British Novel Essay #1

This book and Maya's life connects alike. Its almost like when she wrote "I know why the caged birds sing" she was writing her Biography. From the research I did her mother's name was Vivan Johnson, her name wasa Marguerite Johnson, and her brother's name was Bailey just like in the book. She growed up in Stamps and she stayed with her grandma. The important events in her life were the same during her childhood.

All of her grandmother's hard work paid off because later on in her life she made big accomplishments. As you can see she wrote some books. In high school Maya won a scholarship in dance and drama to California Labor school. She became San Francisco's 1st African American female streetcar conductor. When she was sixteen she gave birth to a baby boy. His name was Guy Johnson. I thought that with her being raped she would be scared to put trust in another man so quickly but evidentally not.

At the age of twenty-two she got married to Tosh Angelou but the marriage did not last but a few years. To support herself and her son with out the father she had three jobs. She worked as a cook, night club singer and a waitress. I would do the same thing to support me and my kids. I can relate to this because I had my first child at sixteen and I had to work hard to get what he needed so I quick school for about seven months to make sure he had what he needed, because I know it's hard being a single mom. I know that it was probably harder back then with all the racism and stuff.

Later on after earning enough money to get on her feet Maya became a inspired book and poem wrighter. She moved to New York and joined the Harlem Writers Guild. In 1960 Guy moved to Egypt, where Maya was an editor for Arab Observer. Two years later they moved to Ghana, where she worked for three years as a writer and a administrator for the University of Ghana and as a editor for the African Review.

Maya has earned The Ladies Home Journal Woman of the year award, The Golden Eagle Award and the International Woman of the year. In 1981 she accepted a special job as a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest. Maya is intellegent and is very inspirational. She speaks French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Fanti.