a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize alongside two NAACP Image Awards. She even was asked to recite one of her poems at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993.

    Read More

  • Maya Angelou Accomplishments

    490 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the autobiography I Know The Caged Bird Sings: Maya Angelou, the story begins in California where three year old Maya Angelou and her four year old brother leave they're father to go live with they're paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. They're grandmother runs a store there, which is the center of life in the Negro community of the town. Maya starts reading and enjoying literature while she is in Stamps, Shakespeare especially, along with other prominent black writers. Maya had many accomplishments in the 17 years recorded in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. One of Maya Angelou's accomplishments in her 17 years in the story I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is when she secured a job as a conductorette.

    Read More

  • Maya Angelou Research Paper

    603 Words  | 3 Pages

    By the age of sixteen, Maya Angelou birthed for first and only child, Clyde. Her experiences were later captured in her first autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”. Maya Angelou was an African American actress,

    Read More

  • Maya Angelou's Impact On Society

    388 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dancer, actress, editor, cook, madam, singer. Maya Angelou at the age of 40 was doing all of these things, and then at the age of 41 she became an author. I chose this person because I think it was interesting how managed to do all of these shows on broadway, and got to create a whole bunch of books herself. Many people interviewed her, about her books and everyone finds all her books inspiring, and everything else she does is inspiring. Another reason I also picked Maya Angelou is because she was one of the first black woman to have certain screenplays and be on different shows and sing.

    Read More

  • Toni Morrison Accomplishments Essay

    942 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Life and Accomplishments of Toni Morrison Toni Morrison was the first African- American women to win the Nobel Prize in 1993. She has considerable literary talents which voiced her passionate concerns about the condition of African- Americans, which as mostly women and stressed the importance of equality. She is known for her epic themes and richly detailed characters that reflected her passionate concerns for African-Americans, particularly women. Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain Ohio. Her real name is Chloe Anthony Wofford, she grew up during the Great Depression which has a lot of difficulties and economic hardships which led to her father working three jobs to support the family, which lasted for about seventeen

    Read More

  • Phyllis Wheatley: A Brief Biography

    882 Words  | 4 Pages

    She showed all African American women and men that they can achieve the impossible and have an intelligent mind like everyone else. Even African American poets from today like Alice Walker found her as an inspiration. In one of her poems about being brought to america, she perfectly summarizes what the struggle was being a slave that is equal to everyone

    Read More

  • Maya Angelou Sexual Abuse

    802 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Maya Angelou Obstacles

    740 Words  | 3 Pages

    III. 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.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Angelou And Paul Laurence Dunbar

    535 Words  | 3 Pages

    His poem Sympathy is just one example of how he felt trapped like a caged bird in his life. Even though the Civil War was over, African Americans still did not have as many privileges and opportunities as most White people had. Most of Dunbar’s writing showed his perspective of life and the struggles that came with it. Maya Angelou was born in 1928 and suffered a hard childhood that later on affected her writing. When she was eight years old, Maya was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend.

    Read More

  • Still I Rise, By Maya Angelou

    439 Words  | 2 Pages

    Maya Angelou, an African American civil rights activist and poet whose main focus is on the oppression faced by African Americans in their early life. She uses these past experiences and turn them into words of wisdom. Her early life had a difficult and traumatic toll on her causing her pain and fear, and based on these feelings she wrote multiple poems to describe how she felt and one of those poems are Still I rise. This poem portrays the theme of discrimination and confidentiality and it focuses on a devoted and courageous black woman living with a positive attitude despite the hardships she faces. Still I rise is about a courageous black woman living in an era where cruel words are used to describe her, hatred and envious words and eyes

    Read More

  • Caged Bird Sings: A Narrative Fiction

    2027 Words  | 9 Pages

    # The sun shines through his curtains, much to his dismay. He sits up in his bed and sighs. It takes him a moment to open his eyes fully and when he does he sees a small object on his dresser catching the light that slips through his curtains. He walks to the ring and rolls it around his fingers a few times.

    Read More

  • Still I Rise

    731 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her grandmother taught her love and respect while also showing her by example how to be strong and independent. Throughout her life, she faced many adversities which lead her to become the influential woman she is known so well for being. Along with growing up in an era where she would face discrimination because of her race and also her gender, she faced other things she had to overcome such as being sexually assaulted by one of her mother’s boyfriends at a young age and becoming a single mother shortly after graduating high school. All of these things coupled with her passion for music and poetry inspired her to write stories, poems, and screenplays that have won multiple awards. (Caged Bird Legacy,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Virginia Woolfe´s A Room Of One's Own

    1509 Words  | 7 Pages

    For a long period in history, women have been oppressed of their voice and identity. Women have always been seen inferior to men. Resulting to difficulty in getting an education and having the capability of doing things men typically do. In Virginia Woolfe’s essay, A Room of One’s Own, she noticed how limited women are, especially when it comes to writing. According to Woolfe’s essay, “a woman must have money and a room of her own” in order to write fiction (4).

    Read More

  • Short Essay About Maya Angelou

    793 Words  | 4 Pages

    Most people who are interested in her accept that the most important fact about her is her most significant published book, which is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. Other important facts about Maya are her birth and death dates, her ethnicity (African American), her language (English), and her occupation (author, director, civil rights activist, etc.). What is Maya Angelou famous for? Being person of great talent, Maya Angelou is renowned for plenty of activities. However, most people will remember her as the first black woman who became a renowned author USA.

    Read More

More about Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird

Open Document