Maya Angelou Essays (Examples)

Maya Angelou attained international fame in 1969 with the publication of her first book, I Know hy the Caged Bird Sings; however, the seeds of her acclaim were planted long before. Raised primarily by her grandmother in Arkansas, Maya attributed her first important lessons to the woman she affectionately calls "Momma." ith those lessons and other hard-earned knowledge, Maya progressed from being a victim of racism and sexual brutality with low self-esteem to a confident, skilled, dignified artist who is globally recognized for her wisdom.

Biography

Capturing Maya Angelou in a brief biography is impossible, for her many gifts and accomplishments read more like a "group biography." Interviewed in 2003 about her amazingly productive life and reputed wisdom, Maya said, "I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. I've never been bored in my life" (Moore). She…

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance with which Maya viewed this incident, saying "If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than the apes" (Angelou, Chapter 19).

This is not the only time that violence and black males are associated in the novel, nor the only time that such an association has an impact on Maya's character and outlook on life. One day, her brother Bailey comes home after first witnessing the body of a black man pulled from a pond, then being forced to help load the body in a truck and humiliated by the white man instructing him, finally asking, "Uncle illie, why do they hate us so much?'" (Angelou, Chapter 25). Maya's understanding of race and identity is largely constructed by these random…

Angelou understands that part of her role is to be a leader (which encompasses more than the idea of "role model" although it certainly parallels it in many ways this idea) by asking others to be attentive to language. For example, in an interview for the Paris Review, she said:

When I'm writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we're capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness. I'm trying for that. But I'm also trying for the language. I'm trying to see how it can really sound. I really love language. I love it for what it does for us, how it allows us to explain the pain and the glory, the nuances and the delicacies of our existence. And then it allows us to laugh, allows us to show wit. Real…

Maya Angelou and Jay Gatsby

The two works of art are similar in many aspects though they also hold quite a number of differences when it comes to the characters and the themes covered in the works.

Maya Angelou's work is more of an autobiography since it tells of the life experience of the character called Marguerite's also called "My" or "Maya" and the challenges that she undergoes. This character is highly agreed I various literary works to be the author immersed in the novel and talking of her challenges in the life path. It is also considered a Bildungsroman since it traces her life as she grows from naivety through to maturity.

On the other hand The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered a plain novel and not an autobiography. The novel's setting in terms of time is at the later age of Gatsby after he has…

/ eakened by my soulful cries." (Angelou, 7)

Thus, the overall message of the poem is not very different from that of the first text, Phenomenal oman. Again, the writer celebrates her own self as an emblematic image of the entire people. Pride and self-esteem are the major ingredients in the writer's cogent and powerful discourse. She declares her haughtiness and the pleasure she takes in her own self, suggesting that she is so proud that she might even attract the envy of the others: "Does my haughtiness offend you? / Don't you take it awful hard / 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines / Diggin' in my own back yard." (Angelou, 7) the extreme optimism and mirth that animates the state of the spirit of the author could lead the audience to believe that she has very special reasons to feel this privileged. However, the comparison with…

What school integration and political correctness have accomplished pales in comparison to the continued harm inflicted on students through class-based educational tracking. Moreover, Angelou in particular points out that some schools in America are inherently underprivileged. The Lafayette County Training School "distinguished itself by having neither lawns or hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy," (17). The all-Black school was in disrepair, its students cut off from the sources of power and prestige conferred on the white schools. Told that their school would not receive improved academic facilities but new pavement for the athletic courts, the students at Lafayette were not offered any other options.

Educational tracking doesn't just affect curricular content, it also affects who young people socialize with. Who children socialize with in class become their friends outside of school, where youth learn social cues and make connections with other members of the community who may reflect the…

Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices in the recent time. She is a celebrated poet, novelist, actor and filmmaker. In her early life, she experienced the brutality of racial discrimination based on the situation at the time (Goodman 21). Her experiences in life had an influence in her work as she touched on the issues of racism and sexism over the years. Her poems, in particular, have prioritized on the themes of racism and sexism to reveal some of the issues that affect the society today. This paper looks at the manifestation of the theme of racism in Maya Angelou's poems.

