I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1993) - Plot & Excerpts
I have only ever given 5 stars to two autobiographies. One was written by a white English man; the other by a black American woman. On the surface you would think they could have very little in common, yet they do. They both have insight and compassion, which comes through in every sentence. They have both shown enormous courage in almost intolerable situations. In short, they have a common humanity. The white man is Terry Waite. The black woman, Maya Angelou.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is a book which will play on your emotions. It is not a manipulative book; it is a raw and honest account, eloquently expressed. But if you did not take a deep breath sometimes before starting another page, you would not be human. It is galling to think that this description of poverty and unreasoning prejudice is within living memory, in a so-called "free" country. In the United States, the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity was set up in 1961, prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It precedes the Race Relations Act of 1965, which was the first legislation in the United Kingdom to address racial discrimination. Yet the differences of perception and attitudes between the two countries for the early and middle parts of the 20th Century are enormous. Perhaps it is the sheer size of the US, but the racial segregation which was ever-present - at least in the Southern States - was never a feature of English life, or life in Great Britain. There was prejudice certainly, and when there was an influx of black people in the 1960's to fulfil specific job vacancies, such as nursing or bus drivers and conductors, some black people suffered much abuse and humiliation from some members of the indigenous white public, such as landladies putting cards saying "no coloureds" in their windows. But the discrimination was never institutionalised. Unlike South Africa and the Southern States of America, there were no separate schools, townships or public toilets. The UK was not a racist society as such, although some individual members of it certainly were. What comes across in this book, especially to a non-American, is that the racial segregation was condoned. It was the norm at all points. It seems so entrenched that it is startling that any progress could be made from such a point. For this appalling account of ignorance and prejudice is surprisingly recent. Maya Angelou was born in 1928, and was therefore slightly younger than my own mother. And she was describing events which were closer in time to when she was writing them, than we now are ahead in time. It ends in 1944, before the end of World War II. This is the first part of her autobiography, which finally ran to seven volumes, the final volume being published in 2013. I knew of Maya Angelou's works of course, but somehow had never got around to reading them. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings had been sitting on my bookshelf for 20 years unread. Perhaps part of me suspected it would be a harrowing read, but I had not anticipated its wry humour. Maya Angelou died last year, in 2014. There's a sort of poignancy in discovering a writer after they have just died. Sometimes it happens because for a short time they achieve more prominence generally. When the reaction is so positive, the experience is tinged with slight regret, nonsensical though it is. For so many long-dead classic authors that opportunity is not open to us from the start. It would have been nice to appreciate them more during their lifetime. Will I carry on reading the continuing parts? Certainly. The five stars are not awarded solely to the person. They are awarded to the work, as they should be. It is an extraordinary first book, especially considering that the author is someone who feels the voice is essential for meaning, someone who was always recognised as a passionate performance poet. From this book alone,"Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning."Here is her memory of an inspired natural teacher, Sister Flowers,"I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life ... her voice slid in and curved down through and over the words. She was nearly singing." "As I ate she began the first of what we later called “my lessons in living.” She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors. She encouraged me to listen carefully to what country people called mother wit. That in those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations ... I wanted to look at the pages. Were they the same that I had read? Or were there notes, music, lined on pages"Perhaps then it is not so surprising to find a poetic turn of phrase, such lyrical prose as,"in the dying sunlight the people dragged rather than their empty sacks"or a beautifully evocative description. But be warned. Not everything which is graphic here is beautiful imagery, "I remember the sense of fear which filled my mouth with hot, dry air, and made my body light""If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult."The blurb itself, should you read it, will tell the reader of some very disturbing events which are described, but those parts will prompt a deep emotional reaction. The work also puts much of her poetry in context; the anger and prominent themes in her poetry become all of a piece with the unfolding account of her life. And in this, the staggered telling of her tale is also very effective. She alternated a book of poetry with a book of autobiography, and these memoirs are far more expressive and revealing than one static book of past autobiography could be. The gradual telling of her tale feels more in the present, than it does reflection. The first volume starts with the author, then called "Marguerite Johnson" at 3 years old, being sent on a train journey with her 4 year old brother. Neither had any idea