‘If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you are.’ Throughout her lifetime, Maya Angelou has been able to produce many notable works including seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry. Many documentaries and films have…
Maya Angelou Essay Examples and Topics
The Jim Crow era was a dreadful time for blacks living in the United States. It began in 1861 and ended in 1965. During that era, there were “Jim Crow laws” which were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation. This made living conditions…
In the first stanza, “Bitter, twisted lies” is the primarily used for Angelou to explain how her culture was represented in past occasions. Rather than starting off by emphasizing physical enslavement, it begins by emphasizing ways of how the wrong kinds of writing is able…
Childhood is formed not by the child, but the ones who raise the child. The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini and, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, written by Maya Angelou, are two major novels that prove this statement to be true. The…
Behind every successful athlete, there is a guiding light who has pointed them in the right direction and picked them up when they fell down. Through determination, inspiration and resolution, athletes have the lesson of perseverance instilled in them as they win and lose. Like…
Maya Angoles was a civil rights activist and a poet. She worked with Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcom x. Her real name is Marguerite Annie Johnson. She was famous for her Poem I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings because she is referring to…
Motherhood is understood as a social and biological phenomenon. Angelou’s autobiography describes the tribulations of black mothers. She focused more on single motherhood. She draws a realistic picture of it. For a Black woman, motherhood not only ensures a meaningful life but a respectable place…
Maya Angelou refers to birds on her both works ‘Caged Bird’ and ‘I Know Why Caged Bird Sings’. There is an ongoing symbolism about birds that they are free beings, fly wherever they want to. Yet, on her works, she puts an emphasis on the…
In disabled the poem is divided into two separate sections; his life before the war began and the reality of life after the war. this is shown by the fact that the language in disabled changes from the joyous description of his youth to the…
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis on April 4, 1928. Maya Angelou was known as a terrific performer, editor, filmmaker, educator, and has had many influences throughout her lifetime. What Maya knew best though, was to write. Angelou was influenced by…
In the stories The Conductorette by Maya Angelou and Ashputtel by Peter Straub, the authors share the same theme of overcoming adversity in life. While both stories vary in how much adversity each main character faces in their own life, it still follows the same…
The two books, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, both tell great stories to their audience. They are able to do this because of the authors styles. I Know Why The Caged…
Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote a poem “Sympathy” that was published in 1899, The poem inspired lots of people including Maya Angelou and Alicia Keys. Maya Angelou wrote a poem and Alicia Key wrote a song, they both named it “Caged Bird”. As a matter of…
Wanting to rise above the agony; Still I Rise is Maya Angelou’s experience with rising above society’s torment. Words like “Shoot me with your words”, “Cut me with your eyes” and “Kill me with your hatefulness” all describe the pain society tried to put on…
Poetry is the act of peace and unity in the world. The human condition explores the qualities of being a human and what we can do to our lives to make it more peaceful. Today I will be analysing one of the texts based on…
Facing Adversity in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” Bigotry, human suffering, and doubt; these adversities, in all forms, can trap even the most strong-willed of birds into a suffocating cage. It was mostly here where Maya Angelou experiences her life, gazing at the…
Why a Caged Bird Sings Sweet Songs Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird” dramatizes the comparison between a bird that is free to make its flight and a bird that is denied. The caged bird, in response, sings from behind the bars of its cage to…
Her meaning of Persevereance It is a story of any young girl who was lost and disabled by the world and its cruel definition of beauty and success. A story of a girl who once felt ashamed to appear in the light, and a tale…
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In “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, a speaker explains how no amount of poor treatment will keep her from achieving and living her life. Throughout the poem the African American female voice refers to someone in second person in a confident and almost mocking…
April 4, 1928
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
May 28, 2014 (aged 86)
Writer, poet, civil rights activist
1951–2014
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, On the Pulse of Morning
Memoir, poetry