It emerges from her poems that despite being her being a good writer, she was discriminated against and was not given the credit she deserves all because she was black. In her poem, 'Still I Rise', she declares:

You may write me down in…

Angelou's book "I Know why the Caged Bird Sings' was written, according to its author, to serve as a certain purpose and this purpose can be glimpsed in its language. As the poet and critic Opla Moore (1999) remarked, the Caged Bird was intended to demonstrate, at a time, when these issues were just beginning to come into that open and when Blacks were still struggling for recognition, that rape and racism does exist in America and that out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy not only exists but must be recognized as not always the fault of the teenager and often due to other reasons that may be reducible to the state and church itself. Angelou uses poetic and vivid language to shake the very foundations of the reader's stereotypes and narrative way of construing his or her world by shaking conventional platitudes with the discomfiting reality of disruptive factors and introducing these…

structure and content of the outline met the objectives of the assignment. I narrowed down the topic further to differentiate between Angelou and Cisneros because I recognized that Angelou sends her readers an optimistic message of self-empowerment, while Cisneros opts to use the medium of traditional storytelling more as a warning to women about how patriarchy strangles their power and self-reliance. Essentially, both send the same message using different media and different tones.

ace and gender are features that often determine access to power in a society. Moreover, race and gender are critical to personal identity formation, just as they locate an individual in the stratifications of the society.

Sandra Cisneros's short story "Woman Hollering Creek," and "Still I ise," a poem by Maya Angelou both make statements about race, power, and gender in America.

Author Backgrounds: Cisneros is a Chicano author and Maya Angelou is an African-American author and…

Sandra Cisneros's short story "Woman Hollering Creek," and "Still I ise," a poem by Maya Angelou both make statements about race, power, and gender in America.

Cisneros is a Chicano author and Maya Angelou is an African-American author and poet.

Brief Text Summaries: "Woman Hollering Creek" touches on issues like domestic violence and the subjugation of women. "Still I ise" celebrates black female identity in a culture that is both racist and sexist.

Although different in both form and intent, Cisneros's "Woman Hollering Creek" and Angelou's "Still I ise" both reveal the intersections between race, power, and gender in American society.

Topic Sentence 1: The intersection between gender, race, and power is one of the most salient themes in both Cisneros and Angelou, as both write from the perspective of minority females.

Focus on Cisneros

Example 1: " ... there isn't very much to do except ... to watch the…

Works of Maya Angelou

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss author Maya Angelou, and some of her most important works. Specifically, it will discuss why her work is important, and give a brief biography of the writer. Maya Angelou has been an inspiration to writers, women, and Blacks ever since she began writing. Her career has spanned decades, and shows no signs of slowing down. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, Maya Angelou and her works are national treasures, meant to be enjoyed, contemplated, and to give inspiration forever.

MAYA ANGELOU

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. Her name was Marguerite Annie Johnson. Her brother Bailey gave her the nickname "Maya," for "My" and "my sister."

Maya's mother, Vivian Baxter, was a nurse and card dealer; her father, Bailey Johnson Sr., was a doorman and also a dietician or meal…

Know hy the Caged Bird Sings

Angelou's I Know hy the Caged Bird Sings has been widely classified as an African-American autobiography, which chronicles the experiences of a young, black girl in the America of the 1930s. hile undoubtedly the work is a valuable contribution to the genre of African-American history, describing as it does the plight of black women living during a time of racial and sexual oppression, it is primarily a tale of survival. By choosing to render a honest account of her own painful insecurities as a child, along with her frequent encounters with racism, sexism, and classism, Angelou takes her readers through the process by which she learnt to value herself and develop a sense of self-worth. Thus, it can be said that I Know hy the Caged Bird Sings is an inspiring work about the human ability to rise above the most painful of circumstances.…

Maya Angelou has several points in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Her primary point involves both the strength and the beauty in inherent to the human spirit. Despite all adversity, her book and life story stresses, greatness can still be accomplished. It is impossible to read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings without a sense of what the girl in the book would become; not only does the public already have knowledge of the name emblazoned on the front of the book, but the book was also necessarily written from the perspective of greatness having already been achieved. In this way, Angelou is also making a point about what telling a life story means, and the effect it has on the truth and on one's self-image. In some ways, the book appears to be a sort of healing process for Angelou, while at the same time the…

Racism

Personal anecdotes related to the experience of prejudice are usually the most effective means of convincing an audience that prejudice exists, and that it is painful. Moreover, an effective author connects the issue of prejudice to broader issues that all readers can relate to regardless of their personal experiences. Thus, it is important to show how the society suffers from prejudice too. African-American authors are in the position of sharing personal anecdotes about prejudice from within the framework of what is supposed to be a free, open, and tolerance society. Because of the paradoxes in American society, prejudice seems even more terrible and ironic. Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, and Brent Staples are all African-American writers who offer convincing arguments about prejudice.

