NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings In Maya Angelous autobiographical novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, tenderhearted Marguerite Johnson discovers all of the splendors and agonies of growing up in a prejudiced, early twentieth century America. Rotating between the slow country life of Stamps, Arkansas and the fast-pace societies in St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California taught Maya several random aspects of life while showing her segregated America from coast to coast. When Maya was three years old, her mother sent her and Bailey from California to Stamps to stay in the care of their grandmother, Mrs.
Annie Henderson. Soon thought of as their real mother, Momma raised her grandchildren with the strict Southern principles such as, wash your feet before you go to bed; always pray to the savior and you shall be forgiven; chores and school come before play; and help those in need and you shall be helped yourself. Bearing those basic principles, Maya and Bailey grew older and wiser in Stamps. However, one day their father rode extravagantly into Stamps and called for his children to return home with him to St. Louis. Bailey, eager to leave the simple family life in Arkansas, agreed immediately, but tender-hearted Maya was frightened by the idea of big cities and strange people.
In St. Louis, where she was presented an entirely different lifestyle, Maya experienced harrowing moments that caused her yearning for the quiet safety of Stamps. Her mother s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, sexually abused her twice, and when she testified in court against him, the important connections her mother had to the gangsters in St.
Louis beat Mr. Freeman to death to disburden the shame from the family. In court, Maya lied, saying that he only touched her once, and the guilt of lying to her closest friend, her brother Bailey, cause Maya to mute herself. Exasperated by a gloomy and morbid girl, Maya and Bailey were shipped back to Momma in Stamps, a great relief for Maya, but a horribly upsetting act for her brother. At home again, Maya concentrated on her schoolwork and her duties to Mommas store, the only Negro owned store in Stamps, until after her graduation from eighth grade, when she and Bailey were again sent away, this time to California. They stayed together with Mother Dear, both attending a non-segregated high school.
Maya then was sent over the summer to live with her father, who resided in a trailer park with his girlfriend, Dolores. After a physical fight with Dolores, Maya decided to run away from her fathers home and try to live on her own with freedom. After her adventures in the junkyard, Maya wished for an alternate lifestyle to the boring school-to-home schedule she was acquainted with. Her desire to work on the streetcars in San Francisco led her to fight against the common forces of nature: white illogical hate and Black lack of power, and soon she was employed. Now questioning her sexuality after reading a book about lesbians and enjoying watching a female friend take off her shirt, she asked a fellow classmate if he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her to ensure herself that she did in fact enjoy men. After they made love, and still uncertain of her sexual preference, she found herself pregnant three weeks later at the age of sixteen.
Maya decided to wait until after her high school graduation to tell her mother and three weeks after that she gave birth to a baby boy whom she was afraid to even touch because of her known clumsiness. Stamps and St. Louis or San Francisco plays considerably different roles in the upbringings of Maya and Bailey. In Stamps, Maya learns to survive in a white-domineering society by praying and helping others.
During the Great Depression, her well-off Momma lent out money to both struggling Negro and white folks even though, the whites in [their] town were so prejudiced that a Negro couldnt buy vanilla ice cream. By the way was a common expression in St. Louis, where their mother only went to church once a year, but in Stamps the religious believers found it sinful, and Maya was beaten. Stamps represents the cage of the novel, a secure place where Maya could flutter and sing like a bird and not worry about being hurt by the disturbances of the cities.
In California, Maya experienced an entirely different perspective on life, where gamblers, hustlers, prostitutes, and gangsters all earned respectable titles and respect. In the evenings after her school work was finished, and she never had any chores to do like in Stamps, her mother would take her out dancing and teach her to jitterbug in smoke and whiskey filled dance clubs. In Stamps, this wild way of life would be considered immoral to all religious and simple folk like Momma. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou gives the perspective of growing up from a southern Negro girl in three radically different towns: Stamps, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Mayas protective and unadorned world in Stamps helped her hold sacred and moral family values that were then mostly contrasted when she was whisked away to Missouri and California.
Living with her maternal mother gave Maya a glimpse at the future world, and helped her to control her tender heart and emotions, however Maya seemed always happiest in Stamps with her grandmother. Maya discovered why the caged bird sings when she herself was protected in the enclosure of the simple, hard-life town in which she was reared.
Free research essays on topics related to: caged bird sings, san francisco, maya, three weeks, maya and bailey
Research essay sample on Caged Bird Sings Maya And Bailey
