I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

# Quote Reaction

1

pg. 8 Chap. 1:

"The sounds of the new morning had been replaced with grumbles about cheating houses, weighted scales, snakes, skimpy cotton and dusty rows. In later years I was to confront the stereotyped picture of gay song-singing cotton pickers with such an inordinate rage that I was told even by fellow blacks that my paranoia was embarrassing. But I had seen the fingers cut by the mean little cotton boils, and I had witnessed the backs and shoulders and arm and legs resisting any further demands."

The importance of this quote is really integral to the rest of the book. To be able to criticize something you should have experienced it. This passage shows that Maya has experienced the non-privilege of being a Negro during the thirties, and experienced it at a young age. Maya wrote that she later confronted the stereotype, She had a right to because of her previous position.

2

pg.14 chap. 2

"Bailey and I decided to memorize a scene from

The Merchant of Venice , but realized that

Momma would question us about the author and that we'd have to tell her that Shakespeare was white, And it wouldn't matter to her whether or not he was dead. So we chose 'The Creation' by

James Weldon Johnson "

This excerpt is crucial because it puts yet another facet on segregation. Really the blacks and whites were both afraid of each other equally. The only difference was that the whitefolks were in a position to act on those fears.

3

pg.25 chap 4.

"In Stamps the segregation was so complete that most Black children didn't really, absolutely know what whites looked like. Other than they were different, to be dreaded, and in that dread was included the hostility of the powerless against the powerful, the poor against the rich, The worker against the worked for, and the ragged against the well dressed.

I remember never believing that whites were really real."

The first line really does a good job of summing up the situation in Stamps but the key section of this quotation is the very last line. "I remember never believing that whites were really real."

This statement really makes the whole situation clear in that it really brings home how someone can think that an entire race of people don't exist.

4

pg.48 chap 7

"The judge asked that Mrs. Henderson be subpoenaed, and when Momma arrived and said that she was Mrs.