Maya Angelou's autobiographical essay entitled "Graduation" is about her high school graduation in a segregated public school in Arkansas. Angelou's story is like that of other black…

Prejudice

hat is it like to experience prejudice on a daily basis? Many, if not most, whites do not know what it is like to be a member of an underclass. It is important to understand the structural elements of prejudice in a society. It is also important to understand how to deal with prejudice on a personal level. There are many ways to deal with prejudice. One is to fight back, and direct anger and frustration outward. The problem with this method is that fighting back sometimes entails physical aggression, and can be harmful to self and others. Another method of dealing with prejudice is to internalize the sense of inferiority and come to believe in the stereotypes and biased beliefs. The problem with this method is that it only promotes prejudice and allows for its perpetuation. Furthermore, internalizing inferiority can lead to problems like mental illness and disharmony…

Justice

The human race has been face-to-face with inequality and injustice since the beginning of time. First there was the inequality of religion, than there was the inequality of gender, the inequality of social status and most recently the inequality of color. All of these inequalities have been eliminated one by one with the belief in freedom. Looking over all of the events that eliminated inequality such as the French revolution and Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech a question comes to the mind. A question asking whether there is a "secret" to justice and if there is one what is it?

If there is a secret to justice, perhaps poets will be the first to tell. Maya Angelou, one of America's foremost poets, talks about the spiritual secrets of African-Americans in her essay "Graduation." At the close of the autobiographical essay, Angelou states, "If we were a…

This attempt at banning this book cannot be seen as anything but another example of prejudice and racism, this time against a woman who is attempting to share her life and warn other young girls at the same time.

Probably one of the most eye-opening parts of the book is when Angelou acknowledges that for decades, blacks in the South acquiesced to whites simply to survive, and they taught these tactics to each succeeding generation in an attempt to simply get along. She writes, "Momma intended to teach ailey and me to use the paths in life that she and her generation and all the Negroes gone before had found, and found to be safe ones. She didn't cotton to the idea that whitefolks could be talked to at all without risking one's life" (Angelou 46). She graphically illustrates life in the South in the 1930s and 40s for blacks…

Know hy the Caged Bird Sings

One of the lasting moments in Maya Angelou's I Know hy the Caged Bird Sings is the explicit rape scene in the novel. In the story, the young narrator is raped by her mother's boyfriend. This moment in the book has been mislabeled as a form of child pornography, but anyone reading the story can testify that this is not a moment told in a way to stimulate in any way. The rape scene is a nightmare and the reader is put directly into the position of the poor, frightened child who cannot comprehend what is happening to her. The theme of the novel in its entirety is presented in these two scenes of violence; childhood is destroyed by adults. A conflict between the adult world and childhood innocence and how the destructive forces of the former forever destroy the latter.

There are two…

prejudice is bad actually convince the reader?

A Buddhist monk, famous among his peers for the calm and serenity he constantly expressed, received the visit of a young man one day. The latter had come intent on disturbing the monk's peace and reputation and began attacking the master with a conglomeration of verbal expressions that even the foulest of men would have bowed their head in shame. Each word that came out of the young man's mouth was one more colorful than the other. And no remark that he addressed to the monk had anything but a pejorative sense of direction. As the young man went on to gesticulate vividly in a body language that matched his most "candid" acts of expressing, the Buddhist monk did nothing but gently smiled, causing the young man to build up more steam. Exasperated and drained out of energy, the man finally gave up…

Strength of the Human Spirit know why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography by Maya Angelou. It is the first book of the five volumes of the author's autobiography covering her life from the early 1930s up till 1970. This particular volume "I know why the Caged Bird Sings" is one of the most popular of the five volumes as it talks about her initial years as a child up to the time when she turns sixteen. The autobiography is based on her life as a black child, teenager and woman; it covers all elements of her family and their trials and tribulations.

Although the book is based on Angelous' life, it basically talks about the development of the human self and the impact of various experiences in life on the strength of the human spirit. As Angelou herself describes the reason for writing this book "somebody needs to…

Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, she illustrated her coming of age as an intelligent but unconfident black girl in the American South during the 1930s and afterwards in California during the 1940s. Angelou's parents' divorce when she was three years old and sent her and her older brother, Bailey, to stay with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, which was rural Stamps, Arkansas. Annie, whom they call Momma, ran the only store in the black section of Stamps and became the most important moral figure in Angelou's childhood.

Within her book, there are many themes that are brought up throughout the course of the story. Since the book is about a black girl growing up during a time that blacks did not have equal rights, naturally, the major theme would be racism and segregation which can be related to modern society. Therefore, I Know Why the Caged…

I used Yahoo Japan, a kind of Japanese eBay, and bought Pokemon cards from Japanese people at a low price point. I was able to resell cards at a premium price to Americans on eBay. While still in high school I became a top-rated seller on eBay, meaning I sold more than $12,000 in merchandise in 3 months.

