I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 

Maya Angelou 

Published 1969

American Memoir  

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a coming of age story for Marguerite Johnson, a black girl growing up during the 1930s and 40s.  She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but when her parents divorced, she and her older brother Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother, an independent and self-sufficient woman living in a little segregated town, in Arkansas. 

Maya (a nickname) and Bailey were intellectual, and their grandmother fed them a healthy diet of literature. They loved to read and often escaped through books. Maya said she "fell in love with Shakespeare." 

In Arkansas, a wiser, older woman, Mrs. Flowers, befriended Maya. Maya liked her because she showed her it was ok to be yourself. She told Maya that 

words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning. 

She encouraged Maya to read books aloud and "in as many different ways as possible," to embolden her to find her voice. Maya had stopped talking after a horrific crime was committed against her when she was only eight-years old. Mrs. Flowers also gave her a book of poems to memorize and recite. I love how Maya described the joy of reading. She said:

To be allowed, no, invited, into the private lives of a stranger, and to share their joys and fears, was a chance to exchange the Southern bitter wormwood for a cup of mead with Beowulf or a hot cup of tea and milk with Oliver Twist. When I said aloud, 'It is a far, far better thing to do, than I have ever done...' tears of love filled my eyes at my selflessness.

Maya said Mrs. Flowers "had given [her] her secret word which called forth a djinn who was to serve [her] all [her] life: books." 💜 

But aside from the joy of reading, there were severe issues to confront in the story. Racism was one of many. Growing up in a segregated town, Maya said she knew "whites were to be dreaded." She said they were not referred to as people because they were "see-through, had small feet, and walked on their heels." They were "folks, not people," "pale creatures," "aliens," the "un-life."

In fact, whites were referred to as "powhitetrash." It was easy to understand why Maya could write so sharply about the white race. When she was ten, she had a painful experience with white kids mocking her grandmother. She also had to learn "female training" while serving a white woman for a short time, though this woman humiliated and disrespected Maya terribly that Maya "found a masterful way to be released from her service." 

I think a most heartbreaking moment for Maya was when a white dentist refused to care for her while she suffered a painful toothache; he adamantly refused to see black patients. She described how this dentist treated them and how he spoke to Maya's grandmother. It was disheartening!

At twelve-years old, Maya graduated co-valedictorian of her eighth grade class. The guest speaker was a white politician who talked only about how the boys would go on to be great athletes. Aside from only talking about the boys, Maya felt like her graduation was for nothing. If one wasn't athletic enough to be an athlete, he could be a farmer or a handyman; and girls...they could be a maid or washer woman. 

Nothing else mattered anymore. Not "Invictus," "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Not the valedictory address, "To be or not to be."

Hadn't he heard the whitefolks? We couldn't be, so the question was a waste of time.

And later, another prejudiced incident occurred, this time to Bailey, which prompted him to ask questions like what colored people did to white people in the first place, and "...why do they hate us so much?" 

This caused Maya's grandmother to take Maya and Bailey to their mother, who was now living in San Francisco. Their mother, Viviane, was a self-reliant, self-determined worldly woman, and San Francisco was a culture shock. Maya said that San Franciscans did not think racism existed in their city, but evidently, it did. 

For a short time she went to stay with her father and his girlfriend, in Los Angeles. That did not turn out well, and Maya ended up on the street for a month, though she learned a few valuable life lessons, including tolerance. 

Then it was back to San Francisco to live with her mother. At sixteen, Maya was determined to do something that no other black woman had done before. Her mother's advice was this:

That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, "Can't do is like Don't Care." Neither of them have a home. 

Maya said "it was the most positive encouragement [she] could have hoped for." What Maya went through next was a most disturbing series of events, which I had to continue reminding myself that this was the 1940s. I was very proud of her for her persistence because it paid off. 

While her memoir ended soon after, at seventeen, she experienced another major live change, albeit, after a very unexpected decision; but I don't want to share any more because I have already shared too much. If you do decide to read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, just be forewarned of heavy topics on race, child rape, and sexual curiosity.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is such a popular book and already an American classic. At times it is provoking, yet also absorbing and inspiring. While there are trials, they are not without victory. Graceful and seamless, it is a story that will stay with every reader long after she is done reading it.