Analysis Of The Poem Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya...

Belief in Freedom From the end of the Civil War to the mid 1900’s segregation within a southern society was just the way of life. White Americans were determined to keep the black population under control. Throughout this period of time many African-Americans like Maya Angelou and Richard Wright were put through extreme racism and segregation. Both of these writers shared their experiences through their excerpts I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and â€Å"The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch by Richard Wright. The excerpt written by Angelou was written about the time when she was a young child about the age of three, while the excerpt written by Wright was written about him becoming a young adult. Although these two writers are in very different stages of life during these excerpts, both of the works still convey how Angelou and Wright are able to remain hopeful despite the intense barriers. Angelou and Wright demonstrate this message through the ideas of silence and hope, and through the use of images. As a result of the discrimination during this time period, people like Angelou and Wright often felt as if they were not able to have a voice and speak up for themselves. In Wright s work, he said: If I had said: No, sir, Mr. Pease, I never called you Pease, I would have been automatically calling Morrie a liar. And if I and said: Yes, sir, Mr. Pease, I called you Pease, I would have been pleading guilty to having uttered the worstShow MoreRelatedI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou6502 Words   |  27 PagesAnalysis: Chapters 1–5 The lines from the poem Maya cannot finish, â€Å"What are you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay . . .† capture two of the most significant issues she struggles with in her childhood and young adulthood: feeling ugly and awkward and never feeling attached to one place. First, Maya imagines that though people judge her unfairly by her awkward looks, they will be surprised one day when her true self emerges. At the time, she hopes that she will emerge as if in a fairy-tale