It’s an amazing and one of a lifetime book that will you
make you both laugh and cry, a book that has such a powerful story, that it
remains with you long after the last page has turned. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings meets this
criteria.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a beautifully
written autobiography. Angelou has a distinct
style of writing where she lyrically describes her life from the age of 3 until
her later teens. As a three year old
child, Angelou was sent across the country via train with only her four year
old brother Bailey. Her parents were in
the middle of a divorce and her father’s mother, Momma or Mrs. Annie Henderson,
took in both children and raised them.
Life in Stamps, Arkansas is both the best and worst of
times. The kids always have plenty of
food to eat with Momma as a store and property owner in town during the Great
Depression. Momma also sets rules and
expects them to be obeyed and is full of love.
Young Maya though notices that although Momma is a powerful woman in the
black community, whites including “Po’ White Trash” treat Momma with no respect
and there is nothing Momma can do about it.
When Maya is eight, her father comes back for her and
Bailey. She believes they are going to
California to live, but in reality, he is taking them north to St. Louis to
live with their mother Vivian. Maya is
brutally raped by her mother’s boyfriend during this period of time. He is captured, tried, and let off easy. He is found dead one day later, most likely
killed by her mother’s family. Maya
believes that her words on the stand caused a man’s death, so she stops
speaking for years.
Her Mother and her family don’t know what to do with
Maya so they send her and young Bailey back to Stamps, Arkansas. There with the help of Momma and a special
teacher, Maya is able to move on. In her
teenage years, after Bailey sees firsthand the brutality of being a black man
in the Deep South, Momma takes the two children to their parents in California. As a teenager in California, Maya also has
her ups and downs including becoming the first African American Female trolley conductor
in San Francisco, and being homeless for a while. The book ends with Maya becoming an unwed teenage
mother and you have to wonder, what will happen next. Luckily, Angelou continued her autobiography
in a series of books after this to continue the entire story.
I loved this book when I first read it as an eighteen
year old and I loved it on reading it again as a now almost thirty-eight year old. I love how unique Angelou’s writing style
is. The fact that she can make me laugh
on one page only to have me cry on another is due to her superb writing
skills. I like how she honestly took a
look back at her life and wrote an unflinching narrative that including the
dark times of her life. You can’t read
this book without being horrified by her rape as an eight year old girl. It brings me to tears just typing this. The aftermath where no one in her family
every mentioned it again and basically left Angelou to deal with this on her
own is also a lesson on how not to deal with a victim.
I was also horrified on how Angelou’s parents treated
her and Bailey. I can’t imagine just
dropping my kids off with their Grandma and not having any contact with them
for years. The uncertainty of their life
with living with Momma or their parents caused a lot of angst and
problems. Truthfully though, I felt like
life with Momma provided the stability that they needed and were lacking from
their parents so it was probably a good thing that they were sent there.
I also liked the discussion of race relations in
America, which sadly are as pertinent today as they were when this book was
written in the 1960’s. One of the most
striking sections to me was when Momma tried to take Maya to the dentist. There was only a white one in town, but
during the depression he had borrowed money from Momma to keep his business
going. Although he wasn’t too good to
take Momma’s money, he tells her on no uncertain terms, that he refused to do
any dental work on an African American, even a child in pain. It is hard for me to grasp how people could
treat each other this way. We are all
people no matter the color of our skin.
I’ve read that I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a
frequently banned book in schools. While
I don’t think this book would be appropriate for middle school children, I
think it would definitely be a good book for a high schooler to read. It is graphic and brutally honest, but that
also makes it a good book to discuss race, sexual abuse, and a variety of topics
with your student or child. I am not a
fan of banning books.
Overall, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is one of my
favorite books, with a unique storyteller, Maya Angelou, giving an unflinching and
beautiful narrative of life in the Deep South and with a fractured family. I highly recommend it.
Book Source: My
own library. I bought this book somewhere twenty years ago.
Wonderful review, Laura! You reminded me of what I loved about the book. I discussed it a bit in various blog posts, in the early days of my blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review. I've heard of this book but not read it. I should try to get to it soon. Seems so relevant right now.
ReplyDeleteNice review. I was telling my family about her when her picture on the TV yesterday. I'll make out time to read this title .Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI really need to get a copy of this book so that I can finally read it. It sounds remarkable. Yes, banned books usually puzzle me as to why. Thanks for a great review of an important American book.
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