My special something is my entrepreneurship. My business taught me the need to research what consumers want and look for new ways to do business. The world has just overseen the passing of a great entrepreneur -- Steve Jobs -- who changed the way human beings communicate because of his entrepreneurial genius. As Jobs said: "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work." I know that if I love what I…

Myths

Myth of Marriage and Children

Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth is a book that can potentially transform the reader's consciousness. Beyond being informative, Campbell's analysis of cultural myths is profound; it provokes genuine introspection. The author refers to the spiritual in whatever he speaks about, and yet he never lapses into religious diatribe or dogma. Subjects like marriage are elevated beyond the social to the psycho-spiritual. For example, he calls marriage "primarily a spiritual exercise, and the society is supposed to help us have the realization. Man should not be in service to society, society should be in the service of man," (8).

In light of modern society, Campbell's words hold new meaning. In America, we have few true rituals because we have turned our attention outward instead of inward. The wisdom of life is being denigrated through a preoccupation with technology and material goods. There is little…

San Francisco is a place of greater opportunity than anywhere in the South offered her; there are fewer freedoms than she discovered in Mexico or in the junkyard, perhaps, but these restrictions are attendant on the opportunities afforded her. Angelou's ability to imagine those opportunities carried on the sea breeze or just over the crest of each successive hill of the San Francisco marks her successful journey in the book to a woman of confidence.

Conclusion

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings tells a true tale, but it does so in such a way that each of the elements is just as important as they would be in a work of fiction. The setting of each scene in Angelou's life story neatly matches the plot points and the character development, not through literary contrivance but through necessity -- it is how the story happened. Had her story unfolded in…

The fact that this figure remains a guess says something important about what orrison was up against in trying to find out the full story of the slave trade. uch of that story has been ignored, left behind, or simply lost.

Through her works she attempted to retell the stories of grief associated with slavery and terror, her characters living their lives with greater understanding of its value than almost any other set of characters in fiction today.

Within the genre of the autobiography there is a different tenor of thought the words and deeds are that of the author and the message is clearly self, devolvement. Angelou in the Heart of a Woman demonstrates the ideals of her time, as a civil rights organizer and protestor. She clearly spells out the strife that exists between whites, and blacks and the dangerous dance they are doing during what most would…

prolific black American writers recognized in the world of contemporary American literature is Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou was born Margurite Johnson in Arkansas, but later changed her name to Maya Angelou, after her husband's last name, a man named Tosh Angelou (Life and Times 2002). Maya Angelou had struggled through hard life and poverty, living her life in perpetual abuse to opportunist and abusive men. She had a difficult childhood, and was raped at the age of 8 by her mother's friend, and by the age 16, gave birth to her son (Quilt Pages 2002). She sustains herself and her son by working, and Maya Angelou worked on different odd jobs. She was considered the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco, the first black woman screenwriter and director in Hollywood, and became known for her work for the civil rights movement along with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King…

Post Modernism

Still I ise" - Maya Angelou

Which ending would you like to change?

"That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?"

Why would you change that particular ending?

In Ted Wu's view, the above line is a playful one, and has something in close relationship with women. The reason is, perhaps because the poem is about an Afro-American woman's hardships against racist treatment and general societal hatred.

Briefly explain how you would change the ending

Some similar lines such as 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room' 'Cause I laugh like I got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard'

Assist the reader figure these scenes in their mind and personify the lines. A line such as this one that we want to alter addresses a sensitive subject. Female sexuality is one of the central themes…

Prejudice

If you walk in to a bookstore or browse online you will find hundreds, in fact thousands, of essays, books, articles, and speeches about prejudice. Obviously, most of them are against prejudice and before you begin reading any of them, let me tell you that chances are good that they will contain phrases like "don't have prejudice against people," "prejudice results in downfall" or "prejudice is a bad thing,." ut what puzzles the mind is whether phrases like "we shouldn't have prejudice against people" are enough to end prejudice. Does a moral lesson at the end of a very moving story convince you not to have prejudice against your fellow beings? Does it convince people not to judge others and to treat everyone equally? I think not. In order to understand what prejudice is, does a person have to experience it firsthand?

In order to ponder over this important…

American Literature: The Black Woman Poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson

American Literature

The Black Woman poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson

What points or themes emerged from the poem?

