In her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing, Maya Angelou counsels that "If growing up is painful for the [German] black [boy], being aware of [his] displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat" (6). Humanity's instinctive desire to a love, acceptance, and belonging is oft times hazy due to the subtle struggle between sincere yearning and pretentiousness. Kurt Vonnegut captures these facets of humanity's foibles through the loneliness of six year old Joe Louis, a German black boy in want of a father. In his short story, "D.P.," Vonnegut's melancholy realism depicts war's impact (displacement) on children; while the absence (rust) of traditional family structure and identity (razor) lurks in its ruins. Through a trilogy …show more content…
two by two," Vonnegut alludes that the displaced children are returning home–– "[parading]" to their Holy Land (161). After "[wandering] off the edges of the earth, searching for parents who had long ago stopped searching," "eighty-one small sparks of human life" with "bobbing, chattering, [and] cheerful" spirit, march through the struggle of absent parents and lack of self- knowledge. Vonnegut reveals that children uprooted from traditional family structure are prone to psychological or borderline emotional vulnerability. The role of Joe Louis's vulnerability stems from frequent ethnic and religious overtones, disrupting his self-esteem, causing him to question his own existence in society. For example, the village carpenter and mechanic often joke about Joe's nationality, calling him "Brown Bomber" and asking to "see [his] white teeth sparkle," not aware that their seemingly innocent banters actually makes Joe "uneasy" (162). Joe's upbringing in "an orphanage set up by Catholic nuns" also crucially shape his religious identity. Joe states that "God made [him]" when asked "where [he came] from," revealing that Christian values of a divine father is very much engrave in the psyches of children that they do not know the difference between location and divine origin. The mockery of his ethnic background and the burdens of religious affiliation lead Joe …show more content…
Joe's reality is as an orphan living in an "orphanage" in the "German village of Karlswarld" (161). However, as the only multiracial child in the orphanage, the other children ostracizes Joe. Thusly, like every human being, Joe yearns for acceptance and the feeling of belonging. As he illustrates his Papa is "high as [the] ceiling" and "wider than [the] door," the readers are aware of Joe's motive, impress through the means of exaggeration for acceptance (171). His description of his Papa is seemingly the innocent imagination of a six year old, but his creative mind abruptly takes a turn towards the machinery of war. He continues to describe his "papa [of having] a pistol as big as [the] bed" and having "a cannon as big as [the] house" and "hundreds and hundreds [of war soldiers] like him" (171). Joe's exaggeration of reality, that's vastly influence by the technologies of war, reveals that the minds and wellbeing of children are endanger of corruption. Vonnegut, essentially, counsels that children and war are incompatible. The technological incursions of war do not necessarily constitute or promise the betterment of the future; but rather desolates and destroys the true amelioration of the future, the children. Society's inane ideal of perpetual happiness and total freedom through warfare not only
Vonnegut conveys throughout the novel, the message of war being fought by those too young who do not understand why they are fighting. From analysing the novel, we can see that he is emotionally unstable and may suffer from schizophrenia as the book is structure episodically. It can also be seen in the motif of "so it goes" being said after an explanation of a violent or theme of death scene form his life. The effect of this motif and repetition is to display how he is emotionally lacks empathy and is disconnected from these scenes. This is a result of his brain injury and experiences from war, that still impact and have changed him since coming back from the war. This is evident in "And they'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs." page 12, chapter 1 said by Mary O'Hare. The simile of the motif of babies displays how we send our children to crusade and fight for what is unknown to them when they are at the end of their happiest and innocence time of their life, which is then traumatised and destroyed by going to war. Vonnegut is posing the question whether it is sane to send our babies to the war to fight for a cause that they don't even know?, even though we know it will damage and change who they are once they step onto the
As I read pages 134-135 I began to realize that Joe Rantz is particularly much different from me. First, at the start of page 134 Thula is shutting Joe out of her life again. I don’t have a step parent but even if I did I would never let anyone treat me this way for most of my life. I believe that makes this passage a window so I may observe a different way to handle things. Even Joyce, Joe’s fiancé does not understand why Joe would allow himself to be looked upon in this manner. Joe is very impassive and relenting once Thula tells him to leave. This is a noticeably different personality from people I have encountered. It gives me a window to see a different mindset and way of thinking. Of which is wonderful for a reader because often we assume
Just as Johnny’s courage shines through so does his fast maturity from child to adult. His childhood was stolen away from him by his illness but instead of sulking he pulls himself together. He takes every difficulty in stride, and gets through them. Even when he is feeling down he hides it for he does not want anyone else to feel his pain. Being a seventeen year old boy he wants to do the things all other seventeen year old boys do.
...n the process. And the final quote to sum this all up about where war is leading everyone is, "'But do you have a peaceful planet?'...'Today we do. On other days we have wars as horrible as any you've ever seen or read about. There isn't anything we can do about them, so we simply don't look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments'" (150). What Vonnegut is saying in this quote if applied to earth and modern warfare, is that as a nation, everyone tends to look the other way and always will which will lead to everyone’s demise.
Similarly, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, which I first read the summer after I graduated high school, is a tale of oppression that translates into a deeply moving novel chronicling the ups and downs of a black family in the 1930’s and 1940’s. A myriad of historical and social issues are addressed, including race relations in the pre-civil rights south, segregated schools, sexual abuse, patriotism and religion. Autobiographical in nature, this tumultuous story centers around Marguerite Johnson, affectionately called "Maya", and her coast-to-coast life experiences. From the simple, backwards town of Stamps, Arkansas to the high-energy city life of San Francisco and St. Louis, Maya is assaulted by prejudice in almost every nook and cranny of society, until she finally learns to overcome her insecurities and be proud of who she is.
In Maya Angelou's autobiographical novel, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", tender-hearted Marguerite Johnson, renamed Maya by her refined brother Bailey, discovers all of the splendors and agonies of growing up in a prejudiced, early twentieth century America. Rotating between the slow country life of Stamps, Arkansas and the fast-pace societies in St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California taught Maya several random aspects of life while showing her segregated America from coast to coast.
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.
True education is the process of developing the ability to learn, apply, unlearn, and relearn. Schools mostly serve to give their students a true education, but they should focus on teaching students the facts instead of focusing on topics that should be learned outside of the classroom.
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.
Because of Pip’s lack. of proper parents when he was young and Joe’s lack of love from Mrs. Joe Gargery, the two of them form a strong bond with each other. both of them share the same treatment as Mrs. Joe Gargery. “ Joe and I fellow sufferers and having confidence as such, Joe imparted a confidence to me.” As a result of this bond, Joe’s personality is then.
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 ...
I feel that Joe's search for power and to have the dominant role over women is very emphasized and presence. To “top it off”, Joe makes Eatonville's black community “bow” to him as non-equals.
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
Maya Angelou, the author to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, writes about a girl who is confronted with sex, rape, and racism at an early stage in her life in detail in her novel. When she is three years old, her parents have a divorce and send her and her four-year-old brother Bailey from California to Arkansas to live with her grandmother in a town that is divided by color and full of racism. They are raised by her grandmother and then sent back to their carefree mother in the absence of a father figure. At age eight, she is raped by her mother’s boy friend while she is sleeping in her mother’s bed. The book also tells about her other sexual experiences during the early parts in her life. Those experiences lead to the birth of her first child.
The novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings goes through the childhood of Maya Angelou as she faces the difficult realities of the early South. This novel does not do a very good job at portraying the hardships of the blacks because she