I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Thesis

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. She’s a celebrated poet, memoirist, dramatist, actor, producer, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. She has a had a broad career as a singer, composer, and Hollywood’s first African American female director. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was written in 1969 by Maya Angelou. Angelou uses the metaphor of a bird struggling to escape its cage; the cage represents Angelou’s confinement resulting from racism and oppression. The title came from the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar which was Angelou’s favorite writers. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was staged during the time when

Angelou wrote this autobiography for several reasons; one was as a reminder not to give in during the trials of growing up. In her novel, Angelou writes how gender influences a lot of things. There’s a part in her novel when she says that being a girl is sometimes a disadvantage, also another part where she writes that boys rather have man as their heroes and protagonists, so she makes her character believes that to be a hero one must be a male. Throughout her novel, she helps women to feel more superior and wanted. As I read and look up the opinions from other people about Maya Angelou’s novel, most people agree with my opinions and others have an opinions of their own. Said by an unknown critic, “Angelou’s autobiography is an important and honest look at racial prejudice in the United States.” A junior high teacher from Rosewood Junior High stated, “This is not okay for kids unless you don’t care about your children having disturbing images of sex as an act of love between a man and a wife.” Overall this novel liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, but not only her life, but the lives of other African