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Maya AngelouA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Angelou begins the letter with “Dear Daughter,” dedicating this work to the daughter she never had but whom she sees in women everywhere. She states that this letter includes lessons she has learned and the ways in which she learned them. Angelou states that she intends this work to act as a starting point for the reader—a document that they can reference and use at their discretion. She ends with the sentiment, “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them” (5). Over the course of the letter, Angelou will show how numerous life events have shaped and strengthened her.
Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri but was raised by her paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, and her uncle, Willie, in Stamps, Arkansas. She recalls her experience growing up in the racially segregated town, writing:
My real growing up world, in Stamps, was a continual struggle against a condition of surrender. Surrender first to the grown-up human beings who I saw every day, all black and all very, very large. Then submission to the idea that black people were inferior to white people, who I saw rarely (6).
By Maya Angelou
A Brave And Startling Truth
A Brave And Startling Truth
Maya Angelou
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
Maya Angelou
A Song Flung Up to Heaven
A Song Flung Up to Heaven
Maya Angelou
Caged Bird
Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
Gather Together in My Name
Gather Together in My Name
Maya Angelou
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
Mom & Me & Mom
Mom & Me & Mom
Maya Angelou
Mother, A Cradle to Hold Me
Mother, A Cradle to Hold Me
Maya Angelou
On the Pulse of Morning
On the Pulse of Morning
Maya Angelou
Phenomenal Woman
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
Still I Rise
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
The Heart of a Woman
The Heart of a Woman
Maya Angelou
The Lesson
The Lesson
Maya Angelou