Angelou and Giovanni’s writings share similarities and differences. In the two excerpts “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou” and “, “A Poem for My Librarian, Mrs Long (You never know what troubled little girl needs a book)” by Nikki Giovanni, both the poem and the excerpt write about a young girl living in the south who always has a role model. Giovanni’s writing includes a librarian named Mrs. Long, who is always referring to Giovanni in different books. Similar to Angelou’s writing, Marguerite’s teacher, Mrs. Flowers' priority is to help Marguerite read aloud. Although the characters have someone to help, they experience different issues. Marguerite has little confidence in reading poetry out loud to Mrs. Flowers, while Giovanni faces humiliation living in the south during the 1950s. During Marguerite …show more content…
It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning.” (Angelou) Mrs. Flowers explains to Marguerite that reading is great, but the most important thing is to be able to recite readings and overall gain more confidence. Mrs. The influence of Marguerite on Flowers is comparable to the importance of Mrs. Long because both role models will do anything to support and comfort the narrators. Mrs. Long always does what she can to help Giovanni in finding books, “Mrs. Long always glad to see you The stereoscope always ready to show you faraway Places to dream about Mrs. Long asking what are you looking for today”(Giovanni) The library is a safe place for Giovanni as she always has Mrs. Long to comfort her. Both stories are similar because the role models always try to help the narrators. Although the stories share similarities that both Giovanni and Marguerite have role models, differences are present too. The narrators have obstacles that cause everyday struggles. Marguerite has the issue of not having much confidence in reading aloud. “Now no one is going to make you talk—possibly no one
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. ...
This piece of autobiographical works is one of the greatest pieces of literature and will continue to inspire young and old black Americans to this day be cause of her hard and racially tense background is what produced an eloquent piece of work that feels at times more fiction than non fiction
"I had decided that St. Louis was a foreign country. In my mind I had only stayed there for a few weeks. As quickly as I understood that I had not reached my home, I sneaked away to Robin's Hood's Forest and the caves of Alley Oop where all reality was unreal and even that changed my day. I carried the same shield that I had used in Stamps: 'I didn't come to stay.'"
In her narrative, titled “Champion of the World”, the nineteenth chapter of the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou recalls an incident of a heavyweight boxing match between an African American, Joe Louis, and a white contender. Angelou emphasizes the import of the match to the African American community to display the racism in this time period, the oppression people of color face, and the defeat they have to come to terms with whether they lose in one aspect of life or not. To achieve her purpose, Angelou uses dialogue, diction, and the the imbedding of a secondary narrative throughout the primary narrative. She creates parallelism through the use of repetition and utilizes short, staccato sentences to further emphasises her
The novel, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", by Maya Angelou is the first series of five autobiographical novels. This novel tells about her life in rural Stamps, Arkansas with her religious grandmother and St. Louis, Missouri, where her worldly and glamorous mother resides. At the age of three Maya and her four-year old brother, Bailey, are turned over to the care of their paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Southern life in Stamps, Arkansas was filled with humiliation, violation, and displacement. These actions were exemplified for blacks by the fear of the Ku Klux Klan, racial separation of the town, and the many incidents in belittling blacks.
There are many obstacles in which Maya Angelou had to overcome throughout her life. However, she was not the only person affected throughout the story, but as well as her family. Among all the challenges in their lives the author still manages to tell the rough and dramatic story of the life of African Americans during a racism period in the town of Stamps. In Maya Angelou's book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings she uses various types of language to illustrate the conflicts that arise in the novel. Among the different types of languages used throughout the book, she uses literary devices and various types of figurative language. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou the author uses literary devices and figurative language to illustrate to the reader how racism creates obstacles for her family and herself along with how they overcome them.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography with a particularly unique structure. Most stories would be in chronological order, and each chapter is connected to the next. Angelou decided to take a different route; few chapters in her book are connected. They are written as if she began telling any story that popped in her mind after she finished each
In the text "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" a young black girl is growing up with racism surrounding her. It is very interesting how the author Maya Angelou was there and the way she described every detail with great passion. In the book Maya and Bailey move to a lot of places, which are, Stamps, Arkansas; St. Louis, Missouri; and San Francisco, California. Maya comes threw these places with many thing happening to her and people she knows. She tries to hold onto all the good memories and get rid of the bad but new ones just keep coming. That is why this book is very interesting. It keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
I had always lived it. There was an army of adults, whose motives and movements I just couldn’t understand and who made no effort to understand mine,” (74). After Mr. Freeman assaults her the first time, he tells her he would kill Bailey if she ever told anyone about what he did. At this time, she wasn’t able to comprehend what had happened and why the consequences of informing someone about it were so harsh. Earlier she states, “He held me so softly that I wished he wouldn’t ever let me go.
