TOW #14 - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (IRB pt. 2)

I enjoyed reading the second part of this book. It was interesting to continue seeing Angelou's development as a child, and the experiences she had that shaped her childhood. The second half of the book was primarily ages 10-16. As the book progresses, you can see the things she learns and the ways her experiences changed her, either for better or worse. It was nice to see her thoughts as these things happened. The most important thing to learn from this half of the book was that if you really want something, you can get it if you try. She was the first African American to get a job working on the streetcars, because she knew that was what she wanted and she was willing to do anything in order to get it. She talked to people she knew, she insisted to everyone running the streetcars, all to the job that she really wanted, even if it wasn't necessarily the best job available. The result of her determination and hard work led to her achieving what she had set out to do, and that's an important thing for people to know, that just because a limit exists doesn't mean it can't be broken if you really work for it. I also liked the message at the end that the people who love you the most will support you through anything and their opinion of you won't change if something happens. I thought the Graduation chapter was really good, because it was a good demonstration of the general sentiments of African American people at the time, that they were not given equal rights and they were limited by their skin color. Angelou herself wonders why the famous black people were all athletes while white children could become anyone from a scientist to anyone they wanted to be. She almost seems to feel like trying for anything like being an Einstein or Madame Curie (some of the examples she cites) would be useless. But then later, she refutes that when she pursues her dream and becomes the first black streetcar operator, which I thought was nice because it contributed to the theme I mentioned earlier.