“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough”
– Og Mandino
In the excerpt Occupation Conductorrette found in Mary Angelou’s autobiographical book I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings the narrator is portrayed as a strong headed female character that will do whatever she needs to do in order to achieve her goals. Themes such as racism and segregation are some of the challenging encounters that the narrator faces in her journey of getting a job as a conductorrette. One of the main reasons why Mary Angelou accomplishes her mission of acquiring a job is her strong character. Other than her character, her mother’s character is also very influential in her drive to become a conductorrette even though she was black. Without her positive and determined character Mary Angelou would never had been able to move past the walls that others had previously put…show more content… Her mind set, attitude and ways of seeing things changes by the end when she finally gets the job. She maintains her determined and driven character, but at the end she has a reason for it. At the beginning of the story she just wanted a job and, since it wasn’t given to her, she fought for it even harder. Every time an adverse circumstance presented itself she found it in herself to fight harder and persevere. For example, when they finally give her the job her superiors placed her shifts at extravagant times. Her mother encourages her to continue and is one of her main sources of strength. Throughout the story Angelou’s superiors and everyone else that could have an influence on her job kept making things harder for her. She was being tested in many ways, but she always found ways in which to endure. One example of a time in which she had to be creative in order to effectively guarantee her job was when she created a character that met all requirements in order to get the