... many years. Generations have flocked to the shores of America to try their luck in finding it. The American Dream is the ability for each and every person to follow their dreams, ideas, and the pursuit of happiness, despite obstacles that come their way. Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Maya Angelou and her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Dr. Martin Luther King, ... Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham City Jail are prime examples of this, as they all go after what they want and believe to be right. Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catc...

• Word Count: 634
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... not learn a lesson from this until she is older, she has to realize that not everyone is bad and she must trust boys and men. Maya Angelou develops the universal idea that experiences teach using the stylistic element of similes. In I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Angelou compares her speech and actions to winter's molasses. When Maya moves to St. Louis she still acts like someone from ... the south, she talks and moves slow as she says "I was called Old Lady and chided for moving and talking like winter's molasses"(57). From this embarrassing experience Maya learns ... , as Maya says "...

• Word Count: 964
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Maya Angelou is a very triumphant woman. She has written many books and poems that have given her great success. If one would talk to her, he or she would think she has lead a normal, happy life. Her life is blissful now, but it wasn't always perfect. Maya Angelou's sorrowful life experiences inspired her to write autobiographical works of poetry.Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis. She was raised in segregated rural Arkansas. She came from a broken home. Angelou was raped at eight, and was an unwed mother at 16 years old (Williams 1). In spite of her tragic ...

• Word Count: 1089
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... inspired her famous work, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", which was written in 1970. She is best known for her autobiographical books: All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), The Heart of a Woman (1981), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), Gather Together in My Name (1974), and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), which was nominated for the National Book Award. In her massive ... volumes of poetry are A Brave and Startling Truth (1995), The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994), ... Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993), Now ...

• Word Count: 548
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... was very devastated (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ang0bio-1). Since the death of Dr. King, many of her close friends comforted her loss of a great person she was going to be working with. Eventually, she began to work on a book. The book that she was working on was called "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." This book was published in 1970 and became a success ... (http://mayaangelou.com/bio/). Dr. Angelou served two presidential committees, awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, in 2008 the Lincoln Medal, and received 3 Grammy Awards. In 1993, President Clinton ... as...

• Word Count: 1000
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... named Bertha Flowers who was able to bring Maya out of her mute state. " Mrs. Flowers she had the grace of control to appear warm in the coldest of weather she acted just as refined as the white folks," (Angelou, Caged Bird 76-78). Mrs. Flowers introduced the works of Shakespeare, Hawthorne, and other authors to Maya. Mrs. Flowers was able to evolve Maya into ... and mother, she was a profound writer. She began writing brief poetry at the age of nine. In the early 1960's Maya began to write more extensively. Throughout her life, Maya kept a journal of her life experiences and began taki...

• Word Count: 1253
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... college. During high school with all stress she had from her parents, school, and her job. Maya ended up being pregnant at age sixteen. She moved so many times that the last time she moved to her dad's house, she ran away. Maya found that life with her dad was not any easier. Her childhood and young adulthood was tough, but ... all of her writing. Paul Laurence Dunbar, great black American poet, had a little impact on her writing. She got one of the titles of her stories in book. Some of her interests of hers are writing, singing, and acting. Marguerite got the name Maya from a screenpl...

• Word Count: 429
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... are like by many, some people disagree with the fact that her poems and books are published. Many of her writings deal with the role of African Culture in American life. (Biography.com) Many racists believe that she shouldn't be allowed to publish this stuff because they feel it is not important. Maya's first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, "opens with a primal childhood scene that brings ... into focus the nature of the imprisoning environment from which the self will seek escape. This work displays on impulse towards transcendence and is one of the most satisfying autobiographi...

• Word Count: 588
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... (King, 1994) New York City was the only place for a black writer to be in the 1950's and 1960's. It was the time of the Civil Right Movement in America. (King, 1994) Maya Angelou wrote her first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a memoir of her childhood and young adult period, in 1969, toward the end of the Civil Right Movement. For the first time in history, Maya Angelou's book ... became the first non-fiction best-seller by ... an African American. She was gradually breaking the stereotype by her voice and eloquent words. The book was banned in many schools during ... ...

• Word Count: 962
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . President Gerald Ford and the National Commission appointed her to the Bicentennial Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year by Jimmy Carter. She has published ten best selling books and countless magazine articles, and in 1993 she wrote and delivered the presidential inauguration for President Bill Clinton. One of Maya Angelou's books, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an account of her youth, describes the trauma of being raped as ... a child, the violent death of her attacker, and her subsequent refusal to speak for five years. It has been ... ...

• Word Count: 1266
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... . who preferred "Maya" to "my sister." With the divorce of her parents Maya and her brother were sent to live with her paternal grandmother who lovingly they grew to call "mama" in rural Stamps, Arkansas. This significant period in her life is retold and recaptured in her best selling autobiography " I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings " In the In the book, Maya recalls the tragic incident of her rape at ... the disturbingly young age of eight years old. She was violated by one of her mother's friends during one of her sporadic stays in St. Louis ... , a madam, a tap dancer, a prostitute, an...

• Word Count: 777
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School