I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
(Maya Angelou)

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” tells the autobiographical story of Maya Angelou and her brother Bailey’s experiences growing up in a time of extreme racism. Maya and Bailey are abandoned by their parents when Maya is only three years old, and they are sent to live with their paternal grandmother, whom they call Momma. Momma is a great moral figure in Maya’s life and wishes nothing but the best for the children though they soon begin to feel the sting of being abandoned.

Maya suffers from terrible self-esteem issues that lead to her believing she will never be as beautiful as the white girls she is surrounded with and in being so embarrassed to speak in public that she runs from a church crying and wetting herself when she cannot finish reciting a poem, though Bailey is helpful by sticking up for Maya when others ridicule her. Maya and Bailey go to live with their mother, Vivian, when she is seven years old and shortly thereafter she is molested and then raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman.

Shortly after the trial, Mr. Freeman is murdered, and Maya thinks that it is her fault and also deals with the emotional baggage that comes along with being sexually abused.

Maya and Bailey are sent back to live with Momma who introduces Maya to a woman named Mrs. Flowers who teaches Maya the power of literature in overcoming her inner demons. Maya begins to respect the work of her community and learn a lot about racism in her surroundings. When Momma begins to be concerned for Maya and Bailey living in such a hate-fueled racist environment she sends them to live with Vivian again. Maya, Bailey, and Vivian move to San Francisco with Vivian’s new husband, a positive influence named Daddy Clidell, and Maya finally feels she is home.

After visiting her father and getting in a fight with his girlfriend Maya lives with some homeless teens before moving back to San Francisco and immersing herself in the civil rights movement. She soon becomes the first African American conductor on a San Francisco streetcar and gets pregnant at the age of sixteen, a fact which she hides from her parents until she is eight months along. When Maya gives birth to her son, she finally feels confident in her abilities as a parent and a human.