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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou s epic is a classic tale of growing up black in the deep South in the 1930 s and 40 s. Even though Marguerite s and her brother Baileys early youth are probably far from typical for the average black family of that time, the book nevertheless, can be read as a parable of what it meant and still means to be a black person in an overwhelmingly white society. The story is told from a black point of view and is thus a more politically correct interpretation of race relationship and bigotry, than Harper Lees equally famous To Kill a Mockingbird. The two children are bustled back and forth between their parents and their grandmother Momma, between St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the rustic Southern town of Stamps, Arkansas, where they spend the magnitude of their childhood. As the proprietor of a small store their grandmother is rather affluent for a black woman.
The children consequently don t suffer from any economic adversity not even during the worst depression years. Still, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings is no story about an easy coming-of-age: Maya is permanently puzzled by the adult world. Her grandmother is extremely religious and strict, the children should be seen but not heard, (p. 34) and she is deeply agonized about their relationship to their parents. Worse still, she is raped by her mother s boyfriend while living with her in St.
Louis and refuses to talk to anyone but her brother for over a year after the trial. I can a testify to Mayas reaction to her rape, I to am a child survivor of this demoralizing act and like Maya also retreated within myself. Moreover, she often encounters white prejudice, rejection or indifference, when she is working for a white woman or tries to get treatment from a white dentist. The book thus explores a wide range of timeless topics: child abuse, race relations and a lot of important general issues of adolescence such as awakening sexuality, tension between the children and their parents and friendship.
Angelou basically tells us the story of her search for her place in the world in warm and touching way that makes it possible for all to identify with her problems, needs and dreams. This personal appeal and the fact that the novel touches a lot of prevalent issues make its ideal for anyone
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