At a young age, Maya Angelou’s parents got divorced. After the divorce was final Maya and her older brother, Bailey, were sent away to live with their grandmother. Angelou’s not so perfect life started when she was a young girl. “When she was about three years old, their parents divorced and the children were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Angelou claims that her grandmother, whom she called ‘momma, had a deep-brooding love that hung over everything she touched’” (Burt). In the first chapter of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the book starts with Angelou talking about her parent's divorce. “Our parents decided to put an end to their calamitous marriage, and father shipped us home to his mothers” (Angelou 5). After living with her grandmother, or as Maya begins to call her “momma”, for 4 years Maya Angelou and her brother Bailey are sent back to St. Louis Missouri. In St Louis they lived with her mother and her boyfriend Mr.Freeman. Mr.Freeman makes a huge impact on young Maya’s life. When she was only 8-years-old he rapes her, after being raped Angelou becomes mute and will ...
Maya Angelou is an author and poet who has risen to fame for her emotionally filled novels and her deep, heartfelt poetry. Her novels mainly focus on her life and humanity with special emphasis on her ideas of what it means to live. The way she utilizes many different styles to grab and keep readers’ attention through something as simple as an autobiography is astounding. This command of the English language and the grace with which she writes allows for a pleasant reading experience. Her style is especially prominent in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", where the early events of Angelou’s life are vividly described to the reader in the postmodern literary fashion.
Maya Angelou’s excerpt from her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” reveals the challenges facing a young black girl in the south. The prologue of the book tells of a young Angelou in church trying to recite a poem she has forgotten. She describes the dress her grandmother has made her and imagines a day where she wakes up out of her black nightmare. Angelou was raised in a time where segregation and racism were prevalent in society. She uses repetition, diction, and themes to explore the struggle of a black girl while growing up. Angelou produces a feeling of compassion and poignancy within the reader by revealing racial stereotypes, appearance-related insecurities, and negative connotations associated with being a black girl. By doing this she forces the
The book thus explores a lot of important issues, such as: sexuality and race relations, and shows us how society violated her as a young African American female. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou clearly expresses the physical pain of sexual assault, the mental anguish of not daring to tell, and her guilt and shame for having been raped. Her timidity and fear of telling magnify the brutality of the rape. For more than a year after the rape she lives in self-imposed silence, speaking only very rarely. This childhood rape reveals the pain that African American women suffered as victims not only of racism but also sexism.
In the story, “I Know Why the Caged Bird sings”, the character Marguerite is Maya when she was a little girl, whose childhood made her strong. She is a very smart girl who deals with new problems that she learns from and there are others she would feel impenetrable. Maya lived with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas because her parents dropped her and her brother Bailey off when they were young. Maya was violated and later was reprieved. She was acquainted with both of her parents, but they weren't what she had expected.
In this essay I will be arguing how Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou similar writing styles affected their community and brought to light a positive way of thinking. Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, and novelist from Missouri. Hughes played an influential role in the Harlem Renaissance era. Hughes was known for being conscious and it echoed in his work. He used music as well as imagery to tell the world the struggles that African-Americans endure in their era. Hughes poems told stories that were relatable and reflected his community. Maya Angelou was an American poet, actress, civil rights activist, along with many other things. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked alongside with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and