why they were being sent South to live with their grandmother, "Momma" in the tiny town of "Stamps", Arkansas. Most of this first part is about her life there; her strict upbringing by the poor, but proud and upright, religious woman, who devoted herself to making as good a life as she could for her disabled son and grandchildren, "I was liked, and what a difference it made."The store served the needs of all those in Stamps, mostly workers in the cotton fields. The recent history of slavery is virtually palpable. The conditions at times seemed little better than the past. Each day the workers started with optimism, but they were trapped in a life from which realistically they could never escape; never being paid enough for their work to get out of debt. Yet nearly all these people were hard-working and honest,"Although there was always generosity in the Negro neighborhood, it was indulged on pain of sacrifice. Whatever was given by Black people to other Blacks was most probably needed as desperately by the donor as by the receiver. A fact which made the giving or receiving a rich exchange."There are wonderful descriptions of her grandmother's store. It is a hub for the community, a working business, but for young Marguerite it is a cornucopia of smells and sights, "the store was my favorite place to be. Alone and empty in the mornings, it looked like an unopened present from a stranger"She remembers the days here, the pride of her handicapped Uncle Willy, the immensely strict regime she and her brother Bailey Junior were expected to cope with. Her grandmother, a businesswoman, was much respected in the exclusively black area of Stamps,"I remember never believing that whites were really real ... These others, the strong pale creatures that lived in their alien unlife, weren't considered folks. They were white-folks.""People in Stamps used to say that the whites in our town were so prejudiced that a Negro couldn't buy vanilla ice cream".She escaped whenever possible into her fantasy world of books,"I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare. He was my first white love ... "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes." It was a state with which I felt myself most familiar""Because I was really white and because a cruel fairy stepmother, who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth that would hold a number-two pencil."As the author grew older, her perception of bigotry, her indignation at the racial unfairness which pervaded everything in her experience, grew. She accepted without understanding the submissive attitudes she was expected to make, and subservience she had to show, observing of Momma,"She didn't cotton to the idea that white folks could be talked to at all without risking one's life. And certainly they couldn't be spoken to insolently"But her grandmother wanted the best for the two children,"I swear to God, I rather you have a good mind than a cute behind."There is much about loneliness and alienation in this first novel. Maya Angelou tried to cultivate a philosophical attitude to her experiences,"Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between""Like most children, I thought if I could face the worst danger voluntarily, and triumph, I would forever have power over it"But the instances piled one on top of another. Even the wild, neglected and dirty "powhitetrash" children jeered, made fun of, and looked down on all the people in the the black neighbourhood. A doctor, a dentist - people who should have been literally indebted to her grandmother because of the financial help she had afforded them in the past - showed truly shocking insulting behaviour when appealed to for help. The white people almost exclusively treated the black people worse than they would treat their animals. It is difficult to convey without telling the story how each tiny instance was compounded. During a court case,"The judge had really made a gaffe calling a Negro woman "Mrs""because, of course, a white person's perception was that a black person did not deserve the status of respect.The book seems to escalate until the reader feels that something has to give.The author reflects that it was perhaps one instance of profound prejudice, which severely affected her brother emotionally, which led to their being sent away from Arkansas. They had only lived there a couple of years, when the two children were collected by their father, a cultured giant of a man, and taken back to live with their mother - "Mother Dear" as Bailey called her - in St. Louis. Their lives from this point take a sudden turn, living with this impulsive beautiful butterfly of a woman with her film-star looks. A crime is committed when Maya is just eight years old. This is brutal; an appalling account to read, both a physically and psychologically raw and graphic description. The child is the victim, but as so often happens, the victim is convinced that she is somehow guilty. Circumstances force her to tell a small lie, and for this too, she cannot forgive herself. The children return to Momma.The next few years are chronicled in the book with much movement between the adults in the family. They have to cope with extremes in moral codes. From the earliest chapters the reader has been stunned by the extremist Christian doctrine of their grandmother. Beating a child for saying "by the way", because - never mind whether the child understands or not - it was blasphemy. Another small incident which haunts the reader is Bailey Junior being beaten for yearning so much for his mum, that he watched a similar-looking film star, and was late home. There are countless such examples. These are very hard to accept, because these two things were perpetrated by the good people - the ones with a sense of duty and responsibility. The ignorant prejudice in the wider community, outside the town of Stamps, was oddly easier to read about than this, which felt like a betrayal