TOW #11- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - IRB

I think this book has been really interesting so far. In the first half of the book, Angelou has described her childhood in Stamps and the different experiences she had that shaped her life such as her visit to her mother. It is an interesting memoir and I like it so far, at least partially because it is so different from my own experiences. I like hearing stories, and especially stories that have a purpose. Her story is not just of a country childhood but of an African American girl as she grows up in a segregated south. Almost everything I know about segregation is from history books and it was interesting to see a real life perspective. It was a story of growing up and accepting your past experiences like what happened with Mr Freedman. She also automatically had ethos because it was a story about her life, and there wasn't much of an obvious argument being made. She is trying to tell the audience however, that this is what her life was like and what the world was like. Some of the strategies she used would include imagery and colloquialism. I really enjoyed her descriptions, of people, places, and events. She also spoke the way you would expect someone from the south to speak, which was an interesting effect and I think it wad effective because it makes the story seem more authentic, since she's using the language she would have used at the time. I enjoyed the narration style, it seemed to have a proposed rather than just retelling events. We learn what it was like to grow up in such a places and the hardships that people suffered, liked the cotton gamers who were tired and dirty after long days of work and still went to church. The purpose was hope. That even in the darkest time, there is hope that things will get better and that nothing bad has to last forever.