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'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings' by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou (1969)
This novel is the first part of the author's 7-part autobiography.
See below for lots of great resources and extra content to bring extra context to your enjoyment of this inspiring novel!
More Details
Characters | |
| Marguerite Ann Johnson (Maya) | Our narrator and the author of the novel, we meet Maya as a young girl. She is faced with particular challenges due to her situation in the South of the US as a young black woman, and more personal challenges resulting from her ungainliness. Despite being bright and full of imagination, she suffers from the impacts of white prejudice, black powerlessness, and female subjugation. Alongside these difficulties, she bears personal traumas: parental abandonment, abuse, racism, confusion about sexuality, and a young pregnancy. Despite the difficulty of her life, Maya rises up to be a strong, educated, successful woman in this inspiring story. |
| Bailey Johnson Jr. | Maya's older brother and the most important person in our narrator's life; handsome, elegant, and outgoing, Bailey uses his charm and status to defend Maya; the siblings share many traumas, and also a love for poetry and literature |
| Anni Henderson (Momma) | The paternal grandmother of Maya and Bailey, who raises them for most of their childhood in Stamps, Arkansas; independent store owner and successful business woman and socialite; a moral figure, who raises the siblings with strict Christian values and rules |
| Vivian Baxter | Maya and Bailey's biological mother, who sent them away; described as very beautiful, she works in gambling parlors; proud, strong, (sometimes coldly) practical and financially independent |
| Big Bailey Johnson | Maya and Bailey's father; an ignorant, selfish and neglectful parent; handsome, and well-spoken; absent for most of his childrens' lives, and failing in his attempts to reconnect when he isn't; exemplifies a tragic black man in American trying to advance in society, obsessing more about image than his own family |
Some Key Themes | |
| Race | Racism and segregation are present throughout the narrative of 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'. Especially in the South, in Stamps, white and black people are so divided that Maya is hardly certain white people exist. We see many specific instances of racism, such as the dentist who refuses to treat Maya, the condescending white speaker at Maya's graduation, he boss's attempt to change Maya's name. We witness the struggles and hopes of black communities in America, as they put their hopes in atheletic heroes such as Joe Louis and form strong, independent, defiant personalities as a result of their oppression. |
| Identity | Questions of identity are important in Angelou's work. We see individuals determined by their color, their situation and their history, but also rising above those things to form identities fresh from their own efforts. Characters give themselves names, in a symbolic acts of self-identifying, and of resistance to a world hostile to black people, which erases their names, identities and individuality. |
| Abandonment & Displacement | Maya and her brother are moved around between homes between the ages of three and sixteen, after being abandoned by their parents to grow up with their grandmother. A sense of rootlessness and lack of belonging plagues the children and they struggle to feel loved and at home with their family. This sense of displacement is something Maya shares with other black children in the US, and she finally finds herself feeling at home and belonging with other displaced individuals in San Fransisco. |
| Literature | Literature offers Maya an opportunity to escape reality, grow in confidence, overcome trauma, and rise above her situation. |
As well as being a famous author, singer, dancer, and more, Maya Angelou is also a renowned poet, perhaps most famous for the poem, 'Still I Rise'. Read it out loud and let it fill you with confidence!
Check out our media section to see a video of Maya herself reading this inspiring poem!
Explore other pieces of Angelou's poetry - and read a comprehensive biography of this incredible woman - by copying and pasting this link into your search browser...
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou
