(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. ... (King, 1994) Most of Maya Angelou's poems embraced the message of hope and love. and Still I Rise, written in 1978, captured the idea of inner strength and endurance against racism in America by giving the readers a sense of identity and hope: " You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes,/ You may kill me with your hatefulness,/ But still, like air, I'll rise." ... ...

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

At the age of 16, Oprah read Mary Angelou's autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" over and over, later quoted saying ,"I read it over and over; I had never before read a book that validated my existence....

• Word Count: 1009
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Each character in Beloved is a former slave with a painful and scaring past. Sethe, a main character, killed her first-born daughter to protect her from slavery and has been haunted by the ghost of her first born for 18 years. Sethe lives in this haunted house with her daughter Denver, who i...

• Word Count: 966
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School