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I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Identity

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a memoir written by Maya Angelou where she recounts the many details of her life, and how people treated her as a child. It is a very touching story where Maya grows and changes along the way. She had many different hardships she encountered that left her broken down and hurt, but she still managed to overcome them time and time again, which changed her identity along the way. Maya’s identity has changed because of events like her sexual assault experience, which changed her into a more scared and timid little girl, her time with Mrs. Flowers, which made her realize the true power her words held, and her experiences with extracurricular activities at school, which changed her into a more independent and free …show more content…

When Maya transferred to a new school, she was allowed to begin doing extracurricular activities, which gave her all sorts of new opportunities and freedom. This is shown in the quote “At fourteen I accepted a scholarship and got one for the next year as well. In the evening classes, I took drama and dance, along with white and Black grownups. I had chosen drama simply because I liked Hamlet’s soliloquy beginning “To be, or not to be ''. I had never seen a play and did not connect movies with the theater. In fact, the only times I had heard the soliloquy had been when I had melodramatically recited it to myself. In front of a mirror” (Angelou 217). This demonstrates that Maya was given the choice of what she wanted to do, giving her more independence than she usually was given. This quote also demonstrates that she was also able to do things that she was not usually done with other people, making her more social as well. Another example of this is in the quote “My shyness at moving clad in black tights around a large empty room did not last long. Of course, at first I thought everyone would be staring at my cucumber shaped body with its knobs for knees, knobs for elbows and, alas, knobs for breasts. But they really did not notice me, and when the teacher floated across the floor and finished in an arabesque my fancy was taken” (Angelou 218). This quote shows how Maya was afraid to try to dance at first because she was afraid that others would judge her, but soon she was able to let go of her fear and learned to love dance. This demonstrates that Maya had been inspired to try something new, and even though she was afraid of what other people would think of her, she was able to let those feelings go. Therefore, Maya’s identity changed throughout

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Other than that she was An author, poet , screenwriter, etc. With being African American, Maya had experience with first hand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas, where

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Maya Angelou published her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in the late 1960s to shed light on her personal experiences as a girl growing up in the segregated South. She writes unfiltered depictions of rape and sexual abuse, along with topics such as racism and teenage pregnancy. Her novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings became censored in America in 2002 due to these topics. Regardless of this novel being censored, it holds significant value in the lessons it teaches.

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On page 247 it says,"I was never again to sense myself to solidly outside the pale of the human race. " This is showing that Maya is seeing herself as a member of society and not an outcast. It also shows Maya needs to be reliable because everyone is counting on her to do her own job. This also includes the dance pub, there Maya

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a. Dance played a large role in the life of Maya Angelou. When she was young she moved to New York City for one year to study dance with Pearl Primus a famous Trinidadian dancer which later influenced her to work as a calypso dancer when she returned to San

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"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive, and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style" (Angelou 12). These quoted words came from a strong, wise minded, African American woman whose legacy still lives on. In this essay you will understand a lot about Maya Angelou's early life on how she became famous, her careers, how many awards she has received, and also how her legacy continues to have an impact on people. Maya was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928 (Angelou 8). During Maya's growth she spent most of her days at the library attending Toussaint L'ouverture Grammar school (Angelou 8).

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Flowers established the basis for Maya’s appreciation of the poetic word, it was her mother Vivian Baxter who drove Angelou into womanhood and maturity. Angelou not only loved her mother's beauty but also loved the way her mother carried herself in society. Vivian Baxter taught Angelou values that were both feminine and strong. She guided her daughter through motherhood: a time that was crucial for Angelou when she was pregnant as an unwed mother. “My mother’s beauty literally assailed me.

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On example of this critique can be seen in Maya’s meeting with Mrs. Bertha Flowers. Angelou presents the older black woman as a direct opposite of young Maya, stressing that Mrs. Flowers rules both her words and body. “She had the grace of control to appear warm in the coldest weather, and on the Arkansas summer days it seemed she had a private breeze which swirled around, cooling her” (Angelou 77). Mrs. Flowers makes Maya proud to be black, and claims that she is more beautiful and “just as refined as whitefolks in movies and books” (Angelou 79). Although Maya begins to respect and admire the black female body, the white body still provide her standard for beauty, and Angelou pokes fun at the literary writing that whitens Maya’s view of Bertha Flowers and

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With less than 200 people in her community and nowhere to go but forests for miles, living in an isolated town had its effects on Maya’s development. A prolonged experience of isolation within a small town restricts the opportunity to have a well-rounded experience of life and of the world. The primary ways that isolation

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To begin, Maya states “Maybe I should give my mom what she

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After informing her family of this traumatizing encounter, the perpetrator was hunted down and beaten to death. Maya didn’t speak for the next five years. Maya found joy in singing, dancing, and poetry, after moving to San Francisco in 1940. However, this joy was put on hold after having a son at age 16, and moving to San Diego. Being young and reckless waitress, Maya got tangled in drugs, prostitution, and strip dancing.

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Angelou ``.despite her lack of a college education, became a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “ The point is that Angelou did a lot of things in life and despite her lack of education still managed to get the chance to teach others American studies. Why this is an important quote in the essay is because she did what she wanted to do even though she did not have the best education to do it . Maya Angelou did not give up on doing it. She wanted to give others what she had learned.

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Maya understood that her grandmother won because she kept her faith and self-respect, providing a powerful example for Maya. The grandmother was smart and respectful because she ignored them instead of get mad and beating one of them. Also Momma addresses the girls with respect, demonstrating her maturity. She shows that, even though these girls may be above her on the social level, she is better and stronger than they are in education. she has good self control she knew how to control the

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Friendly but never gushing, cool but not frigid or distant, distinguished without the awful stiffness”(Angelou 212) Later, Maya again demonstrates the strong person in which she had become when she drives her drunken father out of Mexico. She knows that something terrible could happen if she does not take control. As Sidonie Ann Smith states “for the first time, Maya finds herself in control of her fate. Such total control contrasts vividly to her earlier recognition in Stamps that she as a Negro had no control over her fate. Here she is alone with that fate.

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She was determined to show her oppressors that they could not win. She rises above the cold hatred of the world and uses her passion for poetry and equality to prove to those people that they do not phase her. Unlike Frost, who did not have to worry about prejudice and racial or sexual inequalities, Maya had to work harder than Frost to start her career and rise to fame. " Some say the world will end in fire, / some say in ice."

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Maya’s experiences throughout her childhood and “adulthood” convey the idea that nobody can dictate someone else’s identity except the person themselves. Maya’s experiences throughout her childhood show the idea that nobody can dictate someone else’s identity except the person themselves. At only eight years old, her mother’s ex-boyfriend molested and raped her. During his trial, Maya lied about what he had done and denied that he’d ever touched her before he actually raped her.

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