Book Report on I Know Why The Caged Birds Sing by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou tells of her life experiences and struggles in her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” that gives us insight about Maya’s life as a young black girl growing up in a time of racism. The novel discusses various forms of oppression that she had to face as well cope with them. Robert A. Gross wrote an analysis for Newsweek about the book and claimed that Angelou’s book is not only an interesting story of her own experience, but also a portrayal of a Southern black community, thus being a historic reference of the 1930’s. Joanne Megna-Wallace backs up Gross’s claim in her critique of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and also stresses the importance of the novel as a historic book, and also discusses how Maya Angelou intended the autobiography to target the historic circumstances of the time period. However, these two analyses portray the novel in two completely different ways. Robert Gross views the novel as a well-written story that was cleverly thought out and racism has a slight impact on the main character’s life. He views the autobiography as being a beautiful story that portrays the warmth and understanding within the black community, whereas Wallace argues that Maya Angelou’s autobiography is way of exposing the horrific racist conditions that made up her childhood. She focuses on Maya Angelou’s struggle and the tragic events that made her the woman she is.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” depicts two birds which are used as metaphors to express the state in which the two classes of people live. In one description the poem describes the standard of living of a bird of privilege which alludes to the lives of whites. Then it describes caged birds whom of which are crying out for freedom, and are meant to represent African Americans during this time. It describes the feeling of being trapped and calling out for

Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is an emotional coming of age autobiography set in the nineteen thirties – forties, focusing on her struggle with self-acceptance, insecurities, and prejudices. This journey is vastly explored throughout the United States such as, Arkansas, St. Louis, California, and even outside of the U.S. like Mexico. She travels with her brother to visit different members of their family, with each location having a story to tell. When she is three years old, she and her brother, Bailey, are sent to stamps with their grandmother after their parents got divorced. Notoriously in the South, segregation and racism is omnipresent. Here Maya is brought up by “Mama”, her grandmother. The siblings understandably feel abandoned by their parents after realizing they weren’t dead like they’d coaxed themselves to believe.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a famous autobiography by Maya Angelou who narrates her life. In the book, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, it teaches people how to overcome racism and sexism. Maya Angelou has experienced and struggled through these obstacles and this book shows how she overcomes each obstacle to becoming a strong and independent woman. At a young age Maya and her brother, Bailey have been sent off to Stamps, Arkansas because their parents had gotten a divorce. They were taken care off by their father’s mom, whom they called Momma, and their disabled uncle, Uncle Willie. Stamps, Arkansas was a heavily segregated town and this taught Maya how to act around the white folks in her town. Maya also faced many struggles getting

As an African American women living in the segregated era. She became involved in the civil right movement alongside Dr. Martin Luther king. As an activist to civil right movement, she many of her works express the frustration of the oppression of African American were dealing with in a prejudiced world by speaking about the issue through her writing, like many great leaders. Maya can connect with her reader with from her writing. Maya is writing give hope for those who suffer from in the past of segregation. In her autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings she talks about the anger of watching her grandmother staying silent until a disrespectful white girls, because she was raised to believe children should respect elderly and act properly. As a child, she could not understand why black people treated as a second-class citizen to the point where they could not eat a certain color ice cream on a certain day even if they hold a higher standard in the community. She speaks of her experiences of seeing her uncle hiding in the potato bin because the fear of being Lynch by angry racist seeking revenge. She dealt with being called out her name by employee who doesn’t acknowledge her and dined medical treatment by a man her grandmother help because he rather touch a dog mouth then an n*gger. As a child her grandmother teach bailey and her the proper way to behave but it anger her

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, a bird sings because it has a song.” This is a quote stated by Maya Angelou herself. Marguerite Ann Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1928. As a child she grew the nickname Maya from her brother who was her closest friend. As children they both moved around a lot with they’re family and mid childhood ended up in Stamps, Arkansas, where they would live with they’re grandmother. Maya’s grandmother, “Momma” as they called her, helped Maya as best as she could to have the best life she could, but Maya faced many different obstacles that shaped her to who she is. “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” is a memoir about Maya and these obstacles and cages she overcomes. Angelou encounters an array

In the memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, late author Maya Angelou chronicles her experiences in the early stages of her life. The book explains the hardships, prejudices as well as the tragedies she went through as a child living in the deep South during the segregation era. Angelou gradually tells her life story in first person perspective as a child, tween, and eventual teen. Over the course of her life she gains knowledge and perspective which eventually leads to her desire to be become an author and poet.

