Summer assignment: "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", by Maya Angelou

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” immerses the reader in a ‘bird’s eye view’ of growing up under the restraints of segregation, oppression of racism, and fear persecution.  Maya Angelou is an internationally acclaimed African-American writer, essayist, and poet. She was also a dancer, actress, singer, director, playwright, and civil rights activist. Angelou has won a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, three Grammys, the Spingarn Medal, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This essay takes place in a time steeped in segregation and deeply embedded racism. Angelou shares her experiences and also explain how through personal character and head-strong determination, she was able to stay strong through it all. The intended audience is young adult to adult in want of a glimpse inside her journey. In this essay, the author uses several rhetorical devices, including numerous comparisons and a lot of description and imagery. These allow the reader to picture the scenes more clearly and have a way too try and see through the author’s eyes. I think that the author fulfilled her purpose well. Throughout the essay, she the reader journeys through a painful and approachable perspective on how it felt to be in her shoes while facing racism, segregation, and persecution. Experiencing what it was like to face people who would mock her and her family, as well as people who wanted to hurt her just because she was African American. An example of this is, “I wanted to throw a handful of black pepper in their faces, to throw lye on them, to scream that they were dirty, scummy peckerwoods, but I knew I was as clearly imprisoned behind the scene as the actors outside were confined to their roles”(Angelou 356).  Even though people hurt her and her family, she was determined to lie low and bear through the pain, and not lower herself to committing the actions she so disliked in others. She explained that her family and the simple beauty of the things around her helped her be strong and admire life. Angelou successfully promote her cause against racism and segregation, and give the reader a new perspective on the issue.

Summer assignment: "Women and honor: Some Notes on Lying", by Adrienne Rich

“Women and Honor” discusses the relationship with women and the concept of lying. Adrienne Rich studied at Radcliffe College and Oxford, and has written several essays, novels, and poems. She was very involved in civil rights and promoting feminism. The NY Times described her as “a poet of towering reputation, towering rage, whose work…brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse”(NY Times). Her essay explains why people lie, and what comes of these lies. She claims that women lie to hide their feelings, and the end result is that the liar lives in fear and loneliness. The essay is a protest against the need for women to lie and live in fear of telling the truth and not being accepted. The intended audience is young adult to adult. Adrienne Rich used repetition, similes, and metaphors throughout this essay as rhetoric devices. Some sections were almost like poetry, beginning each line with ‘liars’, for emphasis. These rhetoric devices made the book more intriguing, and allowed the author to show her passion for her topic. The comparisons used allowed the reader to think deeper about the points she was bringing up. I believe that Adrienne Rich did fulfill her purpose well. Throughout the essay she expresses the dangers and reasons for lying, and in the end, and encourage the reader to seek more truthful, even if more different, conversations. She says, “That we both know we are trying, all the time, to extend the possibilities of truth between us. The possibility of life between us”(Rich 420). The essay ends expressing the notion that truth in a relationship creates stronger bonds and sustenance, allowing relationships to be more secure and last longer. The poetic structure of the essay, concluding with a challenge for us each to strive to become more truthful result in Rich accomplishing her purpose beautifully.