Fight against nature

The main theme in the Black Woman is the struggle against a literal and natural desire to give birth. This theme is seen in a line where the woman poet states that she must not give birth. Giving birth for a black woman in such an environment where blacks are discriminated against would not be a joyous thing for any mother. In this poem, Georgia Douglas, depicts a world that is anti-black and would not take kindly to more black people being born into this world. The poem depicts a worst case scenario in which racism had spiraled out of control leading to a prevalence of blatantly open discriminatory practices (Papke, 2010). Thus, the poet depicts a world which…

A black woman walking up to the counter at Macy's will be a customer, not an American-American customer; a Latino buying a car at a used car lot in Memphis won't be a Mexican-American he will be a customer. That's how it should be.

THREE: Why is the focus so different between male authors and female authors? For the same reason that men see the world from a very different lens than women see the world. Naomi Wolf has a very good perspective on why there is such a dramatic difference between what men write about and what women write about, and I agree with her wholeheartedly. There were archaic yet potent attitudes toward women a century ago, Wolf explains, in which "normal female activity, especially the kind that would lead women into power, was classified as ugly and sick." In fact, there were whispers that if a woman engaged…

Who would you most like to invite?

hat is very difficult, since I just started reading about all the people who are doing wonderful things today around the world. I know I want to meet someone about astronomy and also computers.

hank you for your interview. Do you have any last words?

Only that no one should give up on their interests because they feel lesser of a man from someone else. We all have something special inside us.

PARY for BENJAMIN BANNEKER

he party (8:00-11:00pm) is going to be held at NASA in Florida, of course, with Michael Griffin, administrator, welcoming everyone. he theme is space, so we have piped in all the music that has been written about space -- classical up to modern and movie themes. he decorations all are space related -- big neon planets and stars. We are keeping the room somewhat dark, so they…

"

Moreover, population groups "…pull up roots and seemingly go out of their way to avoid one another…" throughout Southern California, Worster writes (242). An example of the concept of "pulling up roots" is the community of Watts, which in the 1960s, Worster continues, was "an almost entirely black populace" but by the mid-1990s is "predominately Mexican-American" (p. 243). And Little Tokyo, positioned just south of Los Angeles' City Hall, is now home to a "dwindling population of Japanese-Americans" who have scant interaction with the colonies of artists "who began reclaiming and inhabiting factory and loft buildings" in Little Tokyo. Armenians that once dominated the eastern fringes of Hollywood have "relocated to suburban Glendale" and South Koreans have "settled in the Mid-Wilshire district" which has caused the "displacement of a sizable community of Central Americans," Worster explains. This movement of cultures and ethnicities around the sprawling great Los Angeles region…

acism

Time changes everything; reading these two pieces of work reminds the author of that fact and so much more. Both The Welcome Table, by Alice Walker, and the poem What it's Like to be a Black Girl, by Smith speak out of the dust of the past to those who now live in the future. It is interesting to note that though the subject matter of racist attitudes pervades each story, both writings provide a viewpoint that is unique; The Table deals with an old negro lady on the verge of death, while a Black Girl deals with the other end of the spectrum; a young black girl addressing puberty and adolescence and the troubles and trials facing a maturing young lady. While presenting two differing points-of-view, each offers a strikingly similar stance; that racism affects those who feel its insidious influence in a myriad of ways.

As one…

That being said, it is quite difficult to be honest with oneself, even thought as we stand in front of the mirror, naked and bare, Didion says we remain "blind to our fatal weaknesses." One might think that being too self-critical would damage the ego, but for Didion, it is completely the opposite -- by knowing out flaws, accepting some and working towards the goal of solving others, we become more actualized and powerful. Without this realization, "one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home."

Both Didion and Walker focus on self-respect, self-actualization, and in a very real way, a pseudo-Marxian approach to alienation from society. There are several points in common for the authors: one's own approach to self; seeking and finding self-respect; and taking an active role in our own place in the universe. Conversely,…

But he didn't tell me that my aunt would help them do it'" (Gaines, 79). Grant believes at this point that dignity is something he can only find -- and is supposed to find -- outside of his community and away from the relationships and ties that he has there, including his maternal bond to his aunt.

