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Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Book Report
Section I
1. 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.
2. In the beginning of the book the Maya and Bailey moved to a place called Stamps. They moved in with their Grand mother. She owns the store in the middle of the black part of Stamps. During the cotton picking season their grandmother gets up at four in the morning to get the lunches to the people who pick the cotton. In chapter two the young girl falls in love with reading epically William Shakespeare. Then later momma (aka the grand mother) found out that a black man messed with white women and the white people were on a rampage. When people call Maya ugly her sister steps in and bags down on the people who are saying it.
3. A reverend comes to mommas house once a month to discuss the ceriman but everybody hates him cause he eats the best part of the Sunday dinner. Later in the book Maya is raped and sexually harassed by Mr. Freeman. After Maya got sick the pants that she got raped in were found, and Mr. Freeman went to jail but got out that night. After the trial Maya and Bailey were sent back to stamps to live again with their grand mother. Maya goes to someone to help make her talk, because after she got raped she did not talk.
4. Bailey was late to dinner and he got a beating. Bailey told that he was watching a white female actress that looked just like momma. She made the movie ad they had to wait for it to come out to see it again. In the next chapter at the church people start to plan a party so people can have some relief from their hard lives.
She takes a job in a white lady named Ms. Cullinan’s home as a maid, who calls her Mary for her own convenience and lack of respect. This enrages Maya and in order to get away she smashes the finest china to get her fired. At her eighth-grade graduation, a white man comes to speak in front of everyone and he states that black students can only become athletes or servants which makes Maya furious. Later, when Maya develops a nasty toothache, Momma decides to take her to a white dentist who refuses to work on her. Momma claims that she lent him money during the Great Depression so he owes her a favor but he says he’d rather stick his hands in a dogs’ mouth. Lastly, one day while Bailey is walking home he sees a dead black man rotting in a river and a white man present at the scene says he will put both the dead man and Bailey in his truck. This terrifies Bailey and Momma wants to get them out of Staples so she sends them to Vivian’s again in San Francisco. There they live with Vivian and her husband Daddy Clidell who is a nice man to Maya, and has a lot of money from his businesses. One summer Maya goes to live with her father Big Bailey and his girlfriend Dolores, who are poor and live in a trailer. Maya and Dolores do not get along and constantly fight, so Maya runs away and lives with a group of homeless teens
It is the day Cali will remember for the rest of her life, for it is the day Cali Millhouse discovers her uncle was murdered by a family member. It is Two o'clock and half of the town of Rosewood is piling inside the local funeral home. Mrs. Dunham pays her respects to everyone except Cali’s father, Steve, for Mrs. Dunham finds him to be evil. Maybe she is right, and he killed Cali’s uncle? Whether he was or not, it is still a sad day and she needed the comfort of her father. That morning the sheriff came by and informed Cali and her family that someone related to Keith killed him. Surprisingly, her father made a comment that he believed it was her Aunt Audrey. Audrey was a money hungry, mean, gold-digger who dated men for their money, and she knew Keith had a two billion dollar company that would be left to someone if he passed.Steve felt much animosity towards his older sister, and would vituperate her name any chance he got. Audrey blamed Steve as much as her blamed her, nevertheless you could feel their acrimony towards each
A predominantly black town in Florida by the name of Rosewood was abandoned in 1923 due to the city being left in devastating ruins after a horrendous bloodshed massacre. The massacre was initiated by accusations of a black man by the name of Jesse Hunter assaulting a white female by the name of Fanny Taylor. But their troubles didn’t begin there this was long awaiting battle due to prior false information that often ended with a black person being lynched.The incident regarding Jesse Hunter and Fanny Taylor set havoc to the little town of Rosewood.In spite of the rumors that the two were romantically involved or that at least the woman was using the incident to cover up her premarital affairs. Meanwhile, members of the Ku Klux Klan rallied in nearby towns and gathered people to go and rise terror on Rosewood. The one person who knew the truth was a man named Sam Cartier. Who was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan as a warning to whoever was helping Jesse. It was soon rumored that Jesse’s friend Aaron’s cousin Sylvester was hiding him at his house. The KKK demanded
The conflict in her life is that she of two different cultural groups, in which she wants to embrace both groups but the adult, children’s grandmother whom she nicknamed “awful grandmother,” is not allowing them to do. The setting took place outside a church where the awful grandmother went to pray while leaving the children, Micaela, and her two brothers, outside until she returns. Awful grandmother instructs the children to stay in front of the entrance and do nothing, such going across the street to play games, purchase fried food, balloons, comic books, etc., live like an American child. In addition, they were also not allowed to in the church where their Mexican cultural is practiced. Therefore, Micaela became irritated waiting for so long, so she entered the church to see what was taking so long to pray, however, she was told by the awful grandmother to leave and wait
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.
