i know why the caged bird sings analysis essay

By Maya Angelou

‘Caged Bird’, or ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ as the poem is sometimes referred to, by Maya Angelou, is arguably one of the most moving and eye-opening poems ever written.

Maya Angelou

Nationality: American

She's also known for her autobiographical works.

Key Poem Information

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Central Message: Freedom versus oppression and resilient hope.

Themes: Desire , Disappointment , Dreams , Identity , Journey

Speaker: Unknown

Emotions Evoked: Anger , Bravery , Compassion , Fear , Freedom , Frustration , Grief , Hope , Pain , Passion , Resilience , Sadness , Worry

Poetic Form: Free Verse

Time Period: 20th Century

'Caged Bird' is a quintessential Maya Angelou poem, beautifully capturing the struggle between feeling trapped and yearning for freedom.

Poem Analyzed by Allisa Corfman

Degree in Secondary Education/English and Teacher of World Literature and Composition

Angelou also wrote an autobiography with a similar title, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings . This title had great significance to Angelou, as it was the title of her entire life story. In her autobiography, she talked about the struggle of being a Black author and poet. She often felt that her words were not heard because of the color of her skin and sought to express her experience and that of others in her contemporary moment through t he lines of this text.

Before reading ‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou, consider the following tips:

• Understand that Angelou wrote during the Civil Rights Movement, drawing from her experiences as an African American woman.
• Look for themes of freedom, oppression, and resilience. The contrasting images of the free and caged birds highlight these ideas.
• Pay attention to the symbolism of the birds. The free bird represents unrestricted freedom, while the caged bird embodies confinement and longing.
• Note the emotional tone in the caged bird’s song, which combines sorrow and hope, reflecting deep-seated yearning.
• While rooted in specific historical contexts, consider the poem's broader existential themes about human nature and the quest for liberation.

‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou is an incredibly important poem in which the poet describes the experience of two different birds, one free and one caged.

The free bird flies around the wind currents, feeling like the sky belongs to him. On the other hand, the caged bird can barely move in its prison. It’s angry and frustrating. Its wings are clipped, and its feet are tied together. All it can do is sing fearfully of what it wants and does not know. It sings for its freedom, and everyone, even far distant, can hear its song.

All the while, the free bird is focused on the breeze, the sounds the trees make, and the words in the ground he’s planning on eating. Once more, the speaker reiterates the fact that the bird feels as though it owns the sky. The poem concludes with the caged bird singing once more as the poet repeats the third stanza in its entirety.

The Poem Analysis Take

Expert Insights by Angel Nicolin Suyman

Bachelor of Secondary Education in English and M.A. in English

While I interpret this poem as a clear metaphor for racial oppression, I also feel that the poem transcends specific socio-political contexts to explore existential themes. The caged bird's song might symbolize the universal human condition, trapped by life's inherent limitations yet perpetually yearning for transcendence.

‘Caged Bird’  is filled with powerful themes. These include racial oppression, freedom/captivity, and happiness/sorrow. These themes are all wrapped together in  ‘Caged Bird’  through Angelou’s depiction of the two birds, one free and one caged.

The caged bird is an extended metaphor for the Black community in America and worldwide. Angelou is alluding to the lived experience of millions of men, women, and children since the beginning of time and the variety of oppressive tactics, whether physical, mental, or economic, employed by those in power.

Black men, women, and children see “through…bars” while the free bird sores in the sky. The bird sings from a place of sadness rather than joy to convey a broader history of sorrow.

Structure and Form

‘Caged Bird’  by Maya Angelou is a six-stanza poem that is separated into stanzas that range in length. Angelou chose to write the poem in free verse . This means that there is no single rhyme scheme or metrical pattern that unites all the lines. But, there are some examples of an iambic meter .

This adds to the overall musicality of the poem. Iambs are also generally referred to as “rising” feet when the second syllable is stressed. This plays into the content of the caged bird and the free bird. Additionally, readers should take note of the instances in which the poet makes use of half-rhyme .

