Archetypes In Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Archetypes are recurring symbols that represent certain a thing. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou illustrates that there many different types of archetypes and they could be good and evil. These archetypes can be seen through Momma, Maya’s belief that being white is good, and the stylistic techniques and conventions that are used. Momma is Maya’s grandmother and Maya and her brother, Bailey moved to live with her after their parents divorced. Momma, represents a great mother archetype, as she cares a lot for Maya and Bailey. Momma is very strict and has many rules that they have to follow. Maya says, “We wiped the dust from our toes and settled down for schoolwork, cornbread, clabbered milk, prayers and bed, always in that

One of them is Momma’s store, which is a symbol and is a archetype. She says that, “Until I was thirteen and left Arkansas for good, the Store was my favorite place to be. Alone and empty in the mornings, it looked like an unopened present from a stranger” (13). This line is effective because firstly, this is an archetype and she is talking about how this was the most important place to her. Secondly, she is also using another technique in this line and it is a comparison. By using the comparison of a store to a gift, it shows how this was the most important place to her and that given it was unexpected, it made it even more special to her. Another technique that is used is an allusion. She says, “He was my first white love” (13). This was when she was referring to Shakespeare and how much she loved him. This is effective because it also creates irony. This is ironic because she coloured skin and Shakespeare is white and white people are the ones who are discriminating black people, and it makes her feel guilty of liking a white man’s work because of her skin colour. Shakespeare could be a trickster archetype because it could be tricking Maya in liking white people when they treat coloured people in her town with no respect. Finally, Maya uses a simile to talk about her hate towards love. She says, “There was that hateful word again. That treacherous word that yawned up at you like a volcano” (144). The word that she referring to that she hates is “love.” This simile is effective because by comparing it to a volcano, she is saying that love is dangerous and she does not have a good feeling towards that word. The word also shows a archetype because of how negative she is towards love and fully expresses this archetype with the simile. Overall, it can be seen that there are many stylistic techniques that are used effectively to see the