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.
Having been raised in the south has allowed her to believe that she must be catered to as a woman no matter how old she gets. The grandmother constantly refers to herself as a lady and has made herself a priority in her sons life and has a difficult time being considerate of other peoples feelings. At the beginning of the story she tries to convince her son Bailey to change the destination of their planned vacation to where she would like to go. In order for grandma to go see her old house in Tennessee she must convince Bailey that his family may be in danger after a
The lady that appears after the first 100 pages of the book turns out to be Vivian, Grant’s secret lover. Grant and Vivian take a walk and after their walk they visit Grant’s aunt, aunt Emma. Aunt Emma and her friends are very fond of Vivian and they give her many compliments. Aunt Emma, and the reverend go to visit Jefferson and they find that Grant’s previous account of Jefferson’s recovery was lie; Jefferson still eats and behaves like a “hog';. Aunt Emma and the reverend confront Grant regarding his faulty account of Jefferson’s recovery. Once again, Grant visits Jefferson and tries to convince him that he is not a hog and he is a man. After a couple more visits from the ladies and Grant, the chapter ends off with the whole town watching a Christmas play on the birth of Jesus. After the play, Grant is tired of watching the same play and seeing the same people dressed in the same kinds of clothing year after year.
Opal has a big meltdown and then her father tells her that he gave up when her mother left too. Opal and her father go back to the party. It turned out that Winn Dixie was hiding under Gloria Dump’s bed the whole time. Opal goes to Gloria
The story is told in first person through Tangy Mae Quinn, the darkest child of Rozelle Quinn. Rozelle is a light-skinned woman with ten children by ten different fathers, who separates her children based on skin color. She shows favoritism to her lighter skinned children and hatred to her darker skinned children. This is important because the story takes place in Parksfield, Georgia in the late 1950’s, right before the civil rights movement. It starts off with Rozelle Quinn teaching Tangy Mae how to clean her employer’s house because she believes she is going to die over the weekend. News of Rozelle “dying” spreads throughout the town and even beyond which brings her oldest child, Mushy, back into town. It is later revealed that Rozelle is only acting as if she is dying because she is pregnant. While in town, Mushy promises her siblings that she is going to save them from the abuse of Rozelle, but says Tarabelle has to be first due to Tarabelle’s exposure to prostitution. Months after giving birth to her child, Judy, Rozelle kills her by throwing her off the stairs. After this incident, the children slowly start to leave her although Tangy Mae and Laura stay by her side. After majority of her children have left, Rozelle is diagnosed with insanity and is forced to move in with Mushy. By the end of the story, Tarabelle is killed by a fire started purposely by her mother; Tangy Mae has graduated high school and taken Laura with her to cross the Georgia border.
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.
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
This whole book contained stories from when the Tull family was young to when Pearl died and the children had kids of their own. Pearl started out in the book as a 30 year old woman who was married to Beck Tull, a young salesman who moved his family to many different places for his job. They had three children together, Cody, Ezra, and Jenny. Beck left his family when his children were still young to be able to travel more for his job. Pearl had to learn to raise three children on her own while also working everyday because they did not live in affluence. She became very bitter and often verbally abused her kids. Cody was the oldest son who was known for getting into trouble. He loved winning, so would cheat when he played games with his family and friends. He was jealous of his brother and his mother’s relationship because they were very close. Cody was always messing with his brother and stealing his items to make him mad because he felt enmity towards him. Once they grew up, his brother, Ezra, had fallen in love with a girl but Cody was jealous so he stole the girl and married her instead. Ezra was the capricious middle child, also his mother’s favorite. He was clumsy and quite an awkward child. His favorite thing to do was play songs on his whistle and mind his own business by eschewing his peers. He started working at a restaurant when he grew up until the owner passed it down to him. He later renamed that restaurant The Homesick Restaurant. Jenny was tenuous, the youngest child, and also the only girl. Her mother picked on her a lot because she would not help with cooking or cleaning like she was supposed to. She always got good grades and spent her time studying. Jenny grew up and remarried three times, then ended up with a man who had six kids. This family changed quite a bit throughout this book by the time their mother was hospitalized when she was 80. Ezra stayed with Pearl in the
Throughout I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, racism is a frequent obstacle that non-whites had to overcome. When Maya is young, she doesn’t recognize the racism and discrimination as well as her grandmother does. As Maya gets older, she begins to recognize and take notice to the racism and discrimination towards her and African Americans everywhere. Maya may not recognize the racism and discrimination very well at her young age, but it still affects her outlook on life the same way it would if she had recognized it. The racism and discrimination Maya faced throughout I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, affected her attitude, personality, and overall outlook on life in a positive way.