How do Maya Angelou and Harper Lee express their views on racial inequality during the 1930’s through the novels ‘I know why the caged bird sings’ and ‘to kill a mocking bird’?
Maya Angelou, a well-known and loved Author wrote an autobiography of her life from when she was very young up to her death in 2014. The first book in the series of 7 is ‘I know why the caged bird sings’, it encompasses her growth and development as a child physically, mentally and emotionally, showing the journey and confusion that many young African-Americans go through as they grow up. Similar to ‘I know why the caged bird sings’, Harper Lee’s book ‘to kill a mocking bird’ is also based on growing up in Southern North America during the 1930’s. It’s a very well-known
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As Maya grows up she experiences many racial remarks and slowly develops an opinion on the segregation of her town. At first Maya thinks she isn’t good enough and that blonde hair white girls are beautiful and she isn’t “I was really white and because a cruel fairy stepmother, who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth that would hold a number-two pencil”. As she grows up she experiences more racism and inequality. At Mayas 8th grade graduation she experiences her first white man speech, after Mr Donleavy, the local presidential candidate, had excessively praised and promoted the white child school he left leaving a sombre atmosphere in the once exciting graduation. Not helping Mayas self-opinion she now thinks that “it was awful to be Negro and have no control over [her] life”. Her next encounter with racial inequality was at the dentist. With a bad tooth ache that wasn’t going away, Mayas grandmother took her to the dentist. After declining politely to treat Maya as she was a coloured girl, Dr Lincoln states clearly that “my policy is that I would rather stick my hand in a dogs mouth than a