I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings And Tim O ' Brien 's The Things They Carried

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical novel written by Maya Angelou, was published in the year 1969. The novel follows Maya as a young girl facing challenges such as racism and sexism following the civil rights movement. While reading the book, the reader is introduced to events in history such as the Great Depression and World War II.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck portrays a story about human dignity. Maya Angelou's poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" displays a caged bird who deeply yearns for freedom. Both texts share a common theme: The feeling of being unloved is the most terrible hardship.

Maya Angelou once said, “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.” She, along with Susan B. Anthony, definitely lived by this as they tried to achieve their dreams and aspirations. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an informing story written with figurative language about how the main character finds her voice to speak. “After Being Convicted of Voting in the 1872 Presidential Election” is an informational speech written with technical language about how the speaker finds her voice to gain equality. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and “After Being Convicted of Voting in the 1872 Presidential Election” have similar author’s purposes and central ideas, but how the supporting details are presented differentiate the two.

Maya Angelou is a leader by example, she sets the standard by her actions and the stories she tells teaches the audience a lesson. Majority of her work is to inform us of the past and she wants us to learn from her experiences in life; she is a life teacher. The purpose of this poem was to inform us of the history of our country. The poem is titled “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and her purpose of writing this is to teach the reader why the caged bird sings. Maya Angelou wants to put the reader in her shoes to get the ultimate experience of racial inequality but instead by taking the role of a caged bird or a free bird.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings was first published in 1969 during a time when autobiographies of women because heavily significant by their exclamation of the significance of women. As a result, Angelou's piece gathered attention from various types of women who could relate to Angelou's journey of sexuality, colour, and the coloured

In Maya Angelou’s I Know the Caged Bird Sings (1969), the reader is absorbed into a personal account of her life starting from her childhood to young adulthood during the 1930s and 1940s. From a young age, Maya witnessed the first-hand effects of racism in the South for blacks growing up alongside her brother, Bailey. In the novel, Angelou faces racial discrimination and displacement inside and outside her own community that act as metaphorical cages barring her from the freedom to be her true self.

Maya Angelou is one of the most distinguished African American writers of the twentieth century. Writing is not her only forte she is a poet, director, composer, lyricist, dancer, singer, journalist, teacher, and lecturer (Angelou and Tate, 3). Angelou’s American Dream is articulated throughout her five part autobiographical novels; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in my Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas, The Heart of a Woman, and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes. Maya Angelou’s American Dream changed throughout her life: in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya’s American dream was to fit into a predominantly white society in small town

According to Willard Scott, “Positive Feelings come from being honest about yourself and accepting your personality, and physical characteristics, warts and all; and, from belonging to a family that accepts you without question.” Maya Angelou illustrates this in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography on herself. It illustrates Maya Angelou’s struggles of accepting herself because of some cruel experiences in her life. Maya was an African American girl who was struggling on living because of her parents divorce. She was pretty strong and she decided to move to Stamps, Arkansas from Long Beach, California with Bailey; her brother, to stay at her grandmother’s, because Maya’s parents are going

The poems that are similar are “Sympathy” and “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” because they are both talking about cage bird sings. I think sympathy inspired Maya Angelou's to write the poem because he and his parents were slaves. One of his poems is longer than the other poem. I think his poems are good to read they inspire you to read more. Maya Angelou is writing about him being in a cell and not having freedom. He is saying in his poem that he bleeds trying to get out of the cell he is locked up in. Some examples are that the two poems are talking about that the birds are singing. That the two bids in the poems are trying to get out of a cage. One of the poems is written from Maya Angelou and the other poem is written from John Dunbar.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a novel by Maya Angelou, where she writes about her childhood and her experiences while growing up. This non-fiction novel illustrates Maya Angelou’s childhood, being tossed around by her parents, and having to experience different cultures. Maya struggles particularly in finding friends, she is reserved, and will only open up to Bailey, her brother. Maya moves a couple of times to different places, which may contribute to her not having friends. The novel revolves around Maya Angelou, Bailey, and her grandmother, evolving through life from being a child to a teenager. This novel is set in the “South”, in America.

She often wrote about the Civil Rights Movement and the revolutionary social times throughout America. One of Maya Angelou’s influencers in writing was Paul Dunbar, hence why one of her most idolized pieces is named I Know Why The Caged Birds Sing (Shmoop Editorial Team). Her message was the same as Dunbar’s, the need for freedom in America and portraying it in literary terms. Angelou too used a bird to express her anger throughout her poem. Maya Angelou was similar to Dunbar in the ways of being oppressed.

Angelou and Dunbar used the same image of a bird in a cage. The authors use literary techniques to explore their ideas in the poems. Using these techniques helps give the reader a better understanding of what is written and what is trying to be expressed. In the poems, the writers wrote thins they could relate to. In both poems there is a use of freedom and oppression.

It fell flat on the big vat of lard and by noontime in the summer the grease had softened to a thick soup.” (pg. 16) The theme in the book was growing up black in the south, and the racism that came with it. The development of the theme is what categorizes the book as a fiction. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings starts out discussing the family and the problems within the family, and as the book progresses it begins to unravel the deeper theme of racism. However, the theme also incorporates the chronological element of the plot and stories into a sequence of life events that make the narrator, Angelou, the person she is. The first person narration is witnessed all throughout the book, every page is told in her perspective and the readers learn more about her than the other characters. Provided, that factor is what gives the book its autobiographical component. Since all of these conventions of fiction are so prominent the book is considered an autobiographical fiction, but mainly read as if were just fiction.

The feeling of displacement leaves a painful hole in one's heart. Whether a person is a male or female, white or black, lives in the North or South, or young or old, displacement takes a toll on their character and personality. Maya Angelou creates a theme of displacement in her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou's novel has been critiqued by many notable scholars for being a classic autobiography. The critics note the importance of the setting to show universal displacement and the use of characterization to display the influences in Angelou's life. The critics also note that Angelou's diction and tone allow her pain and suffering to be evident throughout her novel and into her life. Angelou's use of setting shows how she was personally affected by displacement. She also uses characterization and tone to personalize her childhood experiences. Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is critiqued to have a theme of displacement based on the setting, characterization, and tone.

The poems “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou are both poems that speak on the issues of the mistreatment of African Americans, and how these challenges were created simply by the color of one’s skin and overcome. While the poems “Mother To Son” and “ Dreams” by Langston Hughes refer to the hopes of African Americans for a better standard of living, and the consequences of departing from these dreams of bettering themselves. This comparison of these four poems is important because all four aim to better society for African Americans, and inform the population struggles that they maybe be able to relate, and provide them with the inspiration to keep pushing forward. These poems explain why the desire for equality was so important to African americans at this time, and what they had to go through to get it. I believe that these poems are all used as methods of expression, information, as well as rebellion against the racial in injustice that was suffered for so long.