Literary Devices

Angelou makes use of several literary devices in ‘ Caged Bird.’ These include but are not limited to:

• Alliteration : another form of repetition , but one that is solely focused on the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of multiple words. For example, “sun” and “sky” at the end of stanza one and “cage / can” in lines three and four of stanza two.
• Enjambment : another important literary device that’s also quite common in contemporary poetry. It appears when a poet cuts off a sentence or phrase with a line break before its natural stopping point. For example, the transition between lines one and two of the first stanza and lines three and four of the second stanza.
• Repetition : is seen throughout the poem but most prominently in the structure of the stanzas and the continual reference to the “free bird” and “caged bird.” One of the best examples is seen in the sixth stanza, in which the poet repeats the entire third stanza.
• Symbolism : the use of an image to represent something else. In this case, the caged bird symbolizes the confined and oppressed African American community in the United States.
• Irony : occurs when an outcome is different than expected. For example, it is ironic that the free bird isn’t singing, but the caged bird is.

Caged Bird Metaphor

In Maya Angelou’s ‘Caged Bird,’ the poet uses two bird metaphors . The free bird symbolizes white Americans or all free people who enjoy equal rights. The caged bird is a metaphor for/symbolizes oppressed Black Americans who are kept captive through racist policies.

Analysis, Stanza by Stanza

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind    and floats downstream    till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky.

In the first stanza, Maya Angelou refers to nature. She describes how “a free bird leaps on the back of the wind.” She describes the bird’s flight against the orange sky. The free bird has the right “to claim the sky.” The way she describes the “orange sun rays” gives the reader an appreciation for the natural beauty of the sky, and her description of how the bird “dips his wing” helps the reader to appreciate the bird in his natural habitat enjoying his freedom.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage (…) his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

This stanza of ‘ Caged Bird’ contrasts sharply with the first. By using the word “but” to begin this stanza, the speaker prepares the reader for this contrast . Then she describes the “bird that stalks his narrow cage.” The tone is immediately and drastically changed from peaceful, satisfied, and joyful to one that is dark, unnerving, and even frustrating. She describes that this caged first “can seldom see through his bars of rage.”

While the free bird enjoys the full sky, the caged bird rarely even gets a glimpse of the sky. She claims “his wings are clipped, and his feet are tied.” Text from her autobiography reveals that Angelou often felt this way in life. She felt restricted from enjoying the freedom that should have been her right as a human being. The speaker then reveals that these are the very reasons the bird “opens his throat to sing.”

The author felt this way in her own life. She wrote and sang and danced because it was her way of expressing her longing for freedom.

Stanza Three

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill (…) for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The third stanza reverts back to the free bird, further cementing the difference between the free bird and the caged bird in the readers’ minds. She writes that a “free bird thinks of another breeze” that he can enjoy the “sighing trees” and be free to find his own food. The tone with which she writes the first and third stanzas so sharply contrasts with the second stanza that readers can feel the difference. The first and third stanzas give the reader a sense of ecstasy and thrill, making the second stanza seem all the more droll and even oppressive.

Stanza Four

The free bird thinks of another breeze (…) and he names the sky his own

The fourth stanza of ‘ Caged Bird’  continues the parallel between the free bird and the caged bird. The first line serves to starkly contrast the last line in the third stanza. It is dark and daunting. The reality of the life of the caged bird is revealed in this line. 

Mentioning of ‘fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn brings around a predatorial/prey juxtaposition too. It would be the worms that would be scared for their life, losing freedom as the birds feed upon such prey. However, with a bird entrapped by a cage, the worms are the ones that have the freedom, compared to the caged bird.

Stanza Five

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams (…) so he opens his throat to sing.