As the novel progresses, however, Grant begins to realize how necessary the community is to his own happiness, if not his very survival. This transformation is not complete by the end of the novel, but Grant has begun to change or at least question many of his beliefs, including his attitude towards God and religion, and certainly in his attitude, hopes, and feelings for Jefferson. Perhaps most telling in Grant's search for dignity and identity within his community is his relationship with Vivian. Though she is still married and the relationship is therefore…

Both Tayo and Crowe begin their journeys wandering between two worlds. Both are aware of their wandering and are constantly searching for an identity that will allow them to find the world and identity in which they are most suitable for inclusion. Similarly, both Crowe and Tayo experience a traumatic event that leaves them haunted not only by their pasts, but also guilty about their own actions in the past and sure that these actions have caused others pain. Additionally, these hauntings result in both Tayo and Crowe pushing away the ones they love. For Crowe it is his wife and for Tayo, his family. The similarities between the characters of Tayo and Crowe, therefore, suggest the truth of Saez and insbro's claims. Ethnic writers Shyamalan and Silko certainly employ a common theme of exclusion and inclusion, a theme that is encompassed by the larger theme of the presence of…

skills sets needed to be successful in the market place and whether discrimination of poverty, gender, and race may impede one's chances

There are those who argue along the lines of "if you will it, you can do it," and that as long as you present something that people need and you show them that you are the one who can best help them get it, you can be successful no matter what your external limitations.

On the other hand, there is a significant amount of social scientists that say that impeding factors such as poverty are real and stop you from getting where you want to be. The rags to riches story is a myth that happens infrequently to rare individuals. Much more common is the reality that states that money, class, and, to a lesser extent, gender are the factors that get you to, or impede you from…

Civil ar

From Slavery to African-American

By the beginning of the Civil ar, there were some four million African-Americans living in the United States, 3.5 million slaves lived in the South, while another 500,000 lived free across the country (African pp). The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 granted freedom to all slaves in the Confederacy, and the 13th Amendment of 1865 freed the remaining slaves throughout the nation (African pp). During the Reconstruction Era, African-Americans in the South gained a number of civil rights, including the right to vote and to hold office, however, when Reconstruction ended in 1877, white landowners initiated racial segregation that resulted in vigilante violence, including lynchings (African pp).

This resulted in the Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to the North during the beginning of the twentieth century (African pp).

From this Great Migration came an intellectual and cultural elite group of African-Americans that grew…

In McTeague, Norris applied the caged bird motif to illustrate the protagonist's chained existence that was at the mercy of naturalistic forces. As the canary is moved from place to place, so is the protagonist forced to move from one experience to another until he dies. It symbolizes the protagonist's life and death experiences. When McTeague finally dies near the end as he is handcuffed with a corpse, we see the canary also breathing her last: "McTeague remained stupidly looking around him, now at the distant horizon, now at the ground, now at the half-dead canary chittering feebly in its little gilt prison." (Chapter 22)

In Three Lives by Gertrude Stein, we have three important characters Lena, Anna and Melanctha whose lives are succinctly discussed. In this novel, it is Anna's character that can be closely associated with a caged bird. She is a German immigrant who works ceaselessly with…

Without their guidance, the world be empty of the poetry of Maya Angelou, the courage of Clara Barton, the genius of Pearl . Buck, the leadership of Rosalynn Carter, the great voice of Ella, and the practical inventions of Temple Grandin. Though not warmly received across the board at first, the movement changed history.

ociety derives its gender roles from the religious doctrines it holds sacred; it is also important to note the anthropological perspectives which, frequently false, have also been factored into the social consciousness of a culture over time. Among these in the world of gender definitions are the ideas of Darwin, whose plebian social scope promoted an idea in which the best genes were transferred to males over females, programming men psychologically to be the better species. Fortunately, the age of social Darwinism that separated whites from their inferior racial peers has also brought the end to…

Summary

The Keller/PSI approach to academic and professional training has been documented to improve student performance as measured by course completion rates and subject matter retention among students. On the other hand, there are considerable practical and technical problems implementing the Keller/PSI approach within traditional educational institutions. Meanwhile, there is little if any empirical evidence suggesting precisely how the Keller/PSI model benefits learning outside of the focus on the reduced deadline orientation that is the hallmark of that teaching methodology.

Substantial evidence exists to suggest that the success of the Keller/PSI approach is actually attributable to other changes typically attributable to Keller/PSI, such as the broadening of the range of media of instruction, despite the fact that those changes are natural consequences of the Keller/PSI design rather than deliberately conceived components of the approach. The empirical evidence of the increased success of CAPSI programs further bolsters that argument.

A wealth…

Horatio Alger" by Harlon L. Dalton.

