Angelo Custodio Mr.Wilamowski English I honors - G4 4 November 2017 Breaking Point When someone is pushed to the breaking point, how does one successfully move forward? First off, the definition of a “breaking point” in someone's life is an event that occurs to someone and causes them to give in to the pressures bringing them down. In the story “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” we are presented with a very sad reality of racism which is constantly pounding on the main character Marguerites life. But then she is raped by her mother boyfriend Mr.Freeman, Mr.Freeman dies and because of Marguerites young mind, she thought that it was her fault which led to her breaking point. But in the story she is able to slowly move forward with her life. One …show more content…
One of those major things is that she pretty much supported Marguerite through everything that she did. Marguerite getting a job was one subject that Mother supported. This is shown when she says “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”. This helps Marguerite move forward from her breaking point because besides the fact that her job can make her happy and distract her from her past, it also lets her know that someone is always behind her to support her. Another major thing that Marguerites mother supported was her having a baby. Usually if you have a child at 16 and your parents figure out, they might have you get an abortion, send you away, or even have the child sent to an orphanage. But instead of this, she said that everything was going to be ok, “Well, that’s that. No use ruining three lives”. (Vivian 287) Marguerite then states “There was no overt or subtle condemnation. She was Vivian Baxter Johnson. Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between” (Marguerite 287). But on the contrary, there are some hints later on in the story that Marguerite still hasn't moved on. In the statement “Thank to Mr.Freeman nine years before, I had had no pain of entry to endure…” (Marguerite 282), this statement right here
This allowed her to help Lori move to New York and even herself after she graduated. Something that I thought was very profound and mature of her was when her father asked her what she wanted for her tenth birthday and she asked him to stop drinking. This request was proof of her maturity and benefited her, her siblings, and her mother for the little time that he did remain sober. Jeannette and Lori both worked together several times to help their mom (Rose Mary) get out of bed to go to work as a teacher. This kept money coming in for the family and allowed their mom the keep her job until she decided she didn’t want to do it anymore. It seems that there are unending instances when Jeannette used her maturity and parental roles to benefit herself and her family. Life was rough, but without her bravery and hard work, life might have looked even more rough than the story we are reading
1- I used the book When the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. It has 36 chapters. The movie I used was the Troy.
Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya shields herself against the confusion of St. Louis by reading fairy-tales and telling herself that she does not intend on staying there anyway. Vivian works in a gambling parlor at night. Maya pities Mr. Freeman because he spends his days at home waiting for Vivian to return. Maya begins sleeping at night with Vivian and Mr. Freeman because she suffers from nightmares. One morning after Vivian has left the bed and the house, Mr. Freeman sexually molests Maya. He does not rape her but rather masturbates on the bed while holding her close to him. Afterward, he threatens to kill Bailey if Maya ever tells anyone, but Maya, who does not understand what has happened and who actually enjoyed being held by someone, cannot understand what caused such a threat. For weeks, Mr. Freeman ignores her, and then molests her again. Again, he ignores her for weeks. Maya feels rejected and hurt, but she loses herself in other things, such as books. She wishes she were a boy because the heroes in all her favorite books and stories are male. Bailey welcomes the move to St. Louis and he makes friends, with whom he plays baseball. Maya, however, does not make any friends during this time. She and Bailey begin to grow apart, so she spends her Saturdays in the library reading fantastic adventures. ...
Marguerite says that Mrs.Flowers, “ threw me my first lifeline.” Mrs.Flowers actions were related to a life line because she is helping a girl who she isn’t related too, Mrs.Flowers believed in marguerite and that she is a intelegent girl who needed help because she couldn’t speak. I know this because the article says, “ Words mean more than what you set down on paper,” ( pg231) This statement relates to Mrs.Flowers being a lifeline to Marguerite because she is giving her advice that she will never forget. Another quote from the story is, “ She said that i must alway be intolerable of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.” (pg 232)This statement means that Marguerite should be not tolerable or not willing to be ignored but be understanding
Everyone has to deal with struggles during their everyday life. Some people’s problems are more serious than others, and the way that people deal with their problems varies. Everybody has a coping mechanism, something they can use to make the struggle that they’re going through easier, but they’re usually different. Some people drink, some people smoke, some people pretend there is no problem. There are healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms, and people will vary the one they use depending on the problem they’re facing. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the author and her family deal with their struggles in multiple different ways as time goes on. However, the severity of her situation means that the methods she uses to deal with it are very important. That’s why it’s bad that Jeanette’s and her family have such unhealthy coping mechanisms, such
Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. In her early years, Angelou was an author, screenwriter, actress, dancer and poet. Her and her brother had a difficult childhood as her parent’s split up when she was young and they were relocated to live with their paternal grandmother in Arkansas. It is in Arkansas where Angelou experienced the true horrors of her childhood. Along with encountering racial prejudices and discrimination, Angelou dealt with feelings of abandonment and rejection, which stemmed from her parents lack of presence in her life. However, the worst of Angelou’s childhood came at age seven, when her mother’s boyfriend raped her. He was later murdered in response to the sexual assault. The assault itself
In her novel, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings';, Maya states “The black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and the lack of black power';. Fortunately Maya was able to move beyond the crossfire, proving that she overcomes opposition that her status throws her way.
