I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Essay

1000 Words4 Pages
There is a saying that a change of mind can come with a change of scenery. This saying usually holds true in many situations. The novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is about the experiences of Marguerite Angelou, an African American girl growing up. Throughout the novel, Angelou moves to many different locations where she meets new people and has new experiences. These new experiences allowed her to mature throughout the novel. Furthermore, Angelou had to overcome many challenges when she moved. However, she grew and learned from these challenges. In, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the various changes in settings affected the character of Marguerite Angelou because the new experiences allowed her to grow and mature. Marguerite’s hometown…show more content…
After deciding that she will go to work, she tells her mother that, “I would get a job on the streetcars” (Angelou 264). Marguerite is convinced that she wants to work as a conductor for the streetcars. However, there are many boundaries she had to overcome to get hired due to her ethnicity. Even so, she was able to become the first Negro to become a conductor for the streetcars in San Francisco. Her experiences when getting a job had mad Marguerite more mature as she had to surmount many obstacles to become a conductor. Furthermore, she is faced with more challenges when she asks a boy, “Would you like to have sexual intercourse” (Angelou 281)? After having sex with the boy, she realizes she is pregnant. Her new pregnancy had caused to be in a dilemma. She is not certain what she should do with her new baby. Nevertheless, she decides to welcome the baby into her life, saying that “just as gratefulness was confused in my mind with love, so possession became mixed with motherhood” (Angelou 288). Marguerite decides that she has to take responsibility of being the mother of her new son. In doing so, she grows and matures much more than if she didn’t. To sum up, the experiences Marguerite has while living in San Francisco had helped her mature into a young

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