I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou This book was an autobiography. The setting of this book starts in Stamps, Arkansas. The main character was Marguerite Johnson better known as Maya Angelou. Maya has a brother named Bailey Johnson Jr. Their parents decided to put an end to their calamitous marriage.
Marguerite and her brother were sent to live with their grandmother. Their grandmother raised them with strict southern principles such as, “Wash your feet before you go to bed; always pray to the savior; chores and school come before play; and help those in need.” Using those principles, they grew older and wiser in Stamps. However, one day their father came to Stamps and wanted to return them home with him to St. Louis. Maya was frightened by the idea of big cities and Bailey was an adventurer who really wanted to go. In St.
Louis, Bailey and Maya met her mother and stay with her. Her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, sexually abuses Maya twice, and when she testifies in court against him, she lies and says that he touched her once. After that, Maya hers that Mr. Freeman is killed.
After staying in St. Louis a little, they were shipped back to Stamps with their grandmother. Maya continued doing schoolwork and her duties. When Bailey was sixteen, he moved into his own apartment. Maya was sent over the summer to live with her father. Maya got into a physical fight with her father’s girlfriend and runs away.
Maya spent her time in a junkyard with boys she met. Maya left the junkyard and met a man that she wanted to have a sexual intercourse with and got pregnant. 1. Genre: Autobiography 2. Setting: Stamps, Arkansas in 1929 3.
Maya Stamps Bailey Louis
... coast. When Maya was three years old, her successful mother sent her and Bailey from California to Stamps to stay with their grandmother, Mrs. ... off her shirt, she asked a fellow classmate if he wanted to have sex with her to ensure herself that she ... in an old car lot with some other boys she met, but at last decided to return to San Francisco with ...
Protagonist: Maya 4. Antagonist: dentist 5. Point of view: First person 6. Symbol: the bird in the title symbolizes Maya. 7. Internal conflict: Maya didn’t want to tell anyone she was raped.
8. External conflict: The dentist wouldn’t help Maya because she was black. 9. Man vs. Self: Maya doesn’t want to tell anyone she was raped. 10.
Man vs. Society: Grandma versus society because blacks are not treated equal. 11. Man vs.
Nature: There is a tornado in Stamps where Maya was staying with her grandma. 12. Allusion: Mark Twain and William Shakespeare.
