Caged Bird Sings

Sabeena Jagdeo
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou's coming of age memoir is titled, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Generally, within the first few chapters of a novel a reader can deduce the meaning of the title, however throughout this entire novel I never truly understood the meaning until the last few chapters. In the final chapters, the reader can unquestionably identify her struggles growing up and can visually see how it helped her become who she is as an adult. The title I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, illustrates the hardships that Maya, and her fellow black citizens in her community faced growing up in a pre Civil Rights Movement era.
From the title, the caged bird represents Maya, along with all African

Americans living in the United States. She chooses to portray them in a cage because they are bound by the white folks who felt that they were superior to all other races. Specifically this is seen at Maya’s graduation. As the white man is speaking about the “great accomplishments” of black people, Maya thinks to herself, “the white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileos and Madame Curie's and Edisons and Gauguin's, and our boys (the girls weren’t even on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises” (Angelou 151). The white man essentially, told them that all they could be great at was athletics. They were caged into only one option for their future. They could either be a great athletic or spend the rest of their life picking cotton. There were no options for black children. The white children could roam freely around the world, while the black children were fiercely banging against the invisible cage, (which white folks set up) to get out and accomplish something in their lives.
The subsequent part of the title, I know why … sings, depicts the perseverance and persistence of Maya and the rest of the African American community. Through all the racism and sexism for the women, they kept going and pushed their way through society, so that they could survive and be remembered by someone. They would not be remembered by everyone, like the racist white folks, but they would be amongst their fellow African Americans, for their outstanding work ethic through life.
At a glance, Maya Angelou's title could be meaningless. It could be seen as just a “fun” title, but as the reader looks for the deeper connections within the novel, they can see that her title reflects the hardships and struggles of African Americans as they endured racism, along with their perseverance and persistence through it. Her simple, but complex title reflects the strength of herself and the African American community as they ventured through the prejudice American community.