I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

By Maya Angelou

The memoir is about a girl named Marguerite Johnson and her older brother Bailey Johnson Jr. who were shipped away to Stamps, Arkansas because of their parent’s calamitous marriage during Segregation. Momma (Grandmother) was the reason Marguerite, also known as Maya, grew up in a much disciplined way.

Maya became one of the only graduate students in Lafayette County Training School and received a diploma. She wasn’t disappointed that the man giving her the diploma was a white man, but that she still didn’t have the authority to “choose her fate”. Another incident of racism happened when she had an excruciating toothache and she went to a white doctor but he didn’t want to attend her.

Later Maya and Bailey needed to move to San Francisco to find new jobs and a school, along with Mother. After having a huge argument with Dolores, Daddy Bailey’s girlfriend, Maya ran from his house and ended up sleeping in a car. At the parking lot she met some other kids that had ran away from home. There she learned that it’s not only all about your family and how they feel but also that you have to think of yourself first, and then act upon the situation.

Maya began to be more independent and she looked for a job which was to be a conductorette driving in the vast San Franciscan streets. Eventually she accomplished this and became the first female black driver in San Francisco. And she became pregnant by having sexual intercourse with a teenage boy and accepted the job to live on as a mother.

As Maya grew, alongside inspirational stories of family members and the support of her brother, she realized that she had always been insecure of herself and she should open up more. When she found out how insecure she was, she discontinued this and found out life was more successful to her.
I really did find this book interesting because it takes you in a tough life of a teenage girl in the segregated south. I can clearly vision her struggle and how bad it is to be a victim of racism. Of course I’ve heard of stories about racial bigotry during that time, but I had never come to realize how terrifying it really was until I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I have never read a book that a girl suffers so much physically and emotionally by any other author than Maya Angelou.
The story went further as she grew in age. It is written in an adult form, but at the same time a child’s mind.

In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya grows up with the thought that she is an “unwanted” kid along with her brother Bailey who is in search to find out why their parents left them. In their adventures, they stumble upon racial bigotry, getting to know who they are. Also, William Shakespeare was a major influence in the growth of Maya. She knew about him because she grew up with books around her and she had nothing else to do. Shakespeare has set an example for Maya and shows that she is easily inspired only that she needs a little motivation.

I think Maya was very strong deep inside her because it should be difficult to understand why your real parents left you at such a young age. Even with the pain of racism and the act of being raped, she still managed to get through and I respect her for that.
Some lines I loved: “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.”

“Their shiftier shapes might have held a message that in my new happiness and with a little bit of time I’d soon decipher.”
“Neither could do with or without the other, yet the constrictions of conscience and society, morality, and ethos dictated a separation.”