Maya AngelouBy systematically integrating the theme of motherhood into her literature, Maya Angelou creates both personal stories and poems that the reader can relate to. His exploration of this universal theme lends itself to a very broad and diverse audience. Throughout Angelou's works, she allows her followers to witness her metamorphosis through different aspects of motherhood. Well-crafted themes are always present in Angelou's works: self-acceptance, race, men, work, separation, sexuality and motherhood. However, Angelou uses the latter. to ensure “literary unity” (Lupton 7-8). Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928, to Vivian Baxter and Bailey Johnson. After three years, her parents divorced and Maya and her older brother Bailey were sent to Stamps, Arkansas. Once in Stamps, the children were cared for by their paternal grandmother, Mrs. Annie Henderson (Neubauer 21). In her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou tells the story of her childhood. She also makes the reader aware of her close bond with her grandmother. Stephen Butterfield says of CagedBird (in his Black Autobiography in America, 1974): "Continuity is assured by the contact of mother and child, the feeling of life giving rise to the life which occurs automatically despite all confusion - maybe also because of her. » Annie Henderson is an independent, God-fearing woman whose business guided Maya through many difficult times in her childhood. It is through Mrs. Henderson's values ​​of self-determination and personal dignity that Maya'sid...... middle of paper ......York: Random House, 1972. Angelou, Maya. I know why the caged bird sings. New York: Random House, 1969. Angelou, Maya. Sing, swing and be as merry as Christmas. New York: Random House, 1976. Lupton, Mary Jane. “Singing the Black Mother: Maya Angelou and Autobiographical Continuity.” Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol 77. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 1993. Neubauer, Carol E. "Maya Angelou: Self and Freedom Song in the Southern Tradition." Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol 77. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 1993. Vermillion, Mary. “Reincarnation of Self: Representations of Rape in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and “I Know Why Caged Birds Sing.” Contemporary literary criticism. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Inc., 1993.