That bird “stands on the grave of dreams.” This reveals the author’s feelings about her own dreams. She has so many dreams that have died because she was never given the freedom to achieve all that her white counterparts could . Discrimination and racism made up her cage, and although she sang, she felt her voice was not heard in the wide world but only by those nearest her cage. The second line of this stanza is not only dark but even frightening.

The speaker describes the bird’s cries as “shouts on a nightmare scream.” At this point, the caged bird is so despondent in his life of captivity that his screams are like that of someone having a nightmare. The author then repeats these lines:

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied So he opens his throat to sing.

Reaffirming the idea that the bird opens his mouth to sing because his desire for freedom and his desire to express himself cannot be contained.

This last stanza focuses on the caged bird yet again. The author implies that even though the caged bird may have never experienced true freedom, deep down, that bird still knows it was created to be free. Although freedom, to the caged bird, is “fearful” because it is “unknown,” he still sings “a fearful trill” because he still longed for freedom.

Here, the speaker reveals that his cry for freedom is “heard on the distant hill.” This parallels to the author and her cry for freedom in the form of equality. She feels her cries are heard, but only as soft background noise. She still feels that she is caged and that although she sings, her cries are heard only as a distant noise.

The last line states, “For the caged bird sings of freedom.” With this, the speaker implies that although the caged bird may never have experienced freedom, he still sings of it because he was created for freedom. This is paralleled to the African American struggle in Maya Angelou’s time.

She feels that Black Americans wrote and sang and danced and cried out for the freedom they deserved, but they were only heard as a distant voice. Yet, this would not stop them from crying out for freedom and equality because they knew they were made for freedom, and they would not relent until they were given their rights as human beings to enjoy the freedom they were created to enjoy.

‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou is about the two different experiences of two birds. One is caged and suffers from its lack of freedom, while the other is free to do as it pleases. The caged bird sings to cope with its confinement.

The caged bird symbolizes the desire to be free. Specifically, the African American community’s efforts to achieve equality in every part of life and break free from the confines of personal and institutional racism.

‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ‘ or ‘Caged Bird’ expresses the importance of freedom. She compares the plight of a caged bird to the suffering of the African American community.

The lack of freedom in ‘Caged Bird’ inspires the caged bird to sing while the free bird does not. Its desperate cry is not a happy one but it is the only way the bird can cope with being locked up.

The caged bird standing on a grave of dreams symbolizes the entire history of cruelty and confinement inflicted upon the African American community and other marginalized communities throughout history.

Similar Poetry

Readers who enjoyed  ‘Caged Bird’  should also consider reading some other Maya Angelou poems . These include:

•   ‘ Phenomenal Woman ‘ – defies the stereotypes women often face today. It is a poem filled with strength and determination.
• ‘ Still I Rise ‘  –  describes, through positive and joyful language, a speaker’s allure as a woman. She has irresistibly beautiful features and a strength that makes her stand out.
• ‘ Life Doesn’t Frighten Me ‘ – is a simple poem that describes the fears, or lack thereof, that a child speaker has. 

Poetry + Review Corner

20th century, disappointment, frustration, african americans, black lives matter, discrimination, life struggles, overcoming adversity, perseverance, personification, women's rights, women's strength.

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good analysis .it’s very helpful for literature students

Thank you. That’s our goal.

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Analysis

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The free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats down stream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays  

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bar of rage his wings are clipped his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings with fearful trill of the things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn and he names the sky his own

But the caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing

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great sir !

This is really helpfull

Not helpful at all😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬

You're privileged to speak your mind, unlike the caged bird. Good for you.

Thank you..

Very helpful sir

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya angelou.

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Race, Inequality, and Identity

Young Marguerite grows up in the segregated American south; but I Know why the Caged Bird Sings is not simply an investigation of the history and effects of segregation: it is an incisive and honest examination of race, inequality, and identity.

