Maya Angleou’s novel both teaches readers the importance of perseverance and the unpredictability of life, along with presenting the reader with critical thinking opportunities through the use of strong literary devices such as metaphors to further strengthen her message. One of the most valuable
Maya Angelou is a well-known author whose writings are used in ELA classrooms around the United States. Many fans of literature hold her writings in high regard. The article “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” by Francine Prose is about Prose’s belief that American educators should not teach Angelou’s work to American students. Prose published the piece in 1999 in response to Angelou’s rising success and her writings being used to teach ELA. Prose believed that Maya Angelou’s work being used to teach literature was not necessary, as To Kill a Mockingbird was more than sufficient.
In Maya Angelou’s “Graduation Day”, she narrates her graduation and the events that surround the day. Angelou portrays the power of words throughout her narrative and how they impact her thoughts. Because words, whether careless or thoughtful, persuade, they can enrich or belittle the human spirit. First, words shape the human spirit and have the power to unite. Angelou illustrates the excitement and preparation that leads up to the graduation day. This anticipation carried over to her church as the pastor directed his sermon towards the graduates.
The inequality and disparity of the racist society is seen in these events, as well as in the dentist’s incident and the insult of the “powhitetrash girls”. Maya Angelou in her work tried to show the struggles the Black men, women and children faced and how they survived. Such experiences are not told only to show the history of the black people, but also to find how Angelou’s inner world was created and how she evolved. There are social, psychological and geographic occasions that helped Maya in the process of personal development.
In the book, she tells about her life when she faced with racism and segregation at a very young age. She uses her poetry to let everyone in the world to recognize how African-American people live and pass their life in racism period. "Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything between"(Leopold). Maya Angelou teaches everyone to be solid through any tribulation and never falter. She teaches that everyone should not let the bad things get in their way.
Maya Angelous’s writing in the autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” got the attention of her readers from one chapter of her book, Champion or the World. Maya was giving her account of a life in a town filled with judgmental people at a time when the struggle of being respected as a human being was a fact of all matters concerning her family. History was being made when there was no equality or unity among race. Her writing style and technique was different because it was full of metaphoric language she used symbolism in creative ways that can be confusing. A lot was fiction so I’m still studying her writing style because she defiantly uses more than one at a time.
A women who is phenomenal and ready to overcome society’s expectations will be happy within herself. Maya uses imagery to describe herself and her actions that make her a ‘phenomenal women’. Another empowering and influential poem, ‘Still I rise’, highlights the struggle in conquering prejudice and injustice in society. The poem is about determination and resilience while facing oppression in difficult times. The poem specifically describes the oppression of African-Americans.
Maya Angelou had a lot of things to say in her poem especially about “The Rock, The River, The Tree” that each one of them have a lot of meaning to them. Her poem was intended to make people feel and
"Plot Summary: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." UXL Junior DISCovering Authors, UXL, 2003. Gale In Context: High School, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ2110300004/SUIC?u=owassohs&sid=bookmark-SUIC&xid=a3e12822. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023. Walker, Pierre A. "Racial Protest, Identity, Words, and Form in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."
As she got older, she became aware and accepting of her talents which led to her first album in the mid-1950’s called Miss Calypso. According to Biography When that never proved sufficient, Maya became a member of the Harlem Writer’s Guild as well as an activist where she starred in a musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. (Maya Angelou Biography, 2017) As she travelled to Egypt and Ghana working as an editor and freelance writer, Maya Angelou developed further motivation to inspire others around her. Though she passed away on May 28, 2014, the life and works of Maya lingers in the hearts and minds of everyone who was exposed to this brilliant writer.
As a recent graduate of Bethel University’s College of Professional Studies, I have dreams of giving back with a Master’s degree in Business Administration. The guidance I received through the many great facilitators allowed me to grow, not only personally but professionally as well. I never dreamed that I would one day complete my college degree but with encouragement from my family and co-workers, that dream became a reality. Holding a full-time job and raising a family, Bethel’s online platform was the perfect fit for me. Being able to complete one class at a time was the exact pace I needed to be successful without the worry of having assignments due in many different classes at the same time.
Undoubtedly, having paramount courage and undying love for the human race are the two virtues that anyone aspiring to live a life of purpose must have. In the Wikipedia article "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings," Angelou sheds light on the life she led as a child. She highlights the difficulties she had to go through when an opportunity for change was close to impossible (Wikipedia n.p.). Nevertheless, as a courageous young woman who discovered her passion for writing early, she used words to express herself, which later led to her success.
“Life doesn’t frighten me” is a priceless primer on poetry,that represents and raises the voices of children, that are mostly stoped silenced by those younger ones. The poet presents the poem in a personal manner to make the reader feel her and all the children that she speaks up for, because the speaker doesn’t want to be seen as weak anymore in representing the difficulties of the life and how they (children) can face or are facing it. The poem consists of eight stanzas, using rhymes in the whole poem. Maya is the writer and chose to write the poem in the first person, perhaps reflecting the hardship that she has been through in her childhood as an African American such as childhood rape, poverty, addiction, bereavement, and
" She is accepting her psychical appearance and is putting it in a positive standpoint. This bold poem of Maya Angelou show great struggle
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. “A Caged Bird” was a poem that represented the early stages of Angelou’s life. There are several themes like race, change and freedom, which explains the survival of the fittest. The imagery used in the poems allows a vision of what the bird was like before being in a cage.
