I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Theme Essay

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Recommended: Literary analysis on i know why the caged bird sings

In the autobiographical novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, Angelou uses multiple themes to describe her life. One theme that resonates with readers is the theme that familial love is just as important and strong as romantic love, which is explored by Angelou throughout the text, specifically through Bailey and her parents, and her one-night stand. To being with, the love Angelou had for Bailey over all that she went through in her childhood, shows how strong familial love can be. The most traumatic experience in Angelou’s childhood was her rape by Mr. Freeman. After this, she almost completely stopped talking. However, she would always speak with Bailey and would communicate to others through Bailey. Angelou explicitly …show more content…

She had her one-night stand with a popular neighbor to prove that she wasn’t a lesbian. However, what came out of it was something that she did not expect. To begin with, her family accepted that she was not to blame for getting pregnant because, as Daddy Clidell said, “‘women been gittin’ pregnant ever since Eve ate that apple’” (244-245). Having Daddy Clidell and her mother agree to that statement proves that family does love you no matter what and will unconditionally love you, whereas, in this situation, romantic love for another person might end due to being held up with the baby or not wanting to have a child. Additionally, as soon as Angelou had her son, she loved him. Not because she knew everything about him or had fallen for his appearance, but because he was her son and she loved him because they were family. Specifically, Angelou said, “Just as gratefulness was confused in my mind with love, so possession became mixed with motherhood” (245). This shows that she would have been grateful that the pregnancy was over, but she was just so in love with her son that it was all she was thinking about. Similarly, with the motherhood that was all she could think about. This shows that it was the love of her family that helped her with her labor, not any type of romantic

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