FREE ESSAY ON MAKING MAYA ANGELOU THE PERSON SHE IS

MAKING MAYA ANGELOU THE PERSON SHE IS

The events, encounters, and the environment that you are in are all things that shape your
life in both positive and negative ways. Maya Angelou, the author of the autobiography I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings did not have a fairy tale childhood. There were valuable
lessons learned by Maya from the events that she faced, from the people she met, and from
the places she journeyed. Everything that happened to her made her stronger and created
the person that Mrs. Angelou grew to be, and whom she became. 
Maya was faced with many different events, many which challenged her. When Marguerite was
only a child her parents sent her and her brother, Bailey, to live with their
grandparents in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya did not experience a family with a mother and
father. She did not even know her parents until her father came and took her and Bailey
to St. Louis. The adolescent girl was moving again. Living with her mother and her
mother's boyfriend Mr. Freeman would change her life forever, after she was raped by Mr.
Freeman. Maya moved to Stamps after St. Louis, but later she went to live with her mother
in Los Angles, California. Living in California was nothing like outdated Stamps.
Marguerite Angelou moved around numerous times giving her more experiences than she would
find in Stamps.
Maya encountered many different people, many different kinds of people. Maya's
grandmother shaped her life immensely. Maya's grandmother raised her, and taught her
about only good, she gave Maya a good home when she needed one, and taught her to be a
good person. At a picnic in Stamps young Maya met Louise, her best friend. Louise was
someone Angelou could talk to and share her secrets with. One of Maya's most important
encounters was her parents, first her father and then her mother. Mrs. Angelou's father
was a tall handsome man, she thought very highly of him when she was younger, until she
learned more about him when she was older. Maya's mother was a very attractive woman whom
she also appreciated. Her mother watched out for her, and supported her in what she did.
Maya's mother might have been one of the most important people in her life she always
believed in her daughter and supported her. 
Maya experienced very different environments. She lived in the simple black community of
Stamps, Arkansas. Many people in Stamps would stay there and not get a good education.
Maya did not stay in Stamps, she first went to St. Louis, and experienced a very urban
environment of big buildings and city streets. Angelou also moved to California, which
was very different from St. Louis and even more different from Stamps. She was in a
suburban environment for the first time ever. In California she got a job on a street
car, making herself the first black woman to work on a street car, she also had a child.
Marguerite became the most adult, and grew considerably in the Californian environment,
which just might have impacted her the most out of all the places she has lived.
Everything Maya did, everyone she met, and every different surrounding she was in
simulated her life in so many ways. The constant changing environments gave her a variety
of background. The people that she encountered guided her through life, brought joy to
her life, and some even hurt Maya, all of which made her a stronger person. There were so
many different events that happened in this woman's years of growing up, all of which
enhanced Angelou's experiences of life. Everything happens for a reason and all the
positive and negative things that happened to Maya Angelou made her a more powerful
person and constituted the person she grew up to be.