The Horatio Alger myth is the 'rags to riches' story that America likes to represent itself as. Hard work and perseverance can pull the poor out of poverty and make him rich. The problem is that this myth is only partially true. Analysis of the myth shows that accompanying conditions necessitate integrity and honesty. It is only the privileged few who can possess wealth within the framework of integrity and honesty. Dalton insists that the myth is false when applied to people of Black extraction. It seems to me that the myth is false when applied to individuals of any extraction for conditions of the corporate world, particularly of the world of today and particularly for the disgruntled poor, necessitate conniving, Self-centeredness, selfishness, and other omission of values to succeed. Black people -- as any -- can become wealthy; they may need to renounce…

Down These Mean Streets believe that every child is born a poet, and every poet is a child. Poetry to me was always a very sacred form of expression. (qtd. In Fisher 2003)

Introduction / Background History

Born Juan Pedro Tomas, of Puerto Rican and Cuban parents in New York City's Spanish Harlem in 1928, Piri Thomas began his struggle for survival, identity, and recognition at an early age. The vicious street environment of poverty, racism, and street crime took its toll and he served seven years of nightmarish incarceration at hard labor. But, with the knowledge that he had not been born a criminal, he rose above his violent background of drugs and gang warfare, and he vowed to use his street and prison know-how to reach hard-core youth and turn them away from a life of crime.

Thirty years ago Piri Thomas made literary history with this lacerating,…

United States is a country that thrives on the achievements of various people groups. The achievements of African-Americans in the United States are particularly significant. African-Americans have contributed greatly to the world of literature, medicine, and business. The purpose of this discussion is to examine the role that African-Americans have played in the formulation of American culture.

lacks in America

Although the history of blacks in America has been steeped in bigotry, hatred, and segregation, the culture has managed to face these adversities with courage and triumph. African-American's have fought for equal rights since their arrival in this country. Initially, they were forced to fight for the right to be free men and to end slavery. Eventually, African-Americans also struggled for integration during the civil rights movement. There were several individuals that were instrumental in ensuring that African-Americans were free from slavery and that they gained their civil rights. These…

biggest online book retailers based in the United States are Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, although the latter retains a major retail store presence. The websites of these two retailers are similarly organized, and prices are comparable. The following list of books will illustrate that Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com offer similar discounts on their products. I Am Charlotte Simmons is a brand new release by author Tom olfe. Amazon.com states the list price as $28.95; their discounted price as $19.69. Also, the book is "eligible for free super saver shipping." The same book sells at BarnesandNoble.com for $20.26, less than a dollar more than the Amazon.com price, which is 32% below list. Similarly, Joyce Carol Oates' latest novel, The Falls, is priced 32% below publisher's list, at $18.33 by Amazon.com and is 30% below list at Barnes and Noble, at $18.86. The Plot Against America, a new novel by Philip Roth, is listed…

Black Arts

Known as the "artistic sister of the Black Power movement," Black Arts refers to the collective expressions of African-American culture during the 1960s and 1970s. Corresponding with the climax of the Civil Rights movement and the self-empowerment of the African-American community, the Black Arts was a politically charged yet aesthetically ripe collection of visual, performance, music, and literary art forms. Amiri Baraka is credited widely with the genesis of the Black Arts movement. The assassination of Malcolm X is said to have inspired Baraka to move to Harlem and delve into the transformative power of art for emboldening the black community (Salaam). Even when he was still known as LeRoi Jones, Baraka had been involved in the publishing industry, and had worked as a poet, arts critic, and playwright. His founding of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BARTS) is the "formal beginning" of the movement, which Baraka himself…

Oprah: A Profile of an Entertainment Empress

Oprah Winfrey rose from obscure origins in the Southern United States to become one of the most iconic and influential women in the world. Her journey was one that brought her in connection with dynasties like the Kennedys and it was one which attracted interest from journalists of all walks of life. She capitalized on her image and her talent to become a media maven and today her name is as much a brand as Pampers or Coca-Cola. How did she do it? Kitty Kelly has written that she did it in much the same way that all powerful people do it as they go on to become titans, moguls, global czars of industry: she was both admired by fans (Jones, 2011) and feared by those in her employ (Kelly, 2011).

Kitty Kelly's unauthorized biography of Oprah reveals the real woman behind the…

African-Americans: Harlem Renaissance and the Black Power Movement

History does show that America has been a nation that has been seeing itself do some changes that have been happening over and over again. Also, America is recognized as being the home of the free and the brave. However, this nation that is considered to be beautiful has not at all times been this way. America has had to gone through a lot of ups and many downs to become the beauty that many look at today. Racial discrimination had a very strong part in American society. Although today, there are still racial dissimilarities. These racial dissimilarities are not as bad as they were in the back in the days of slavery and afterwards. Two of the main explanations that positive steps have been made in the direction of removing racial disparity is the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Power Movement.…

Poverty and Homelessness in Children

Poverty is the deficiency in the amount of money or material possessions considered to be acceptable for individuals in a particular country. Among families who are homeless with children 42% of homeless children are under the age of six years old. The majority of homeless families with children cited poverty as the third most common reason for their being homeless. A child is born into poverty every 33 seconds in the United States.

