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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou uses allusions through her memoir. Some of them evoke the period and places about which she is writing, while others appear as she struggles to express the agony of the sexual abuse...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Stamps, Arkansas is a small town that draws its name from an early settler, Hardy James Stamps. In recent times, however, it has become best known as the childhood home of Maya Angelou, who has...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the first volume of her autobiography, Maya Angelou’s describes her life in Stamps, Arkansas where her grandmother Annie Henderson owns a store. She has lived...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
One of the most powerful character portrayals in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is “Momma,” or her grandmother Annie Henderson. Owner and proprietor of the only store owned by an...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I would propose that the entire purpose and meaning of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings can be summed up in one word: Resilience. The life of Maya Angelou makes a stunning progression from darkness...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Momma's teachings may seem to be unacceptable in that they involve keeping her children in a state of deference to white people. But there's a good reason for her to impart this lesson. In this...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The narrator, of course, is a central character in the plot this chapter, which is Angelou speaking as herself. Her grandmother, whom she calls Momma, is also a main character in the story. Momma...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The first scene of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in which Maya unsuccessfully attempts to recite an Easter poem before the congregation, was chosen to provide a glimpse of the rich joy, pain,...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The cotton pickers got to the fields in a wagon or large truck. They were picked up en masse and brought to the remains of the old slave plantation. Maya Angelou first says that they're picked up...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Maya Angelou’s autobiography, she relates her youthful experiences—when she was known as Marguerite—working in the Store that her grandmother operated in Stamps, Arkansas. The Wm. Johnson...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the autobiography of Maya Angelou. It was first published in 1969. Maya Angelou was an American writer. She describes her youth in the 1930s and the 1940s,...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Written by American writer and poet, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography about Maya’s childhood living as a young black girl in the South. The book begins when Maya is...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The statement simply means that Uncle Willie's personality is full of contradictions. On the one hand, for instance, he's severely disabled; the left side of his face is paralyzed so that he can...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In chapter 12, Maya is left at home alone with Mr. Freeman, who sexually assaults her. She is only 8 at the time of the attack and passes out from the pain she endures. Mr. Freeman is dating her...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Bertha Flowers is a well-to-do African American woman who occupies an important place in black society. She becomes an important person in Marguerite’s life for several reasons. She is one of the...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography detailing the early life of Marguerite Johnson—who later becomes known as Maya Angelou, the famous poet. Angelou retells the story in her own way...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The most obvious similarities between the two works are that they both express the adverse circumstances of African Americans in the decades after Emancipation. Paul Laurence Dunbar published...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" is about the consequences of racism, whereas "Ego-Tripping" is a celebration of the speaker's cultural identity and heritage. The former is a melancholy but...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite (Maya) and Bailey were raised by Annie Henderson (Momma), their paternal grandmother. Momma raised Maya and Bailey to be completely isolated from the wealthier part of rural Stamps,...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou's memoir addresses this question from both the white and black perspectives of the inhabitants of Stamps, Arkansas, where she spent the majority of her upbringing. From the perspective...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
When Maya was ten, her mother sent her to the house of Mrs. Cullinan to learn manners befitting of a lady. There she meets Glory, Mrs. Cullinan's cook. The woman's real name is Hallelujah. Mrs....
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Angelou states that, at one point in her childhood, the "angel of the candy counter" was exacting its revenge upon her for all of the stolen candy she had taken over the course of her life. This...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou mentions the decline of Japanese business as a result of World War II. This happens because Japanese people were forcibly moved to...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
William Johnson, Uncle Willie, is mostly described in chapter 2 of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. He is characterized by his disability; at just three years old, a baby sitter...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou's understanding of herself as a lyric and dramatic poet powerfully informs the style of her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Even the choice of title (borrowed from...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Mrs. Flowers is an important part of young Marguerite’s life. This is in large part because she teaches Marguerite firstly to love and respect books and secondly to understand the significance of...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Chapter 19, Angelou directly quotes the commentator of the famed boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. Historically, this fight was important for two reasons: Louis was a black...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
A shy and inhibited girl, Marguerite "sopped" around her environment until one day when Mrs. Flowers throws her "a lifeline" and asks specifically for Marguerite to carry her purchases home with...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In chapter 18 of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, young Maya Angelou attends a church revival service and hears a long and emotional sermon on charity from the minister: "As I understand it,...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite hoped that the made-over lavender dress would make her white. Momma had put "ruffles on the hem and cute little tucks around the waist" of a "white woman's once-was-purple throw-away."...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Stamps, Maya and Bailey have the advantage of a close and nurturing community to help in their growing up. As Maya describes in the first chapter of the book, once the people of Stamps see that...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Symbolism can be an effective technique in writing, and various examples of symbolism can be found in Maya Angelou’s novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Among the examples of symbolism in the...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite, Maya's character in the book, says she was around ten years old at the time the incident occurred.In Chapter 5, Marguerite describes the incident when the "powhitetrash" girls...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is challenged pretty often in public schools as having inappropriate content for high school readers. There are some sexual references which some consider too...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The eighth grade graduation in Stamps, Arkansas is a big deal to the black community, but the white speaker, Mr. Edward Donleavy, manages to quell the festive atmosphere fairly quickly with his...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Well, the root problem is the abuse that Marguerite suffered when she was living with her mother at the hands of her step-father. As Chapter 14 makes clear, the impact that this horrendous incident...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Clearly the first character that was a positive role model for Maya was Mrs. Bertha Flowers, who manages to get Maya to open up and love herself after the rape she endured. This event occurs in...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In order to answer this question, we must look at the context in which the poem was written. Maya Angelou spent some of the most formative years of her childhood in the racially segregated town of...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
There are some strong level of similarities between both Maya Johnson and Frado. The first level of similarity is that both women possess a great deal of unique individuality that cannot be fully...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Mrs. Henderson did not think that "whitefolks" could be talked to safely and reasonably. In life, Mrs. Henderson had always sought to teach Bailey and Marguerite the safest ways to interact with...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Chapter 3, Maya relates how she makes an adventure out of measuring silver ladles of 'flour, mash, meal, sugar or corn' to accurate perfection. She tells us how delighted she is to develop an...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
A hyperbole is a literary device that over-exaggerates a particular detail or fact; this over-emphasis highlights the seriousness of a situation from a character's point of view. Take Marguerite's...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Young Marguerite makes the choice to speak to Mrs. Flowers because she senses that the older woman is different from the other adults in her life. Mrs. Flowers never makes Marguerite feel like...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya lies on the witness stand because of events that led up to her rape by Mr. Freeman. Mr. Freeman had molested her multiple times leading up to her rape (Chapter 11). When asked by the...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya and her brother Bailey are raised in Stamps, Arkansas by their grandmother, whom they call "Momma," after their parents abandon them. Momma runs a general store in town, whose revenue she uses...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
A metaphor is a direct comparison of two things by saying that object 1 is or was object 2. For instance, "my love is a rose." I'll identify a few metaphors in the novel to help you get...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In the book, Marguerite uses a metaphor to explain how she feels about her grandmother's store. She likens the store to "an unopened present from a stranger" when it stands "alone and empty in the...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Angelou employs many different elements of style in this novel, including dialect, allusion, symbol, hyperbole (exaggeration), similes and metaphors, etc. Angelou uses a variety of literary...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou admires Mrs. Flowers because she is someone who is classy, who has manners, and who introduces Angelou to the wonders of great literature, among other things. She is not only a role...
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Bailey (Junior) changes in the course of Maya Angelou’s book in several ways. As both Maya (called Ritie, for Marguerite) and her brother are growing up, it is natural for them both to change and...
