Table of ContentsIntroductionI Know Why the Caged Bird SingsConclusionIntroductionMaya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is incredibly unapologetic . From her early childhood to her late teens, Maya has already faced many challenges in her life. These early challenges included moving away from his parents, hating himself, facing racism in the South, surviving a rape in his youth, and, finally, developing his love for literature. Throughout the novel, you see Maya transform into one newly developed human being after another. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings In the prologue, Maya recites a poem to herself for church and immediately forgets it. For church, she imagines wearing a “lavender taffeta dress.” With this image, she sees herself as a "movie star" and how that contributes to her dream of being a white girl. She says, "Wouldn't they be surprised when one day I woke up from my ugly, dark dream and my real hair, which was long and blonde." She presents herself as a nuisance to her race, wishing she was white and saying she was cursed by a fairy godmother as if it were a fairy tale gone wrong. Then she trips on her way to the bathroom and pees on herself. This brings her great embarrassment, adding yet another event to her unfortunate stories as a southern black girl. Maya was only three years old when she and her brother Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother Annie also known as "Mom" and their uncle Willie in Stamps, Arkansas. Their parents had just divorced and this decision made it much easier for the children to live in a less broken environment. Additionally, their parents sent them to live in a rural community that might be more suitable for them. However, life in Stamps is not at all easy for them. They witness many incidents that are quite sickening and considered reasonable in the time and place: 1930s South America. For example, Maya and Bailey see a sheriff talking to Mom. The sheriff warns Mom that she'd better hide from Uncle Willie, as suspicions swirl throughout town about a black man having an intimate relationship with a white woman. The Ku Klux Klan may be coming tonight, so she has to hide it well: “Annie, tell Willie he better keep a low profile tonight. A crazy nigger is attacking a white lady today. Some boys will come later. Now this must be traumatic for Maya and Bailey to watch; just because of their uncle's skin color and the "threat" he poses, he might have a good chance of being killed. This moment definitely made Maya think about Stamps in a whole new way. Maya's time growing up in the South ultimately caused a lot of self-loathing in her. The South is widely known for being conservative and racist, and Maya faced this reality significantly as a child. For example, in chapter five, she describes how some white girls would come into the store to torment Mom and be rowdy and rude. Maya didn't like the treatment of black people she saw in Stamps. Stamps really weren't the right place for her at all. On the bright side, Maya and her brother received a good education from their uncle and Maya fell in love with reading when she read William Shakespeare for the first time. The siblings' father, Bailey Johnson, comes back into their lives inbeauty. He decides to take them to California. Maya and Bailey are so happy to leave Stamps and amazed that Bailey is their father since he is big, strong and living his life together. Instead of taking them to California, he left them with their mother in St. Louis. Even with how beautiful their mother was, Maya still couldn't believe how attractive she was compared to herself. “I was stunned. I knew right away why she had sent me away. She was too beautiful to have children. I had never seen a woman as pretty as the one we called “Mother”.” Maya's time in St. Louis is considerably better than life in Stamps. St. Louis is more diverse and embraces it. Maya and Bailey live with their grandparents before moving in with their mother. Maya has a little more confidence and is definitely maturing because she is one of the smarter students in her class. Most importantly, Maya's relationship with books deepens; she reads a lot and has acquired knowledge. For a time, Maya and Bailey move in with their mother, Vivian, and her boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. St. Louis is starting to look more like a deserted place. Everything begins to change when she lives in their house. Maya's relationship with Mr. Freeman deteriorates. One day, when her mother is gone, she wakes up to find Mr. Freeman in her arms inappropriately. Maya has no idea how to react, having never felt this kind of reaction before. She feels pleasure, but at the same time she doesn't know if it's true. Not realizing at all that she was being raped, she felt like it was all her fault because Mr. Freeman would not come into contact with her afterward. Soon after, it would happen again: “For months, he didn’t speak to me. I was hurt and for a while I felt more alone than ever. But then I forget him, and even the memory of his