Attending an integrated school like Handley all my life, I have never opened my eyes to the true brutality of racism. I catch myself rolling my eyes every time someone declares something racist because it seems that it is called for attention. I learn about more racism stories in history classes every year to the point that it no longer influences my opinion of the subject. Racism seems so normal because of the fact that the south has always been a racist place, but my generation did not live through the worst of it. The most racist times in the south can only be explained to us in videos and text books, but these will never elucidate the true struggles African Americans were put through. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou delineates
Even though Marie couldn’t see she loved to read. She went to the museum everyday with her father. On every one of her birthdays her father got her a brail book to read. Growing up Marie had to learn how to count her steps and to feel things to know where she was at and where she was going. Marie really had to become strong when moving to Saint-Malo. Her father had become distant from everybody. Marie started to become close to her uncle Etienne and his care taker Madame Manec. She was so eager to leave the house and walk around Saint-Malo and feel around. Her father refused and wouldn’t let her leave the
Towards the middle of the memoir, the theme is shown through the irony of Jeannette’s mother’s situation as well as Jeannette’s feelings towards
The father, Claude, was a pastor (Frontline Video, 2013). The mother, Jacki, made efforts to find work (Frontline Video, 2013). She spent most of her time helping her husband run the church (Frontline Video, 2013). She seemed confident and strong (Frontline Video, 2013). She inspired people to live to their full potential and enjoy life (Frontline Video, 2013). However, this was just an act (Frontline Video, 2013). Jackie didn’t want anyone to be worried about her or have a negative outlook based on her experience (Frontline Video, 2013). It upset her deeply when she would have to turn for help from others just to get some food to feed her family (Frontline Video,
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a novel by Maya Angelou and it talks about Mayas childhood and her growing up through racism, rape, and homosexuality. People may learn by reading, but reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is not the right way. The novel has a strong use of racism, rape, and some homosexuality that is put on Maya Angelou.
Thomas Carlyle expresses culture as: “the process by which a person becomes all that they were capable of being.” By unifying people, culture empowers us to be everything we can be. World-renowned author and activist, and possibly the most inspirational woman of all time, Maya Angelou, both explains and proves this idea in “Champion of the World,” an excerpt from her collection of memoirs: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Through the use of many types of rhetoric, she illustrates how cultural identities can unite us and bring out many emotions in us, bad and good. She demonstrates her purpose: how culture gives us an identity, and brings us together to grow in places we could not alone. She uses syntax, diction, tone, and other rhetorical
The two poems “Sympathy” and “I know why the caged bird sings” are similar. They are similar because they both talk about a caged bird. They are both about people comparing themselves to the bird, in “Sympathy” it is referring to the bird being caged because the person that is comparing themselves isn’t as free as they wish they were. It was the same concept in “I know why the caged bird sings” because the bird is caged and the person feels caged as well so they are comparing themselves to the bird. In “Sympathy” it is talking about the bird singing and hoping that one day it can be free and it is the same with the person they just sing and have hopes that one day they can be free. In “I know why the caged bird sings” it says “ But a caged
Clarette is like a lot of working women in our society. The battle to raise her children in an ever-changing environment for the worse, leads her to work a job she is not extremely happy with to survive. She visualizes keeping her family strong, educated but not tough and institutionalized. Clarette has to transform from a guard to a nurturing mother each time she comes from or goes to work. The working single mother in a world of struggle.