by the adults whom the children trusted.But later, the moral code is turned on its head. Both Maya's mother and father were city folk working in a very different world. Her father in Mexico had friends who were almost gangsters, with a completely different sense of morality, although in itself the ethical code was just as strong,"The needs of a society determine its ethics"These parts are very entertaining to read, and must have been an eye-opener to a young teenager from such a narrow background.The book ends when Maya Angelou is 17. Although her given name was "Marguerite", she was always called "Maya" because her brother called her "My-a" trying to say the words "my sister". To the little girl, that felt like her true identity, not what others called her. There is one episode in the book, where a white woman tried to call her "Mary" for her own personal convenience - "because it was shorter". That is a hugely emotional part of the book. The reader can sense the profound insult; the hidden history of "ownership". I gave a mental cheer when Maya managed to turn this around. At 12 Maya had had her graduation from Lafayette County Training School. I personally found this almost the most affecting part of the book. Maya was a supremely talented and hard-working child. The reader senses her feelings bubbling over - her well-earned pride in her achievements. But yet again, because of an incident involving an ignorant white person, her whole world comes crashing down around her ears,"Graduation, the hush-hush magic time of frills and gifts and congratulations and diplomas, was finished for me before my name was called. The accomplishment was nothing. The meticulous maps, drawn in three colors of ink, learning and spelling decasyllabic words, memorizing the whole of The Rape of Lucrece - it was for nothing. Donleavy had exposed us. We were maids and farmers, handymen and washerwomen, and anything higher that we aspired to was farcical and presumptuous."Maya Angelou had somehow recovered from the terrible crime against her at 8 years old. How could she possibly recover from this one? How can one person continue to have courage, strength and fight? Isn't it easier just to give up and say, "Yes Ma'am"? "The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time. She is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power."This is a book that will sometimes make you ashamed to be a member of the human race. It is in part a catalogue of Man's inhumanity to man, woman's inhumanity to woman. It will also, however, make you proud of what can be achieved. One hopes it was cathartic to write, but it is far more than the plague of misery sagas which have descended onto our bookshelves in recent years. It is nonfiction, but it is as entertaining as a novel; parts of it reading like lyrical prose. It has some devastating descriptions of brutality, yes, but there is much to smile over too, often in her wry little asides,"The custom of letting obedient children be seen but not heard was so agreeable to me that I went one step further: Obedient children should not see or hear if they chose not to do so"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an important, defining, incredibly brave work for its time of 1969. From a relatively unknown author, a world was firmly introduced to the reality of racial tensions and prejudice in the Southern United States. It was a book which would have been very hard to read without the author's strength and humour coming through, and it remains so, over 45 years later. The book grips you from its start. Maya Angelou has a unique ability to make any reader identify with a poor black child, to experience what they experience, from whatever point the reader is in their own life. There is much talk nowadays of the "Black Voice". Maya Angelou does not alienate. She does not seek to select her audience; she speaks to us all. Her book is self-evidently from a black perspective, but she skilfully makes it the reader's own, putting us all firmly in the mind of herself as a child. She conveys her various feelings of confusion, pride, hatred, despair, guilt and rage, expressing so well the reasoning behind them at the time. Her use of dialect is perfectly balanced for a general reader. It is authentic and essential, yet at no point is the reader likely to have to pause, reread and try to interpret. I personally have had far more difficulty with my experience of classic books which attempt to include a written representation of my own native, regional Yorkshire speech. This is part of her great skill as a writer - it flows. She concentrates on our common humanity. This is a book which can, perhaps should, be read by everyone at least once in their lifetime. It shows how far both an individual and a society can progress within one person's lifetime. "The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic admiration."As tiny Marguerite Johnson might have said - although she would have "corrected" her own grammar, as all people have different vernaculars for different situations, and black people of that time had one "language" for school and academic pursuits, another for their community, and a third to reinforce white people's expectations of them - "We all doin' well.""It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense. We should all be dead. I thought I should like to see us all dead, one on top of the other. A pyramid of flesh with the whitefolks on the bottom, as the broad base, then the Indians with their silly tomahawks and teepees and wigwams and treaties, the Negroes with their mops and recipes and cotton sacks and spirituals sticking out of their mouths. The Dutch children should all stumble in their wooden shoes and break their necks. The French should choke to death on the Louisiana Purchase, while silkworms ate all the Chinese with their stupid pigtails. As a species, we were an abomination. All of us."I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings The free bird leapson the back of the windand floats downstreamtill the current endsand dips his wingsin the orange sun raysand dares to claim the sky.But a bird that stalksdown his narrow cagecan seldom see throughhis bars of ragehis wings are clipped andhis feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird singswith fearful trillof the things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hill for the caged birdsings of freedom
