I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Analysis

The autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings works by singer, poet, writer, and actress Maya Angelou, it is one of the most widely read and taught book by an African American woman. The title of the book comes from Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, "Sympathy." The connection of the poem with the novel is where a little persistence bird (Marguerite) struggles against the bars of the cage life barriers , but she gets up, she rises and pushes forward. Although I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings covers different aspects of Marguerite Johnson's life's realizations and battles, it mostly reveals the influence of three female role models in Marguerite's emotional well-being and growth regardless of her traumatic childhood: In early times, while she is in Stamps, her grandmother, Mrs. Annie Henderson (Momma), during her stay in St. Louise and after she moves to San Francisco, her mother, Vivian Baxter, and after being a rape victim in St. Louis, when she is sent to Stamps, Mrs. Bertha Flowers. Each one of these women separately postulates and educates her with discipline, shelter, security, religion, love, self-realization, happiness, strength and educations. Marguerite …show more content…
Her grandmother continues helping her even after the sexual abuse tragedy in St. Louis. When she is six, she is sent to live with her maternal family in St. Louise for a period. There, she is sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. After experiencing that tragedy, she stops talking to anyone for six years except to her brother. Her grandmother encourages her to move on by telling her repeatedly "Mama know when you and the good Lord get ready, you are going to be teacher" (). Besides, she tries to let Maya communicate with Mrs. Flowers whose religious beliefs are in total contrasts with Momma's lifestyle, but somehow, deep inside Momma knows, this woman can help her granddaughter to overcome her shock and