During their growing up years, children struggle to find their personal place in society. It is difficult for children to find their place when they are given numerous advantages, but when a child is oppressed by their parents or grandparents, males in their life, and the dominant culture, the road to achieving self-identity is fraught with enormous obstacles to overcome. Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Mary Crow Dog's Lakota Woman depict the two women's "triumph over formidable social obstacles and [their] struggle to achieve a sense of identity and self-acceptance" (Draper 1).

Both women grew up in segregated societies: Mary Crow Dog on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and Maya Angelou in the black community of Stamps, Arkansas. As is common with minority children, they spent most of their childhood living with their grandparents. Both women also experienced oppression by their parents and grandparents, who were the first contact with other people that children have. Even though Mary's mother and grandmother spoke the Lakota language, they refused to teach it to Mary. They told her that "speaking Indian would only hold you back, turn you the wrong way" (Crow Dog 22). They wanted Mary to have a "white man's education" (Crow Dog 22).

In contrast, Maya was denied a white man's education, not only by the dominant culture but also by her grandmother. Maya attended the Lafayette County Training School, which was the school for blacks. In addition, Maya's grandmother forbade her from reading books by white authors. This restriction is exemplified in the following passage:

Bailey and I decided to memorize a scene from "The Merchant of Venice", but we realized that Momma would question us about the author and that we'd have to tell her that Shakespeare was white, and it wouldn't matter to her whether he was dead or not (Angelou 14).

Knowing that their grandmother wouldn't approve of their reading Shakespeare, Bailey and Maya decide to memorize "The Creation" by James Weldon Johnson instead.

Mary's grandmother believed that "going to church" and "dressing and behaving like a wasi