Spark notes has to be the best thing created. Every summer I was given a reading list and I hit sparks notes up like crazy. As I read on spark notes the stories was beyond boring and it never failed, until I spark noted the book I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou. As I read the first two chapters I was very interested in the book and decided that I needed to go to Borders as soon as possible. I always thought spark notes was just a major cheat sheet, now I know that I was just using it the wrong way and taking advantage. In the first two chapters that I read on spark notes the book stood out to me because of the title. As I read the book I started to think maybe the name I Know why the cage bird sings is actually the way Maya Angelou felt. The book also stood out to me because of the diction Maya Angelou chose, there are tons of great quotes I could get out of this book that was powerful. The story was just extremely interesting and was definitely a page turner. The simple title I Know Why the Caged Bird sings started to unfold. It seemed to be a symbol to describe Maya Angelou’s feelings. Through out the story I was eager to find the true message of the book title. After 289 pages I found the message that Maya Angelou wanted to get across. The caged bird sings because it is trapped and has a story to reveal to the world. Maya Angelou was verbally, physically and mentally abused throughout the story and all she could do was fade into the background. She used a caged bird to describe her because a caged bird has nowhere to turn and can’t find its way out of the cage to gain its freedom. I think Maya felt like she was a slave to her own life. People looked at her like she was supposed to be everyone except for herself. Which killed her self esteem as a young child feeling like she wasn’t good enough, or as pretty as others. Maya was the caged bird because she couldn’t speak up for herself and say I’m not afraid to be me, I don’t care if I’m not as beautiful as the others, I have been physically abused and I need help. Instead she kept it all in. When a bird is in his cage you may notice that it sings all day long. The bird was trying to get someone’s attentions hoping that someone would come and let him free. Maya Angelou was the caged bird, she started to speak up and let her voice be heard so she also could be let free and able to live her life in her own shadow instead of being a slave to someone else’s. A powerful quote has great meaning and makes the reader connect with the person even if it doesn't relate to them. Maya's choice of diction made her quotes stand out and made a greater connection to her and feel the pain she felt. A powerful quote is also when a reader understands the writers obvious message but can still read in-between the lines and receive a deeper meaning. “It was remarkable how much truth there is in the two expressions “struck dumb” and “love at first sight”. My mother’s beauty literally assailed me”. The obvious message I received from this was that Maya’s mother was beyond beautiful. From this quote I felt like Maya Angelou has a lot of pain behind it. As a child people looked at Maya like she was the rotten apple. Her elders would say “my family was handsome to a point of pain for me”. I feel like when she starts describing her mother’s beauty she is actually sad that she didn’t have any of those traits. She has been surrounded by beauty her whole life and been put down because she wasn’t as beautiful as them. And that’s why I think she choose to put “her beauty assailed me” because her mother’s beauty itself attacked her, she didn’t even need to say that Maya was unattractive like the others because her beauty said it all. I found this book to be very interesting and an eye opener. I really enjoyed reading about Maya and her older brother Bailey’s relationship growing up. When Maya felt alone he was there. There was times where I got the feeling that out of everyone in the book she felt like he was the only one that truly loved her for who she was and loved her with all his heart. He was the only one that really made her happy at one point. I felt so connected to Maya that I really loved to see her happy. When her brother came up she seemed to be so passionate and happy talking about her brother. Seeing her happy here and there made the story very good because no one wants to see a person down all the time. Happiness is a part of life and her brother Bailey definitely made her happy. “Bailey was the greatest person in my world” , “My pretty black brother was my kingdom come” and “He was my brother, my only brother, and I had no sisters to share him with, was such a good fortune that it made me want to live a Christian life just to show god that I was grateful”. To wrap this up I really loved this book and think this should continue to be in school summer reading list. This book is amazing because the way she used the title I know why the caged bird sings to symbolize her is genius. This book has great choice of words and I’m sure there would be a lot of great quotes that would stand out to you and challenge your thinking. This book kept me at the edge of my seat and everyone should read it. If you haven’t read this already go out and buy it or do what I did and spark note the book and see if you end up buying the book like I did.
What do You think about I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1993)?
