Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. In her early years, Angelou was an author, screenwriter, actress, dancer and poet. Her and her brother had a difficult childhood as her parent’s split up when she was young and they were relocated to live with their paternal grandmother in Arkansas. It is in Arkansas where Angelou experienced the true horrors of her childhood. Along with encountering racial prejudices and discrimination, Angelou dealt with feelings of abandonment and rejection, which stemmed from her parents lack of presence in her life. However, the worst of Angelou’s childhood came at age seven, when her mother’s boyfriend raped her. He was later murdered in response to the sexual assault. The assault itself

In 1944, Angelou had a child with a man with whom she had a previous relationship and then in 1952, Angelou married Anastasios Angelopulos, a Greek sailor. Following her marriage, Angelou starred in a few off-Broadway productions before moving to Egypt and later Ghana in the 1960s. Angelou returned to the United States in the late 1960s and was strongly encouraged by friends and family to document her life experiences through literature. In 1969, Angelou published the memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, making literary history as the first non-fiction best seller by an African American woman. Following the publishing of her novel, Angelou continued to share her experiences through her literary

While reading, I felt a sense of sadness for the caged bird, as its undeniable determination was persistent and valiant. Along with the message of the poem, I also appreciated Angelou’s unique sense of “unstructured verse” and her non-traditional poetic approach. It is clear that the caged bird represents African Americans and the free bird represents the white population, however, the poem is well written which sends this implied message of African-American suppression in a poetic, yet clear,