Character Analysis: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

When Maya returns to Stamps after spending time with her mother, she endures the shame of having been sexually abused by Mr. Freeman, her mother’s boyfriend. Maya stops speaking to everyone except her brother, Bailey. Her real mother accepts her silence at first as trauma, but she later gets angry at Maya’s “disrespectful behavior”. Much to Maya’s relief, she is sent back to live with Momma in Stamps along with her

Maya Angelou is a leader by example, she sets the standard by her actions and the stories she tells teaches the audience a lesson. Majority of her work is to inform us of the past and she wants us to learn from her experiences in life; she is a life teacher. The purpose of this poem was to inform us of the history of our country. The poem is titled “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and her purpose of writing this is to teach the reader why the caged bird sings. Maya Angelou wants to put the reader in her shoes to get the ultimate experience of racial inequality but instead by taking the role of a caged bird or a free bird.

From her early life as a mute, to her poems, to speaking at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton, and even to her time as a teacher, Maya Angelou and her contributions and writing pieces, have taught many, and changed the world immensely. Maya Angelou had a very difficult childhood. When she was 3 years old, Angelou’s parents divorced. Neither Angelou’s father nor mother could take care of her. Angelou and her brother Bailey were sent to live with her grandmother whom they called Momma, in Stamps, Arizona.

Maya’s younger years were filled with pain and tragedy. When she was only three years old, her parents separated, moving Maya and her brother into the home of their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. While growing up in this area, Angelou became aware of the discrimination and racism that was prevalent during this time in America. (Hyperlink.com) At the age of eight, Angelou was reinstated into the care of her mother. It was during this time period that Maya was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend. Shortly after this incident occurred, Angelou became mute and would not speak again for five years. This time period in Maya Angelou’s life would

As I was reading Maya Angelou’s biography, I have found a personal connection to her. Maya’s parents were separated when she was young and she went to live with her grandparents. I lived with my mother up until I reached the age of starting school, when my mother realized she could not support me on her own. She left me with my grandparents and went to live on her own, to find a sustainable job. As the years went on, she met somebody and started a family of her own. Maya Angelou showed individualism through her experience as well as I have. I learned to be independent and went on my own to learn countless things you would need a mother for.

Marguerite Johnson later known as Maya Angelou was born on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Marguerite Johnson was raised in St. Louis, Missouri as well as Stamps, Arkansas. According to her website, Stamps at the time that she was raised, was the frontier of the South During the 1930s and 1940s when Johnson was growing up, Stamps ran rampant with racial discrimination and physical brutality. Marguerite was raised by her grandmother from 4 years old to 8 years old. Johnson came to live with her grandmother after her parents rocky marriage came to an end with a divorce. Her time with her grandmother was seen as a good part of her life but when her father came back into her life, everything that once was fine became bad. After Johnson’s father returned, she was sent to live with her mother. Marguerite’s mother had gotten a new lover named Freeman, while she was gone. Freeman was not a good man due to him sexually and physically abusing her. Johnson stayed silent about the abused but when she finally told someone about the abuse, it backfired on her due to the news spreading. Maya’s mother’s lover ended up getting in trouble for the pain he caused her. After going to trial for the abuse, he went to jail for an extremely short time. Upon being released, Freeman, was murdered. There is speculation that he was murdered by Maya’s uncles.

Her muteness taught her many aspects of life, and meeting Bertha Flowers was a cornerstone of her self-confidence and identity. She faced different events, which made her become aware of social reality. Her confrontation with Mrs. Cullinan proved to be a turning point in her life. McPherson explains: “Mrs.Cullinan’s attempts to change Maya’s name for her own convenience echoes the larger tradition of American racism that attempts to prescribe the nature and limitations of a Black person’s identity.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Specifically it will discuss the themes of racism and segregation, and how these strong themes are woven throughout this moving autobiography. Maya Angelou recounts the story of her early life, including the racism and segregation she experiences throughout her formative years. With wit, sincerity, and remarkable talent, Angelou portrays racism as a product of ignorance and prejudice. However, she finds the strength to rise above this crippling condition.

As an African American in Arkansas she experienced racial discrimination. When Maya Angelou was 7 she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend than as vengeance for sexual assault, her uncle killed the boyfriend. The result of this traumatizing experience, Angelou stopped talking went back to Arkansas and spent years as a virtual mute. She moved to San Francisco, California during world war ll. When she moved there she won a scholarship to study at the California Labor School in dance and acting.

Maya Angelou was one of the best successors in the world mostly known as an author, actress, screenwriter, dancer and poet. Maya had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was still young, and her and her older brother Bailey, were sent to live with their grandmother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. During the years she lived there she was very much discriminated in Arkansas . At age 7 she had very difficult times. During a visit with her mother she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend and this event ended up in pretty bad situation because of this her uncles had to kill her mother’s boyfriend. This experience traumatized Maya and she stopped talking.

Maya struggles to keep the freedom she feels as child and the responsibilities she has to obey as an adult. Furthermore, Maya uses metaphors to fully explain the problems that arise when growing up and the reader is able to relate to her conflicts. For example, Maya compares her youth as the “beauty of full freedom” to the “murderous pressure of adult conformity” (267). Maya describes her youth as beautiful because she is innocent and is free. In contrast, Maya describes her adulthood as a “murderous pressure” to fully convey to the reader the misery she feels letting go of her freedom and joining social conformity. Maya looses her innocence at a young age and she connects her innocence to freedom so that the reader is able to realize just how much of her youth Maya has lost. The shift in Maya’s writing causes the reader to feel sadness for Maya because she has let go of her adolescence. For instance, Maya compares herself to a “mote” that is “imprisoned” and is “pushed and pulled” but can never fall “free into tempting darkness” (110). Maya uses the mote to describe her imprisonment she feels in Stamps and her hunger for freedom. Additionally, Maya specifically labels her freedom as “tempting darkness” so that the reader can understand that her freedom is unattainable and unapproachable. Consequently, Maya’s audience is able to feel sympathy and can relate to Maya’s premature

Maya Angelou was abandoned by her mother and then sent to live with her grandmother with her brother when she was 3. 10 years later she came back to live with her mother Maya thought her mother looked weired because of how pretty she looked, she thought there was no way she could be her mother. Maya Angelou shows the story of her life by writing a story “From Mom Me and Mom” and in an interview called “Learning to love my mother”. In both stories she talks about her life but there are some differences between the interview and the memoir . Also in both stories there are similarities that occur as well.

Maya Angelou describes what her life with her grandmother is like while constantly being discriminated against her race. She then found her father, and he leaves Maya and Bailey off to their mother’s house. There, the mother’s boyfriend rapes Maya. After suffering from psychological shock, Maya then moves back to her grandmother’s. As a teenager Maya gets nervous about her sexual identity and tries to discover it. Through these harsh times, the naïve and softhearted Maya grows to become a strong, independent woman.

Angelou’s poem “I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings” expresses the idea that freedom is a natural state and knowledge of this fact cannot be rid of by any amount of oppression, limitation or confinement from different opportunities. The poem contrasts a