Marguerite is taught by her grandmother to fear and avoid white people, and to think of them as godless, and not to be trusted. At the same time, she teaches her grandchildren never to…

Sex, Gender and Sexuality

This memoir is also an account of how sex and gender influence experience and identity. Marguerite recognizes that being a girl is a kind of disadvantage, and wishes occasionally that she had been born a boy. The novels she reads have men and boys as their heroes and protagonists, so she believes that to be a hero one must be male. Marguerite also feels pressure to be feminine and attractive, and is tormented by her…

Marguerite finds refuge in fiction, poetry, and language itself. The book is in many ways an account of how Maya Angelou came to be a poet, and her love of language plays a central role.

Marguerite is a quiet child, and especially after her assault, learns to take refuge in the sound and quality of others’ speech. She is told by her Uncles in St. Louis that it is okay if she is ugly so…

Religion also plays a complex role in Marguerite’s upbringing—though the church is a kind of sanctuary for the adults in the book, Marguerite is often intimidated by the church and associates it with punishment.

The importance of religion to black southerners is made clear early in the book. The passion of many adults in Marguerite’s church service embarrasses her; but adults see the church as a sanctuary for their displaced and disenfranchised people. The revivalist…

The memoir explores the complexity of familial bonds and the importance of family to a person’s experiences and identity. Maya and Bailey ’s relationship is in many ways at the center of the book. Young Marguerite loves her brother so dearly and trusts him so implicitly that she confides in him first about her attack. The children often have to cope with feelings of abandonment since they were sent away by their parents to live…

Home and Displacement

The memoir also explores the idea of home and the pain and confusion of displacement, and in doing so for the particular experience of Maya Angelou also more broadly portrays these issues with respect to the history and experience of black Americans.

Marguerite is sent away from her mother and father to live with her grandmother at a young age; one of her earliest memories is of displacement, of being sent away from her home…

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the Novel by Maya Angelou Essay

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Maya Angelou’s novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings documents the trials and harrowing ordeals that she experienced growing up black, female and ostensibly orphaned in the southern United States in the 1930s.

Though classified as an autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings reads as a larger historical record of 20 th century racial oppression in general. The novel harkens back to a time when the black community in the United States suffered brutal economic and social subjugation, not to mention unrestrained violence, with minimal access to basic education, justice or human rights.

The following essay analyzes Chapter 19 of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A pivotal moment in the book, the action follows the World Heavyweight Boxing match between the Joe Louis and Max Schmeling in New York in 1936. This particular match became a loaded symbol for both blacks and whites of the period. Louis held the hopes and dreams of every African American in the United States.

Equally, Schmeling represented white supremacy; a decisive victory against Louis was necessary to prove the validity of the socio economic apartheid that African Americans endured under the Jim Crow segregation laws. Angelou’s chapter gives the reader access to a moment in American history when both the black and white communities engaged in a symbolic competition to determine who deserved to be in charge, and also details the ironic aftermath of Louis’ victory.

It is vital to understand that at the time, the laws themselves viewed through modern eyes would appear unconscionably racist. These laws found their justification in the widespread belief of the period that African Americans constituted a lower expression of humanity. Joe Louis therefore became a symbol for all African Americans of the period. They instilled their hopes in him to prove their legitimacy as humans, and to expose the injustice of the political system that oppressed them on the basis of skin color.

Thus, a loss by Louis signified much more than the outcome of a simple sporting contest; it essentially exonerated the whites and justified their behavior. In Angelou’s words, if the black boxer Louis lost the match to the white boxer Schmeling, “this might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings” (Angelou 135).

Angelou even elevates the stakes of the match to the spiritual realm when Maya admits that if Louis surrendered, it was tantamount to holy wrath. Louis’s loss would mean that “God himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end” (Angelou 135). Chapter 19 demonstrates the symbolic significance of a boxing match that embodied one of the first covert forms of black social activism and rebellion in the 20 th century.