precious presence has faded into the general darkness just beyond the great blinders of childhood.” This is when the rising action officially begins. This time, with Mr. Freeman's actions, Maya realizes that she was inappropriately raped: "I hesitated for two reasons: he was holding me too tightly to move, and I was sure that at any minute my my mother, Bailey or the Green Hornet would burst in the door and save me.” She continues: “Then there was the pain. A break-in where even the senses are torn apart. Putting duct tape on an eight-year-old's body is like giving the needle because the camel can't. The child gives, because the body can, and the mind of the offender cannot.” This incident early in Maya's life is the moment when she begins to understand herself and how she fits into this world. Maya wants to tell someone about the incident between her and Mr. Freeman, but she can't because he threatens to kill her brother if she tells anyone. Maya, having great admiration for her brother, does not want to put him in danger, but he still encourages him to tell the truth. After this incident, Mr. Freeman was arrested. Maya spoke out against him, having a platform to focus on and express her opinion. He was found guilty, but sentenced to only one year in prison. Surprisingly, he gets an early release, but is murdered by someone who kicks him to death. Shortly after his death, Maya falls into a deep depression as she believes her interactions with him are leading to his death. She stops talking, sinking into a depressed state. She even stops thinking clearly, thinking that there is something wrong with her: “Just my breath, speaking my words, could poisonpeople and they would curl up and die like the big black slugs that are just pretending. I had to stop talking.” Unfortunately, she returns to Stamps to start her life again, and her brother is not in a good place emotionally either. Dealing with her depression, Maya languishes for a long time, until she meets her true companion, Mrs. Berthe Fleurs. Bertha Flowers is an old woman who is unlike anyone else in town. She's quite unique, like an educated Renaissance woman, and she reads English novels. Bertha helps Maya a lot with her self-esteem and helps fuel her interest in reading and literature. Bertha really believes in Maya and wants the best for her and encourages her a lot: “She said she was going to give me books and that I should not only read them, but also read them out loud. She suggested that I try to make a sentence sound in as many different ways as possible. Maya adds: “All I cared about was that she made me tea biscuits and read me her favorite book. » Some pretty strange things happen to Maya when she is in her early teens. She becomes a servant, only to help him finish his studies. She works for Mrs. Viola Cullinan, a rich white woman who doesn't have the best personality. She keeps calling Maya "Mary", which makes the concert not go so well. Plus, she and her family lost Bailey for a few weeks. Eventually, things start to become clearer for Maya during her time in Stamps: she finally makes a friend. Her name is Louise. Maya and Louise share secrets together and maintain a truly supportive friendship. Maya is now nearing graduation, only her eighth grade graduation, but it's a big deal. The ceremony had its ups and downs, but in the end. Maya ended with her own personal note, you might shape her as a person once she grows up. Shee praises black poets and black people as a whole, how we have changed our spectrum by learning from each other through literature. This shows that Maya is more proud of her blackness, especially recognizing it at a young age. Maya returns to Los Angeles. She is extremely happy to be in sunny California and back with her mother. She doesn't want an incident like last time to prevent her from being united with her mother. Living with Vivian, it was quite chaotic like last time. She became heavily involved in partying and violence and also married. His name is Daddy Clidell and he is the first father figure Maya has ever looked up to. He treated her like even her biological father didn't care. "Unexpectedly, I looked like him, and when he and my mother and I walked down the street, his friends would often say, 'Clidell, that's sure your daughter.' You cannot refuse it. » She moves to San Francisco and accepts a scholarship to a wealthy, predominantly white school called the California Labor School. She was once again the victim of racism, being one of only three black students at the school. During her time there, she was fully supported by Miss Kirwin, who taught her that she should not be ashamed of the color of her skin, regardless of the environment she found herself in. Soon after, Maya is invited by her father, Daddy Bailey, to spend time with her. him in Southern California. She is introduced to her girlfriend, Dolores, who doesn't like her at all. She goes with them on a trip to Mexico and it ends in a real fiasco. Once back, the relationship between the three deteriorated. Dolores and Daddy Bailey started arguing, and Dolores.