The novel, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, is a touching story. It is mainly about a young woman named Maya and it is about her life. Maya isn’t like other girls. She grew up much different that most people; for instance, instead of growing up with her birth mother she has been raised by Momma Henderson. Momma Henderson is Maya’s paternal grandmother. Maya and her brother, Bailey, were sent to Momma Henderson when they were young. She might have well been there birth mother because she was there more often for them, than, their actual birth mother. Maya had an extremely difficult life and her ties with Momma Henderson, Bailey, and her birth mother altogether played an important role in her upbringing.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou is an autobiographical coming of age story set in the midst of the racially charged era of the Jim Crow Laws. Angelou’s novel explores the enormously influential first seventeen years of her life, as she struggles to overcome the seemingly insurmountable personal and societal adversities such as rape, race, instability, and insecurity. Angelou’s powerful depictions of the events of her early life immediately immerses her readers in the fact that life as a black woman in the 1930’s and 1940’s, meant forging a place in society that was not created for you. Angelou depicts her young life lacking stability and having a revolving door of people, both good and bad coming in and out of it. However,

She stresses that beauty is only skin deep. Accepting herself for who she is, she speaks confidently about herself throughout the poem. Confidence, in which, is another theme of the poem. She speaks positively about herself. Mystery is also a theme in this poem. She says that her impact on men is because of the mystery that lies within her, though no one really understands the secret to her self expression. Another theme that is strongly stressed in this poem is that it is better to be yourself and feel comfortable in your own skin. The metaphorical use in this poem is “then they swarm around me, a hive of honey bees.” She is comparing men to a hive of bees. She also compares her passion to fire and the warmth of her smile to the sun. When maya speaks of a model’s size it symbolizes what men want and expect in a woman. “Another Symbol is the author’s inner mystery and it represents the inner beauty that all women have.” Men are also a part of symbolism in the poem. They represent the typical man that only like the most beautiful of women. When Maya says “I say, it’s the fire in my eyes,” she uses fire to show how much power she has, and that is what people are attracted

Due to the darker pigment of her skin, Maya was automatically forced to a category of outsiders. During this time and in the past African Americans held on to Christianity because it gives them hope and God believes in equality and this is what they want out of the world. So yeah it is a custom that African Americans are drawn to Christianity as their religion and it is passed down from generation to generation. Maya and her story is a great example her race helps her find Christianity faster because her culture was accustomed to believing in better to come and this religion help settle what was going on around her. In the bible, it talks about the good to come and since things for African Americans was not going so well her on earth the put all their hopes in things to come with Christ, the suffering that Maya went through forced her to Christianity because she believed in the hope it offered her. “I found that I knew not only that there was God but that I was a child of God, when I understood that, when I comprehended that, more than that, when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous” (Angelou). Aside from using religion for her problems she used it as a stepping stool to defy the odds, the odds of being an African American and the odds of being women and made history and followed her dreams despite the

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the autobiography of Maya Angelou, chronicling her life until the age of 17, before her rise to fame as an inspiring writer and poet. At age 3, Marguerite Johnson’s mother and father sent her and her brother Bailey to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, a segregated Southern town. There, they helped their grandmother run her store until their teen years, when they would move to various cities including St. Louis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, passed between their divorced parents. Throughout her early years, she experiences include being sexually assaulted, becoming mute, being homeless for a month, graduating from high school, and getting pregnant, all while experiencing racism and struggling

It is the story of her early childhood and up until her early adult life. This novel talks about all of the hardships faced by Angelou and her family. It begins with her parents getting divorced and sending the two children to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Then later goes on to talk about how Maya moved to California to live with her mother, but ends up getting more hurt than closer to her mother. When arriving back to Arkansas, she meets someone who ends up being one of the most important people in her life. In the end of the novel, it shows how Angelou has grown, become happy with herself, and become a spokesperson for second wave feminism

When I first began to read Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, I thought it would be simply another autobiography. I thought that in the book, I would be reading about someone else who had a rough life and decided to write a book about it. I had high expectations before even reading the book because I had heard that Maya Angelou was such an amazing and famous writer. Essentially, my idea was that the book would be good for someone who enjoyed autobiographies, but since I do not like typically enjoy that genre, I believed it would be another book that I would just suffer through an audiobook recording of.

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is an Autobiographical novel was written in New York City late 1960s. In this novel Maya Angelou wrote about her growing up experience as a black girl. She was one of the main characters, there are also her grandmother (momma) Bailey, Maya’s parents and some other characters.