# data[].attributes.body
Main Message: The main message of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is that having someone to listen to you, and guide you, can make a positive impact on the rest of your life.
Tone: Grateful.
Characters: Maya, her mother, and Mrs. Flowers.
Setting: Black stamp, Alabama, in the 1930s.
Lines that represent a narrator's reflection:  I didn't question why Mrs. Flowers  had singled me out for attention, nor did it occur to me that Momma might have asked her to give me a little talking to. All I cared about was that she had made tea cookies for me and read to me from her favorite book. It was enough to prove that she liked me.
Noteworthy features: Maya's admiring description of Mrs. Flowers emphasizes how much she viewed her as a role model, and the respect for her that she had and still has.

# data[].attributes.body
Main Message: The main message of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is that language is the ultimate freedom.
Tone: Thoughtful, a mixture of naivety and wisdom, very reflective.
Characters: Maya, Mrs. Flowers, Maya's mother.
Setting: Maya's home life, in the 1930s Arkansas.
Lines that represent a narrator's reflection: "I didn't question why Mrs. Flowers had singled me out for attention, nor did it occur to me that Momma might have asked her to give me a little talking to" (Angelou 245).
Noteworthy features: Maya's description of Mrs. Flowers is what strengthens Mrs. Flower's role in the story. We are able to see how influential she was to Maya, and we can also see the respect for her that still has.

# data[].attributes.body
Main Message: The realization that the work and sacrifices of America's parents, resulted in her expressing herself, even in a place like Honduras, where "women who who speak up for social justice... are targeted and systematically silenced"(Ferrara 177).
Tone: Appreciative, historical.
Characters: America, her father, and her ancestors.
Setting: Honduras.
Lines that represent a narrator's reflection: "I stood on the land that generations of my family stood on before me ans let myself feel the full depth and complexity of the role immigration played in my life"(Ferrara 177).
Noteworthy features: There is an emphasis on America's connection to previous Hundurian people, such as when she thinks that "Honduras would always be the only place that held the richness of my past and the links to my historical identity"(Ferrara).

# data[].attributes.body
Main Message: The main message of "American Ferrara" is that despite the opportunities one has, one should also remember the history that lead them to be where they were. This is made clear by when the author says "It had never crossed my mind to mourn what I'd lost: hundreds of years of history, [...] of knowing the people and the land that I come from, of knowing myself" (Ferrara 176).
Tone: Nostalgic
Characters: America, her parents
Setting: In Honduras
Lines that represent a narrator's reflection: "It had never crossed my mind to mourn what I'd lost: hundreds of years of history, [...] of knowing the people and the land that I come from, of knowing myself" (Ferrara 176). "The opportunities and the gifts and the dreams [immigration] afforded, and for the first time [I] understood what it truly cost" (Ferrara 177).
Noteworthy features: When the author says "Honduras is a country where women who speak up for social justice [...] are targeted and systematically silenced" (Ferrara 177), the reader gets a better understanding of the situation in Honduras, especially because of this example.

# data[].attributes.body
Main Message: Keeping secrets can weigh on you even after revealing them, which the narrator realizes when he says that "I didn't feel as if a burden had been lifted"(Jones 97-98).
Tone: Tension, floundering.
Characters: Saeed, his mother, and the other speech kids. Saeed's mother develops his concern that he isn't sharing his thoughts with his mother. After his conversation with Saeed, he realizes that "There was still so much that I hadn't told my mother, so much I would probably never tell her"(Jones 98). His mother's conversation makes him realize how much he was keeping to himself.
Setting: Saeed's college.
Lines that represent a narrator's reflection: "I had come out to my mother as a gay man, but within minutes I realized I had not come out to her as myself"(Jones 98).
Noteworthy features:  The style of the conversation between Saeed and his mother is choppy, without much flow, which reflects the awkwardness of his coming out to her.

# data[].attributes.body
Main Message: The main message of "How We Fight For Our Lives" is that some secrets are better known than kept. This is made clear by the narrator saying that his "burden was not lifted" when he came out, because his burden was that he had realized he had "not come out to her as [himself]" (Jones 98).
Tone: Tension, worry. This is made clear by how Saeed says "coming out to her [...] became such daunting task prospect" (Jones 95).
Characters: Saeed, his mom
Setting: Saeed is in college, as can be inferred by his "studies" and his "surpassing [his] mother's own college experience" (Jones 95)
Lines that represent a narrator's reflection: "I wasn't innocent, a naive boy admitting that he had been wrestling with complicated feelings he didn't really understand" (Jones 96). "In retrospect, I didn't feel as if a burden had been lifted because my being gay was never actually the burden. There was so much I hadn't told my mother, so much I knew that I would probably never tell her" (Jones 98).
Noteworthy features: The dialogue between Saeed and his mother when Saeed comes out is notable because without it, we get to feel Saeed be eased out of nervousness over time, as the past few sentences were him being worried about coming out.

# data[].attributes.body
Main Message: Beauty has drawbacks, you should learn to be comfortable with your own appearance.
Tone: Longing
Characters: Amy, her mother, her grandmother, her father, her mother's former husband, the rich man who's child Amy's grandmother had. Her mother develops the conflict of Amy wanting beauty, as Amy wants to look like her mother.
Setting: When Amy is a child, when her mother is 19, when her grandmother was a widow.
Lines that represent a narrator's reflection: "If beauty is bad luck, why do I still want it? Why do I long to look like my mother?"
Notworthy Features: Her and her mothers faces become more similar as they grow older. This gives Amy joy to look similar to her mother, who she desires to look like.

# data[].attributes.body
Main Message: Being beautiful is not something one should wish for.
Tone: Wanting
Characters: Amy, her mother and her grandmother. The mother is the most significant character, because she fuels Amy's want for beauty.
Setting: The setting is America for Amy, which is contrasted with the setting of China for the mother and grandmother's story. This allows the reader to contrast the differences between Amy and her heritage.
Lines that represent a narrator's reflection: "Why do I wish for reasons to be vain?" (Tan 11). "My psyche had molded itself into my mother's face" (Tan 10).
Noteworthy features: In paragraph 7, the mother describes her mother as "exquisite, like a fairy" (Tan 7). This allows the reader to understand the beauty of Amy's grandmother.