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To Kill A Mockingbird Maturity

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Recommended: 20th century race discrimination

Life Lessons Lead to Maturity Growing up is an inevitable fact of life. No matter how fast or slow life passes, lessons will be learned along the way, shaping future lives. Maya Angelou discusses the topic of life throughout the autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This novel takes place in the 1930s and shows the hardships of racism through the main character, Maya. She learns through many challenges she faces about the struggle of life. The main lessons Maya learns include breaking out of barriers in the south and being an equal in society. Throughout the story, Maya grows in the way she presents herself, handles situations involving racism, and endures prominent life events. At the end of the novel maturity is showcased in Maya, …show more content…

Maya, at the age of sixteen, sees more to life than schooling and sets out on a path to a career. She always dreams of being a streetcar conductor and that is what she sets her mind to. However in the 1930s, blacks are unable to obtain the job. Maya does not fret one ounce because her mom says to her, "'That’s what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, Can't Do is like Don’t Care. Neither of them have a home'" (Angelou 265). Maya’s mother impacts her life greatly, allowing the developing mindset of the cruelty of racism. Maya goes back day in and day out and shows perseverance. She is eventually gets the job as the first black on the streetcars. Opal More agrees with the perseverance and integrity Maya shows. She states, "...the story of this one black girl declaring 'I can' to a color-coded society that in innumerable ways had told her 'you cant and you won’t' transcends its author... it promises that life, if we have the courage to live it, will be worth the struggle” (173). The viewpoint More adds aids to the achievement Maya earns. It is only through hard work in a harsh society, which shows her for the rest of her life to stand up for what is

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