No Picture

About the Author

December 8, 2008 admin 0

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Bailey and Vivian Baxter Johnson. When she was three years […]

No Picture

Overview

December 8, 2008 admin 0

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the autobiographical story of the pain that accompanies a young girl’s loss of innocence. Feeling rejected by […]

No Picture

Setting

December 8, 2008 admin 0

The book begins in 1931 with Maya’s earliest childhood memories and proceeds through the end of World War II. Events of great social significance-from the […]

No Picture

Themes and Characters

December 8, 2008 admin 0

Angelou shapes the narrative of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings with two traditional themes of autobiography: the triumph over obstacles and the search […]

No Picture

Literary Qualities

December 8, 2008 admin 0

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings begins as a narrative of a young black girl growing up in the care of her grandmother in […]

No Picture

Social Sensitivity

December 8, 2008 admin 0

Segregation was so complete in the 1930s “that most black children didn’t really absolutely know what whites looked like,” and Angelou herself “never remembers that […]

No Picture

Topics for Discussion

December 8, 2008 admin 0

1. What does Maya think about her grandmother’s religious beliefs? Why is the church so important to Momma? 2. Why is the next door neighbor, […]

No Picture

Ideas for Reports and Papers

December 8, 2008 admin 0

1. Research Joe Louis’s rise to prominence in the boxing world, and the difficulties he faced as the first black champion prize fighter. 2. Angelou […]

No Picture

Related Titles and Adaptations

December 8, 2008 admin 0

The success of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings encouraged Angelou and her publishers to publish four additional autobiographical novels that cover the years […]

No Picture

About the Author

December 8, 2008 admin 0

Robert Cormier was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1925. As a member of a large, working-class family during the Great Depression, he came […]