Defying the Odds(A Book Review of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)The first volume in a five part nonfiction autobiography series, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings chronicles Maya Angelou’s coming-of-age in the segregated South during the 1930’s.“If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.”Told in the first person reflective prose, the multi-talented Angelou recounts her early years and childhood affected by racism and apathy, her love for her brother Bailey, the solace she finds in books and growing up both with her Momma in Stamps, Arkansas and her mother in San Francisco at the outset of World War II. Each chapter is told in an episodic manner akin to reading a short story that makes it so easy “to take in” and digest. Yet I believe what gives the book its overall charm is in how it engages the reader is its elegant and virtually hypnotic voice that will carry you through page after page, amidst Maya’s struggle in face of racial discrimination, injustice and childhood molestation in between light-hearted, laugh-out-loud moments. It’s like listening to jazz music in that the book doesn’t once skip a beat — surprising, exciting, and inspiring all at once!“To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision.”Another thing that draws the reader in is in how Angelou conjures up images, places and richly depicts people with vividness and clarity as if you were “in that moment,” a part of it. But what I relate to the most is her passion for reading and love of literature that eventually helped her overcome racism and trauma. Through the power of the written word she found an ally to make her deal with her raging feeling of displacement, insecurity and subsequent guilt over a man she thought she had a hand of killing. Ultimately, her reading helped her not only in accepting her identity but also into mold her to the authentic woman she is today.“I reasoned that I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than my loss.”It has been remarked that I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a milestone in African-American Literature in that it transcended what has been thought of the bland straightforward autobiography and challenge its conventions by elevating it to an art form. Such was the momentous life of Maya Angelou that it’s hard to believe that her real-life account makes you appraise that indeed truth, the human truth as Angelou calls it, is stranger than fiction and without a doubt it speaks directly to the human soul.“You don’t have to think about doing the right thing. If you’re for the right thing, then you do it without thinking.”The book’s ending leaves much to be desired and it almost rendered me speechless, gagging, and impatient to know what comes next; nonetheless it likewise gives the reader a refreshing sensation of rebirth for in Maya’s story of survival we too have finally found our identity with hearts bursting with pride at the discovery of self-worth and dignity.I know why the caged bird sings — it sings to find its voice, its freedom._________________________Book Details:Book #13 for 2011Published by Bantam Books(Mass Market Paperback, March 1971 Edition)246 pagesStarted: April 28, 2011Finished: May 1, 2011My Rating: ★★★★[See this review on my book blog Dark Chest of Wonders and for many others.]
—jzhunagev
Now that I've researched, read, and reviewed a number of banned and challenged books, I'm no longer surprised that writing about sex, particularly from a young woman's point of view, whips up fear and suppression. And there's plenty of sex in Maya Angelou's childhood memoir, starting with her rape, at the age of 9, by her mother's live-in boyfriend, continuing with her description of her mother's life as a prostitute, her adventures in Mexico while her father visits a whorehouse, her teen-aged fear of being a lesbian, and her first self-initiated sexual encounter and subsequent pregnancy at the age of 16. But that's not all: she pokes fun at her grandmother's old-fashioned Arkansas Christianity and morality; she glorifies inner-city black lawlessness and crime; she lives in a junkyard for a month with other homeless children; she's scornful of white people. Worst of all from the censors' view, I suspect, is that she does not accept her place: she's smart, determined, and uppity. As far as Maya Angelou's own writing, I have to say that while she captured me throughout first two-thirds of the book, she lost me during the last third . . . I went from being absorbed and engaged to merely reading out of academic interest. From the time she runs away from her father in Los Angeles, the tone of her writing changes: detailed recollections of childhood, filled with fascinating detail, humor, and astute observations of character, suddenly stop, and Maya's memoir becomes compressed, rushed, and vague. Huge and important things happen afterward: her brother runs away from home; she becomes the first black streetcar employee in San Francisco; she decides to prove she is not a "pervert" (her own word) by asking a neighbor boy to have sex with her; she becomes pregnant and has a child -- but Maya covers all this in a hurry, almost as if she's writing about someone else. I don't understand why she put aside the momentum she'd built up during the first two-thirds of her memoir, and that makes me like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings a little less than I want to. Still, it's an important, ground-breaking book, and there are three very good reasons to read it: one, to tweak the censors' noses; two, to learn something of what it is to be a black girl in America; three, to hear the voice of a strong black woman who is not Oprah!
—Paul
I feel like it's hard to really rate this book as of now when I haven't read the other books in the series, but I'm going to put this read at 3.5 stars since I did enjoy the overall anecdotes that Maya Angelou shared with the readers.It's amazing also how relevant the constant questioning by Bailey and Maya as children of "why do [whites] hate us so much?" still is in today's society when it comes to race relations even though the context of the question has changed. This can be seen in the picket signs of many parents as they protest across America these days with each passing shooting. Yet, Maya's story seems to remain relevant not just because of her experiences, but also because of the ever present figureheads in her life. Even if you're not African-American, I'm sure you can relate to having parents who were always trying to get you to figure things out for yourself or having had an adult like Mama who was so bent on making sure that you came up proper that it sometimes seemed like the joy was being sucked out of life as a kid thanks to never being able to "get away with anything." All in all, this classic held up to the test of time for me.If you want a similar read, I'd suggest either continuing on with Angelou's memoir series by reading Gather Together In My Name or reading Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals who was one of the Little Rock Arkansas Nine children who fought to help integrate Central High School in 1957 after Brown v. Board of Education. Both Angelou and Beals were two women who valued education and were willing to stand up for their right to live out their womanhood as black women in America during difficult time periods. Thus, I wholeheartedly recommend both books.
—Adira