Chapter 19 portrays a community unified in a desired outcome: the metaphorical trouncing of the white masters. Each member of the community holds a vested interest, whether boxing fans or not. “The last inch of space was filled, yet people continued to wedge themselves along the walls of the Store…Small children and babies perched on every lap available and men leaned on shelves or on each other” (Angelou 133).

Angelou describes the mood inside the store as “apprehensive” yet “shot through with shafts of gaiety” as the people listen anxiously to the boxing match on the radio (Angelou 133). Members of the community enjoy some moments of braggadocio courtesy of Louis’s superlative athleticism: “I ain’t worried ‘bout this fight. Joe’s gonna whip that cracker like it’s open season,” followed quickly by “he gone whip him till that white boy call him Momma” (Angelou 133).

Jabs in the ring echo jabs at the white masters from community members who comment on the weakening Schmeling: “some bitter comedian on the porch said, “That white man don’t mind hugging that niggah now, I betcha” (Angelou 134). Maya herself ponders the significance of the match to her race. “As I pushed my way into the Store I wondered if the announcer gave any thought to the fact that he was addressing as “ladies and gentlemen” all the Negroes around the world who sat sweating and praying” (Angelou 134).

Each member of the community present in the Store feels every punch that Schmeling lands. “My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped.

A Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps. It was a white woman slapping her maid for being forgetful” (Angelou 135). Chapter 19 shows a community emotionally invested in the outcome of the boxing match and seeking pride and self worth through the achievements of one of their own.

Interestingly and ironically however, despite Louis’s victory, no visible change occurs. Maya’s terse description of Louis’s victory remains tacit, subdued and bordering on the indifferent: “Champion of the world. A Black boy. Some Black mother’s son.

He was the strongest man in the world” (Angelou 136). Joe Louis has won, yes, however the victory means that the community now fears for its safety more , anticipating the vengeance of the affronted whites. Maya closes the chapter with a sorry admission: “It wouldn’t do for a Black man and his family to be caught on a lonely country road on a night when Joe Louis had proved that we were the strongest people in the world” (Angelou 136).

Chapter 19 of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings provides a literary chronicle of a time in American history when both the black and white communities fought symbolically through World Championship Heavyweight boxing. Though the black boxer Joe Louis won the match, Angelou’s chapter illustrates the essentially hollow nature of Louis’ victory, as the black community will now suffer reprisals from the white community as a result.

Works Cited

Angelou, M. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1969. Print.

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IvyPanda . 2020. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the Novel by Maya Angelou." April 23, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings-the-novel-by-maya-angelou/.

1. IvyPanda . "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the Novel by Maya Angelou." April 23, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings-the-novel-by-maya-angelou/.

Bibliography

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings — Analysis Of The Poem I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou

Analysis of The Poem I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

• Categories: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Joseph Campbell Poetry

About this sample

Words: 905 |

Published: Sep 1, 2020

Words: 905 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited

• Angelou, M. (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House.
• American Civil Rights Movement. (n.d.). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from [URL]
• Fairclough, A. (2015). Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890-2000. Penguin Books.
• Hine, D. C., Hine, W. C., & Harrold, S. (2014). The African-American Odyssey: Volume 2 (6th ed.). Pearson.
• McWhorter, D. (2011). What the Negro Wants. Oxford University Press.
• Morris, A. D. (1999). The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. Free Press.
• Ransby, B. (2003). Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. The University of North Carolina Press.
• Sale, K. (1997). The Fire Next Time: The Emergence of Social Conservatism from the Rights Revolution to the New Left. University of North Carolina Press.
• Sitkoff, H. (2008). The Struggle for Black Equality (2nd ed.). Hill and Wang.
• Wolters, R. (2013). Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: The Struggle over Segregated Recreation in America. University of Pennsylvania Press.

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

By maya angelou, i know why the caged bird sings symbols, allegory and motifs, religion as healing (motif).