Key professional and community organizations addressing this issue/population: There are several organizations addressing this issue including the U.S. Department of Agriculture with programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Program, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) seeking to provide affordable housing to everyone, the Children's Defense Fund, Voices for America's Children, the National Urban League, and the National Coalition for the Homeless. Local and community-based organizations such as The Salvation Army,…

A Documentary Filmmaking Experience
Aim and Accomplishment
Renov (1993) states that there are four fundamental purposes of a documentary: “1) to record, reveal, or preserve; 2) to persuade or promote; 3) to analyze or interrogate; and 4) to express” (p. 21). In my documentary, Palestine, her story, my aim was to observe—i.e., to record, reveal and preserve—the stories of the Palestinian women who served as the subject of my film. The film is therefore an observational documentary.
Looking back on my original proposal, I can say that I have completed at least a portion of my original project. The focus of my 20-minute film is on the three Palestinian women who live a successful life in London. Each woman is of a different generation and thus each one has a different experience to share, a different story to tell. Yet they also have one thing in common, which is Palestine.…

The Evolution of American Identity Through Literature
The diversity within the American experience, and as well within the canon of American literature, precludes the possibility of singling out two or even ten of the novels, poems, or short stories that best encapsulate what it means to be American. From the colonial and early national era and the fledgling formation of national identity through the struggles of emancipation from slavery and transcendentalism, onwards to the industrial and capitalist eras, American literature has provided an accurate reflection of the lives of individuals and communities that comprise life in different regions of the country. Geographic and cultural differentiations also help to expand what it means to be American, taking into account race, class, gender, and generation. Threads that tie together Americans throughout time and in spite of radical differences in worldview include staunch independence and self-reliance, coupled with a profound optimism. Trust in…

The child's presentation of his naive question that is asked without any expectation of an answer conveys an innocence over the entire poem.

In the second stanza, however, the imagery is not quite so clear, and the images become more analogy than picture, but the analogy represents innocence and purity. In the child's answer about who made the Lamb, the child describes the creator as both a child and a Lamb. Commonly, children are thought of as innocent and pure, as are lambs (the children of sheep, if you will) considered harmless and docile. In Christianity, Jesus often refers to a child-like state or a child-like mind as the most innocent and teachable mindset to have. Also in Christianity, lambs are considered innocent and blameless, at times in need of love and guidance. Indeed, the child in the poem explains it best when he says that the Lamb's creator "became…

ymbols and images should be identified from true events in order to strengthen the themes and premises of the story. Furthermore, a central theme should be identified from the events in order to help the reader understand the points that the author is trying to make.

In reading nonfiction, the reader requires imagination in order to connect the events and themes of the story to his or her own life for the purpose of personal enjoyment and growth. The reader should be able to identify the various themes and symbols that the author has chosen to include in the story, and to interpret these in order to understand the central points of the author's writing. The symbols in the works discussed for example relate directly to the ideas of separation, deceit and growth. The reader gains the most from stories that they are able to clearly interpret and understand. In…

Humanities

Importance of the humanities in the professions:

A comparison of "Paul's Case," Muriel's Wedding and Andy Warhol's rendition of Marilyn Monroe

The modern concept of 'celebrity' is that anyone can be famous, provided that he or she embodies an ideal of glamour, using material trappings like clothing and possessions to show his or her 'specialness.' This is a common method of 'selling' a particular product in business.

The idea is paradoxical -- on one hand, celebrities are special, on the other hand the media suggests everyone can be a celebrity and 'famous for 15 minutes' if they buy the right item.

This can be seen in "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather, about a boy who feels as if he is above his classmates.

Paul desires to have a celebrity-like status, based upon his perceptions of himself as having innately refined tastes.

But this costs money, and Paul is unwilling…

Personal Style

What is personal style? According to personal style coach Catherine McIntyre, author of a blog called Beaute Divine, "it is knowing how to use your visual image, which speaks volumes before you even think about what you want to say." Expressing personal style is a way to communicate to the world, without words, some of your beliefs and values. It is a way to tell the world who you are.

Some people have no difficulty expressing their personal style. They instinctively know what they like and what suits them with respect to colors and shapes. They gravitate to the work of a small handful of designers whose aesthetic speaks to their own. They seem to have no trouble choosing clothes and accessories that communicate clearly who they are. One might view the choices these people make and not care for the color or design yet still recognize the…