Book Review: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings--Kamilah

Are you bored and looking for something new to read? Are you looking to expand your horizons with a female black author for black history month? Perhaps looking for something completely banned in several Virginia, Massachusetts, and Florida school districts? If you’re looking for a book to challenge your values on womanhood, blackness, and sex I might just have the book for you! Maya Angelou’s debut album I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) is a remarkable coming of age story that details her molestation, rape, pregnancy, and racism in America. Despite her exceptional writing skills Angelou remains on more banned book lists than any other author. Her vivid details on the less beautiful parts of her life have rallied groups to completely ban her books from high schools and complete school districts. Between 2001 and 2010, the book was ranked number six on the list of the most challenged and banned books. Topics that Angelou covered weren’t new but still ground breaking the controversial topics she covers were apart of a movement of African American women writers following the civil rights movement that addressed the quest for independence, personal dignity, and self definition. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is a beautifully written autobiography that travels with Maya until after the birth of her baby as a teenager. The first in a seven volume series, it is a coming of age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can aide in a young girl’s battle against racism and trauma . Our first introduction to Angelou is as a child, still referred to by her loved ones as Marguerite she is in Easter service ready to leave. Marguerite is dressed in a white woman’s purple thrown away dress starched to look newer. Unpleased with her appearance she imagines herself as a movie star with ivory white skin, blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes, and sparkling smile. Marguerite is a peculiar child to most because she never manages to pick up the southern twang, hated most Southern food, and was quiet. Feeling like an outsider she thought she had been placed in the wrong family. Convinced she was placed incorrectly Marguerite would wish for the the evil witch who had cursed her and made her skinny, with broad feet, a negro, and a smile with a gap so big it could hold a pencil to undo her spell. The anti blackness that Angelou internalizes as a child causes her to equate it with ugliness, and a poor self image that clouds her childhood. The first chapter opens to Marguerite and her older brother at the tender age of 3 and 4 being sent to live with her grandmother and uncle in Stamps Arkansas. It becomes strikingly clear for the reader that the cycle of poverty is a bleak reality for the poor black community in Stamps. Even with her own home being a sundown town Marguerite accepts this as the reality of being black. Everyday as a child Marguerite witnesses poor sharecroppers and day laborers work away for wages too low to buy anything at the white general stores. In her own words “The Great Depression hit the white section of Stamps hard we were so poor we didn’t notice until much later.” Told from a child’s perspective the situation is almost comedic as her limited world view contrasts with her reflective interjections that Angelou provides throughout the book. As a child she is strikingly self aware of her position in the world. Angelou’s diction might be viewed as peculiar to those who have never been exposed to strong Southern accents, this aspect of the story really speaks to the authenticity of the book. The way words are pronounced serve as a reminder of not only the location but the low level of education and economic standing in Stamps that plagues everyone she is acquainted to. Other literary devices central to the telling of this story are biblical and literary allusions to the Cheshire cat, and her commitment to have Deuteronomy completely memorized by order of her grandmother. The biblical allusions also come from her grandmother’s influence in Maya’s life that instilled into her to a relationship to literature and God. This book is personal favorite, near and dear to my heart that I think everyone should read once in their lifetime. For those of you who are still not convinced in response to the book ban efforts Maya Angelou responded,“I feel sorry for the young person who never gets to read it.” Be daring, read a banned book today.