REFLECTION ON THE NOVEL "I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS" BY MAYA ANGELOU

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS

This essay talks about Maya's plight in the autobiography. The autobiography shows the experiences and things responsible for the author'spersonality and identitydevelopment.

This well acclaimed book is the autobiography of Maya Angelou or Marguerite Johnson, focusing on her childhood and teenage years. The memoir strings together Maya Angelou's vivid memories of her growing years in a hostile society that cruelly disregarded African Americans. Hailing from a broken family, Angelou and her brother are shifted between their mother, paternal grandmother and father. Her poetic prose conveys the deep angst of a young girl who is in search of a paternal figure to lean on for love and affection and tries to piece together a family. Her childhood has been mercilessly lacerated with deep scars - rape, racism, parental abandonment, neglect, depression, teenage pregnancy etc. In many ways it is very inspiring that Angelou built her identity through many of her personal crisis and guided her mind towards better ways of living, despite minimal parental nurture. Her love for literature, and curiosity towards information from books seemed to form her guiding light. I was impressed at her maturity and sensitive perception of people, even as a young girl.

It is amazing to know that "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. I was so sleepy during the report of this autobiography. When I reviewed it, I pitied Maya Angelou for she went through many impediments throughout her life including the separation of her parents at age three, the rape and molestation by her mother's live-in boyfriend, and the prejudices of her community. It made me realized how tragic her experiences in life. I felt pained and angry to those people who did that to them. I have known also several teenagers that experienced what Maya had experienced. Some stories were revealed but most are kept hidden.

Angelou is very artistic when she approached her first book, an autobiography as art. She is very determined to transcend facts with truth. Disclosing her version of the black female's victimization by prejudice and powerlessness, as though creating a fictional characteris very admirable. I found Maya's ability very strong.

Her writing enfolds very sensitive and wise reflections into very creative and beautiful metaphors that it takes time to decrypt the words and reflect on them. The paragraphs cannot be simply read - they are meant to be savored. Her poetic imagination is wonderful.

I was a little disappointed that she ended the memoir a little abruptly. It was like riding on a high wave and then being suddenly dropped down. I was waiting for her to wrap up her thoughts, her experiences and probably even discuss a little about why she chose this title for her memoir, but she brought the book to a close as a beginning of another chapter - perhaps it was meant to be so, for the current memoir focuses just on the first 17 years of her life.