Religion occupies a pivotal place in the lives of some of the characters. Most notable is Momma, who tries her hardest to raise Maya and Bailey to be staunchly god-fearing people. Momma uses her faith to guide her through her life and to dictate most of her decisions. During the Stamps revival meeting, we see how religion can also be a healing or coping force, and not only a decision-making one. The passionate preaching and worship during the meeting revives the weary, bone-tired cotton pickers, and reminds them that though life is hard, they have the Lord in their corner. This reminder serves as a panacea for racism’s attacks, and heals the spiritual and mental wounds of the Black people of Stamps.

San Francisco (Symbol)

Maya develops a deep and “impartial” love for San Francisco, a love she “arrogantly” thinks no one else can match (353). To Maya, San Francisco symbolizes “a state of beauty” and “a state of freedom” (353). This is because she feels free in San Francisco in a way she has never felt in rural Arkansas. The pressures of racism and white supremacy are not felt as acutely in San Francisco as they are in Stamps because segregation is not as heavily enforced or encouraged in California. Racism does exist in San Francisco, as we see when Maya struggles to become the first Black streetcar conductor. However, Maya’s ability to eventually secure this job, one that she never could have gotten in Arkansas or other Southern states, is a testament to California’s role as a place of (limited) freedom for Black people.

The Caged Bird (Allegory)

The title of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is derived from Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy.” In this poem Dunbar tells the story of a caged bird that wants to reach the beauty of the outside world but is trapped within “cruel bars.” The bird beats its wings against the bars in an attempt to escape, but the bars are too strong. All the bird can do is sing a prayer towards Heaven, a prayer that expresses its desire for freedom. The story of the caged bird is an allegory for the situation Maya finds her in. She wants access to all of the opportunities and choices of the wider world, but racism and white supremacy prevents her from reaching them. They are Maya’s bars, or the cage that keeps her imprisoned. The song or prayer that Maya flings up to Heaven is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings itself. It is Angelou’s way of achieving freedom. With Caged Bird Angelou became one of the first Black women to center herself in her own writings. She has broken the bars of her cage, and has gained access to the opportunities and choices that white writers enjoy.

Joe Louis (Symbol)

A famous American boxer, Joe Louis was one of the first Black athletes to be a national hero in the American imaginary. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a crowd of Stamp’s Black denizens gathers together at Momma’s store to listen to a match of Louis on the radio. As they listen to the match, it becomes clear that for these people, Louis embodies Black Americans as a whole. When he starts to lose momentarily, Angelou writes, “It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped…” (224). And when he wins the match, “Joe Louis [proved] that [Black people] were the strongest people in the world” (227). To the Black people of Stamps and beyond, he represents them in the world.

The Store (Symbol)

The Store is owned and operated by Momma, a fact that is extraordinary in mid-20th-century America. At this time, most Black Southerners were barely scraping out existences for themselves and their families. Momma’s Store, a business owned by a Black woman, is an anomaly for this time. Thus, the Store symbolizes Black excellence and success against the odds.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

the caged bird

Before meeting Mrs flowers marguerite has refused any help why is Mrs flowers able to help her when others could not

The "aristocrat" of black Stamps, Mrs. Flowers is a gracious woman who encourages Maya's love of literature, and also helps Maya to break out of her muteness. Maya regards her as the pinnacle of humankind. Mrs. Flowers refuses to let Maya feel...

When he realizes that Maya is wounded, what does Maya’s father do? Why doesn’t he take Maya to see a doctor?

Maya's father doesn't take her to the doctor because he is afraid that the circumstances.... Maya being cut by his girlfriend.... would ruin his reputation.

In the car he explained that the couple were his friends and he had asked the wife to...

Study Guide for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings study guide contains a biography of Maya Angelou, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Summary
• Character List

Essays for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

• Maya Angelou and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• The Struggle for Self: Oppression's Effect on Identity
• Overcoming Black Oppression Through Empowerment

Lesson Plan for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

• Introduction

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

88 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Chapters 19-21

Chapters 22-24

Chapters 25-27

Chapters 28-30

Chapters 31-33

Chapters 34-36

Key Figures

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Summary and Study Guide

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , a groundbreaking work in Black women’s writing, is an autobiography depicting the childhood and adolescence of American writer Maya Angelou. It is the first volume of Angelou’s seven-volume autobiography. The book was nominated for a 1970 National Book Award, and in 1979, it was adapted into a film.

