Both of her parents were hardworking, while growing up, Morrison also learned folktales and stories that taught her about her heritage (Bois 1996). From a young age, Morrison showed a great interest in literature with all type of authors, French, English and even Russian. In 1949, Toni Morrison attended Howard University, in Washington D.C. there she also changed her name from Chloe to “Toni”, and she explained that she found it was difficult for people to pronounce (Liukkonen 2008). In 1955 and 1957, Morrison was an instructor in Texas Southern University in Houston, where she taught English. In 1958, she married husband, Harold Morrison (Johnson Lewis 2010).
Maya Angelou was originally born as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She spent the majority of her childhood in St. Louis as well as Stamps, Arkansas. Today, Angelou is a renowned for many accomplishments including an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her autobiographical works I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Angelou’s poetry includes A Brave and Startling Truth (Random House, 1995), The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994), Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993), Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987), I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), Shaker, Why Don't You Sing?
At an early age Angelou was raped by a friend of her mother’s while visiting her mother in St. Louis. This violent act left the young girl traumatized. When her uncle’s heard about what happen they killed the man who raped her. She felt as though his death was her fault and she did not speak for five years. When Angelou was 12 years old an educated black woman from Stamps by the name of Bertha Flowers helped her to break this silence.
Maya Angelou who real name is Marguerite Johnson was born on April 4, 1928 in St.Louis, Missouri. The African American Activist spent many difficult years moving back and forth between her mother’s and grandmother’s. At age seven, she was raped by her mother boyfriend. After this tragic even Maya didn’t talked for six years, and her teens and early twenties were spent as a dancer, which was filled with isolation and experimentation. (Maya Angelou.
She joined the cast of Sesame Street in 1971, two years after its premiere ("Wordpress.com," 2009). Here she introduced sign language to hearing homes across America. She was also featured in a Sesame Street book entitled, “Sesame Street Sign Language Fun with Linda Bove.” Her time on Sesame Street ended in 2003, making her role the longest running role, in history, for a deaf person on television (Jay, 2008). In addition to Sesame Street, Linda also had had many other acting roles and was even cast in a Broadway show. She performed on a soap opera called Search for Tomorrow (Jamie, 2011), as Melissa Hayley Weldon in 1973 and in Happy Days as Fonzie’s deaf girlfriend, Allison, in 1980 (Jay, 2008).
Her life greatly influenced literature today and the censorship that follows. On February 8, 1850, Katherine O’Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Thomas O’Flaherty and Eliza Faris. She was their second born child and later in life became known as the famous author, Kate Chopin. Growing up in the South with and Irish father and a Creole mother, she was bilingual with English and French. (Ewell) Kate experienced much loss at a young age, three of her family members died by the time she was thirteen.
Kate Chopin Biography Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She was born on February 8, 1850 to Thomas O'Flaherty and Eliza Faris. Her father was Irish and her mother was French Canadian, so she became bilingual at a very young age. As a child, she was an avid reader of fairy tales, poetry, and classic novels. Growing up, she was most widely influenced by her mother and grandmother after her father was killed in a train accident when she was four years old.
Nevertheless, the Civil Rights Movement, actions of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the trials of Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, and Plessy vs. Ferguson are examples of how blacks have slowly "sang" for equality. For more than three hundred years, a wrongful tradition of slavery and discrimination has existed. This ongoing black inferiority and white supremacy is bound in tradition and hard to sever. In her book, I Know Why the Caged
Laila, born a generation later, is privileged during her youth until their lives intersect and she is also forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam's husband.Hosseini has remarked that he regards the novel as a "mother-daughter story" in contrast to The Kite Runner, which he considered a "father-son story". It continues some of the themes used in his previous work, such as familial aspects, but focuses on female characters and their role in Afghan society.A Thousand Splendid Suns was released on May 22, 2007, and received favorable prepublication reviews from Kirkus,Publishers Weekly,Library Journal, and Booklist, becoming a number one New York Times bestseller for 15 weeks following its release. During its first week on the market, it sold over one million copies.Columbia Pictures purchased film rights in 2007 and confirmed intentions to create a movie adaption of the book.The title of the book comes from a line in the Josephine Davis translation of the poem "Kabul",by the 17th-century Iranian poet Saib Tabrizi: "Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls" In an interview, Khaled Hosseini explained, "I was searching for English translations of poems about
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings In Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, we read about Maya’s struggle with her feelings about not having her parents around to help her through the racism of her time. Though Maya had a rough upbringing, the hard times of her childhood help shape her into the bright, strong, and independent woman she is today. Maya, or commonly known as Ritie, was raised with no parents. Ritie was content with living with her “momma” until the “terrible Christmas.” RItie was confident that her parents were dead, even though people told her that they were in California eating all the oranges they could. By receiving these gifts Ritie felt, “rudely awakened.” Though they don’t want to this made Ritie and Bailey think, “What did we do so wrong?” They Know that they did nothing wrong, but they couldnt help pondering the question.