WWII

So far in the story, World War II has just started. America has declared war on Japan. The Asian population in San Francisco is disappearing. The Yakamoto fish market became Sammy's shoe shine parlor, Yashigira's hardware became La Salon de Beaute owned by Ms. Clorinda Jackson, and so forth. All the Japanese stores were quietly becoming replaced by black businessmen. The Japanese area became the San Francisco Harlem in no time. All the Japanese were being taken away into small reservation camps. One thing that I thought was important was when a story was being passed around in San Francisco. A San Franciscan woman wouldn't sit next to a black man in a streetcar. She said that she wouldn't sit next to someone who ran away from drafts and that he was black. She said that he could at least fight in Japan like her own son was doing. Then, the black man turned his body away from the window and showed an armless sleeve. He said quietly and with great dignity, "Then ask your son to look around for my arm, which I left over there." I thought this was important because it showed how the minority who were being pushed around and segregated, still fought for America.

Character Profile

I'm up to pg. 185 on Chapter 21, but I'll be writing about someone from pg. 93 on Chapter 15. The character is Mrs. Bertha Flowers. She is described as the person who threw Maya/Marguerite her first life line. She is the aristocrat of Stamps. In the book it says, "She had the grace of control to appear warm in the coldest weather, and on the Arkansas summer days it seemed she had a private breeze which swirled around, cooling her." Mrs. Flowers must have been very graceful and god-like. The clothes she wore were printed voile dresses, flowered hats, and gloves. Her skin was a rich black and she had white teeth. One day, she wanted Marguerite to come over. Mrs. Bertha Flowers knew that Marguruerite read a lot, but also, that she she didn't talk a lot. What she said was very important; she said, "Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning." This meant that even if you read a lot, it's no use unless you read them with your voice. To help Marguerite, Mrs. Flowers lent a poem book and told Marguerite to memorize and then recite one to her. And yea, thats about it.

So far in the story, Bailey and Maya's father came out of nowhere to Stamps. He came like a stranger and took his two kids to St.Louis where their mother was. Then he just left them with their mother. The mother's side of the famiy all lived in St.Louis and they were known there, because Grandma Baxter was like the sheriff in the town. Maya and Bailey's mother had a boyfriend who was big and fat called Mr.Freeman. Mr.Freeman was lucky to have a girlfriend. But he did somethign terrible. Maya was used to sleeping with her mother and Mr.Freeman and when the mother left early, she saw Mr.Freeman's "thing" lying on her leg. Mr. Freeman held her close and hugged her. A few days later, when Bailey and her mother were both gone somewhere, Mr.Freeman held Maya close again and raped her. He told her that if she told anyone about this, he would have to kill her brother. Maya didn't tell anyone until her brother found her panties hidden under the mattress. This is what I read so far.

Symbolism

A symbol in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is Uncle Willie's cane. His cane is something that he is ashamed of because he can't walk properly. An example of this is when white people came to the Store, he hid his cane and tried to stand up to keep from looking weak. The cane symbolizes oppression or a weight that brings someone down. People don't want to look like they're pathetic so they try to hide their weight like Uncle Willie did.

New book.

I got a new book today. Its called I know why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I heard that this book was good from a lot of people so I got it. This book is way shorter than The Lord of the Rings so maybe I'll finish in 2 days? Its 300 pages so 3 hours. Not to brag or anything but I read 100 pages an hour. Just saying. Haha. This book seems fun. I'll start reading it today.

I finished this book in about 4 days. Even though it didn't compare to the movie, it was alright.
Although some parts were really boring because in the movie talking goes by fast but in the book, its really slow. Also, there were a lot of extra parts that werent in the book. I found this interesting. In the book there was a lot more details and i would recommend this book to someone who really likes to read these kinds of books that are fantasy like. This book is very fun. I think I will start another book.

Reading

The book i chose was The Lord Of The Rings The Return of The King. I chose to read this book because i like the genre of fantasy. I expect that this book will be very fun. The author is J.R.R Tolkien. I learned that he wrote the trilogy of these books in 1954-1955 and he had four children who he wrote to often pretending he was Santa Claus. One surprising fact was that C.S. Lewis converted Tolkien to Christianity. If i read 100 pages every week I will finish this book in three weeks.