Plot Summary

The memoir opens in 1931 when a three-year-old Maya Johnson arrives in Stamps, Arkansas, along with her four-year-old brother Bailey. Their parents, recently divorced, sent the siblings to the small Southern town to live with their grandmother, Momma Henderson . Momma owns a General Store in the Black part of Stamps and runs it with the help of her disabled son, Uncle Willie . From an early age, Maya struggles with the feelings of self-doubt and abandonment and finds solace in books and her brother’s company. More mischievous than his sister, Bailey fills their time with new adventures and becomes Maya’s best friend and confidante.

The town of Stamps is highly segregated, and Maya has minimal contact with the white population, but nevertheless, she regularly witnesses instances of racism. When she watches Momma Henderson hide Uncle Willie from the Ku Klux Klan and sees the white neighborhood girls talk down to her grandmother, Maya is overwhelmed with a strong sense of injustice.

Maya and Bailey adjust to their life in Stamps, and Momma Henderson becomes a strong role model for the siblings. One day, without warning, their father arrives in Stamps, and after spending some time in the town, takes the children to St. Louis to live with their mother, Vivian Baxter . She works at gambling parlors and doesn’t spend much time with Maya and Bailey, but both children admire her glamorous lifestyle, which is very different from Momma Henderson’s modest, conservative behavior. When Maya is eight years old, Vivian’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman , sexually abuses and rapes Maya. He threatens to kill Bailey if the girl tells anyone, so she keeps silent, but when her mother eventually finds out, Mr. Freeman is taken to court. Although he is found guilty of the crime, his lawyer manages to get him released the very same day, but soon afterward, Mr. Freeman is murdered. Overwhelmed with the feelings of shock and guilt, Maya becomes withdrawn and stops talking, and Vivian sends the children back to Stamps.

Under the care of her grandmother, Maya slowly recovers. The girl befriends Mrs. Flowers, an educated woman who rekindles Maya’s love for books. Maya begins to enjoy her schoolwork and spends all her free time reading. Maya sheds some of her insecurities and makes a new friend, a girl named Louise, who helps her navigate her first romances and life at school. When Maya’s eighth-grade graduation comes, she is proud of her academic achievements and hopeful about her future.

Worried about the racial intolerance of Stamps, Momma Henderson takes the children back to California. Maya is thirteen when she and Bailey move to San Francisco to live with their mother, who has remarried. They grow fond of their new stepfather, Daddy Clidell , and admire their mother’s free spirit. With the beginning of World War II, the social fabric of San Francisco begins to alter, and in this atmosphere of change, Maya finally begins to feel at home. Her birth father, Bailey Senior , invites Maya to spend summer with him in southern California. Soon after joining him and his girlfriend Dolores in their trailer park, Maya realizes that he is nothing like the father from her fantasies. When during a brawl, Dolores physically attacks Maya, the girl leaves and finds herself homeless. She wonders into a junkyard where she meets a group of homeless teenagers and joins them for a while, working and living alongside them. Their unquestioning acceptance boosts Maya’s self-esteem, and the exposure to different people and experiences profoundly changes her thinking.

Upon her return to San Francisco, Maya finds out that she has grown apart from her brother. She decides to get a job as a streetcar operator. There is a policy forbidding Black people from having such jobs, but Maya perseveres and becomes the first female Black streetcar operator in San Francisco. As she starts her senior year of high school, she becomes pregnant. Maya follows Bailey’s advice and doesn’t tell her mother and stepfather until after her graduation. Three weeks later, she gives birth to a son, marking her passage from adolescence into adulthood. 

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