I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Essay

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou was released in 1969 as the first of seven novels about her life. It covers her life from the age of 3 when her and her older brother Bailey move to Stamps, Arkansas to move with their grandmother Annie Henderson until the age of 16, when she is living with her mother and gives birth to her first son. It was published at a time where Black American women were being marginalized and it was important to hear their stories.
The book starts with Maya and her brother Bailey Jr. being sent off to live with their grandmother, whom they call Momma, in Stamps, Arkansas. Their grandmother ran a store and was an unmarried business woman. She was a respected, devout Christian woman who raised her children

There is both outward, societal racism discussed and internalized racism. Maya believes from a young age that her dark black skin is not beautiful and that the ideal would to be white, as that is what society deems as normal and beautiful. Her hometown of Stamps is a severely segregated town where Maya almost never encounters a white person, making it seem like white people do not exist. Her community had a great disparity between the white people and the black people. This disparity and deep segregation distorts the views of both races in the south as neither get an understanding or appreciation of the other. However, there is also a degree of fear held in the African-American community as Maya and her brother, along with every other child in Stamps, was raised to be quiet and to treat the white people with respect and little fuss to lower the risk of harm. Oppression through race played a huge role in the community’s combined life as there were few well-paying jobs for African-American people there, and there was also little to no room for growth in their current jobs. This was shown with the rigid, tough routines of the working men coming into Momma’s store and the way Maya describes them in the first part of the