-
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...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In the book, Marguerite's Easter dress was made from a white woman's "faded purple throwaway." Initially, Marguerite remembers being excited about the dress as she watched her mother put careful...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
After recounting the past, Maya Angelou realizes she has the ability to thrive despite the insidious influence of racism and the dysfunction of her childhood. Maya comes to see her past experiences...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite, or "Maya," has a complicated relationship with her grandmother, who she refers to as "Momma." As a child, she often resents the fact that her grandmother is so strict and religious. It...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
There are a number of themes evident in Maya Angelou’s novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In Ms. Angelou’s autobiographical narrative, she delves into the themes of persistence, inner...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Angelou's poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," a free bird floats downstream and "dares to claim the sky," while the caged bird has clipped wings and tied feet and paces in his cage. The...
-
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...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Chapter 18, the minister speaks about the meaning of "charity" from the book of First Corinthians in the Bible. He tells his congregation that charity never allows the wealthy and privileged to...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Mrs. Flowers wanted Marguerite to foster her ability to express herself with confidence. She told Marguerite that self-expression was a form of communication and that language was what separated...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite compares Mrs. Flowers to the women of leisure found in English novels. In Chapter 15, Marguerite tells us that Mrs. Flowers reminded her of women "who walked the moors with their loyal...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
At first, Marguerite feels as though Mrs. Taylor's death has little effect on her. She says, "At eleven years old, death is more unreal than frightening" (page 160). However, during the funeral...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou wrote an autobiographical book entitled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The title of the poem you are referring to is “Caged Bird.” The title of the poem, “Caged Bird” is...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
When Maya Angelou wrote "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," she was attempting to expose the divisive racial prejudice that had permeated society for so long. She wanted, essentially, not just evoke...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite considers feeding the pigs one of the worst chores because it is a dirty and often foul-smelling task. First, Marguerite and her brother, Bailey, have to mix together a mash of sorts for...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
This question is asking for an opinion about Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird.” This means you have to assess and analyze the poem to determine what you find appealing about it. Personally, I...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In order to determine the meaning of the line “his bars of rage” in Maya Angelou’s poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” it may be helpful to look at the whole stanza of the poem. But a...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Marguerite assists customers who buy goods at her grandmother's general store. The store is the hub of her family life in Stamps, and she describes it as her...
-
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...
-
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...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
There is no set rhyme pattern in Maya Angelou’s poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Instead the poet uses the structure and rhyme of the poem to emphasize its metaphorical meaning. In the...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the author and her brother, Bailey, arrive in the "musty little town" of Stamps, Arkansas, at the ages of three and four respectively. They're...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In chapter ten of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya becomes closely acquainted with her biological mother, Vivian, as well as the Baxters, her maternal grandparents and uncles. She learns that...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite is initially surprised at her father's invitation; after all, he has been neglectful of her for as long as she can remember. To her recollection, Daddy Bailey has shown, in his lifetime,...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
When the book starts, Marguerite (also known as "Maya") is living in Stamps, Arkansas, with her brother, Bailey; her grandmother, Momma; and her uncle, Willie. Their father sent the children from...
-
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...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The story begins with Marguerite and Bailey arriving in Stamps, Arkansas, where they will live with their grandmother, Momma, after their parents' divorce. The children live with Momma and their...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite did not find Dolores at first because she never expected Daddy Bailey's girlfriend to be so young. Dolores appeared to be in her early twenties, and in Marguerite's mind, she was too...
-
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...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In order to determine the meaning of this line, we must first look at the following line for more information. Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I...
-
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...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Figurative language is a broad general category for a variety of literary techniques. Some of the most common forms of figurative language are metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, and...
-
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...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite describes Mrs. Flowers as an aristocrat, someone to be admired, the "measure of what a human being could be." To Marguerite, the most wonderful quality of Mrs. Flowers is the fact that...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Angelou is able to illuminate the stakes as being high for African- Americans when Joe Louis was about to fight for the heavyweight championship against Primo Carnera. It was clear that African-...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou tells the story of her growing-up years in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and several key female figures help shape her life. Two teachers have a dramatic impact on the young...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In the middle of the night, Vivian wakes up Maya and Bailey Jr. and ushers them quietly into the kitchen. Everyone is thoroughly confused until Vivian tells them it's a surprise party. Woo!
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
A very thorough description of Mrs. Cullinan is given in Chapter 16, which is when the author describes her experience of working as a househelp for a white family. Note what the following quote...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
This question refers to the events portrayed in Chapter 16, which describe the author's first experience of work when she goes and helps in a white household, cooking and cleaning. After she has...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The answer to this question can be found in Chapter 16, which details the author's first foray in to the world of working as a black "help" in a white house. Mrs. Cullinan, her employer, is quite...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
This incident occurs in Chapter 16 of this great autobiographical novel and concerns the author's first experience of working as hired help in a white household. Although her job starts off...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Mrs. Cullinan's life situation didn't appear to have anything like what she might have hoped for as a young woman. She was from Virginia, and still embraced the formal ideals usually associated...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite was sent to work at Mrs. Cullinan’s home as it was customarily one of the lessons the black girls had to get at that stage in their lives. Some of these lessons were “setting a table...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Knowing what I know about Angelou, I believe that the title of this novel has great significance, and that hope is an integral part both of the title and the entire narrative. On her website,...
-
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...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The title comes from Paul Dunbar's poem of the same name, which is unambiguously about slavery. Angelou also uses the metaphor of the caged bird to describe the experiences of African-American...
-
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,...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Mr. Freeman's death causes Marguerite to lapse into a kind of stunned silence; she feels responsible for the fact that he was killed. Through the influence of a kind and encouraging teacher, she...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
When Mrs. Flowers helps Maya taking an interest in her and making her feel special. She also convinces her to being to talk again by telling her to read poems out loud, although she is not.
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou named the book after one of her poems by the same name. The caged bird has clipped wings and tied feet. It sings of fear and sorrow, and its voice carries far away, although no one...
-
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
When describing Mrs. Flowers, Maya Angelou is using sensory language to have her young narrator describe her older neighbor. Sensory language is the use of details from the five senses in order to...