I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Quote Analysis

“Oh yes, the past can hurt. But, you can either run from it, or learn from it.” Although this quote was taken from a Disney animation of a talking lion, the meaning behind and within it can make you revise your thinking towards life. The quote above makes a statement of which that the past holds great responsibility towards the present you, shaping you into the person you are today. This statement can be supported with the book, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”, the author Maya Angelou draws on social context to develop the main theme of the past lays the foundation of the person’s values and point of view in the future.

Beginning her life story, Maya Angelou talks about the childhood that shifts her lifestyle. Maya at the age of three, was

shipped off to a small little musty town called Stamps by her newly divorced father, along her side is her brother Bailey. The two were sent into the arms of Momma, the elderly mother of their father, she owned her own market referred to as the Store. In the beginning chapters, Maya lays out a foundation for the reader’s mind where she explains a few aspects of living in Stamps. Such as,  the racial tension roaming throughout the air of the small dusty town. For instance, in Chapter three the narrator states, “Then they would face another day of trying to earn enough for the whole year with the heavy knowledge that they were going to end the season as they started it. Without the money or credit necessary to sustain a family for three months.” (Angelou 17). The “they” refers to the Black cotton pickers that shop in the Store. Like many Black former slaves, the Stamps’ cotton pickers were hopelessly suck in a debt. They don’t own the land they work on, but rather work it for white landowners. The landowners provide the land, housing, tools, and seed as a loan. By the end of the picking season, the workers must have picked enough cotton to pay back the landowners, pay off their credit at the Store, and have enough remaining funds to see their family through the winter. Which is complicating for the cotton pickers due to the receivement of  only half (maybe less) of the profits from picking. Thus the workers “end the season as they started it,” poor and in debt. This idea of the workers makes many of the Stamps white people think that all African Americans are poor and worthless, affecting later attributes in the book.

Another area where Angelou starts laying the foundation for the setting is “He must have tired of being crippled, as prisoners tire of penitentiary bars and the guilty tire of blame.” (23). Uncle Willie is the focus of this quote. As a Black crippled man, he has two identity markers that negatively impact his place in society. Maya says earlier in the book, being an able-bodied Black man is already a struggle. Uncle Willie’s disability adds a new aspect to his struggles. In this quote, Maya creates an assumption that perhaps Uncle Willie grew tired of being “the cripple” in his community and so when the Store has customers from out of town, he pretends he doesn’t have a disability. This is significant that Maya compares Uncle Willie’s life to that of a prisoner or a guilty person because it suggests that Uncle Willie feels trapped in his body and ashamed of his situation. Also that perhaps society treats him the same way they treat criminals with scorn, fear, and righteous anger. Throughout the book, Maya discusses many aspects that people of the 2000s

could not comprehend such as, “I remember never believing that whites were really real.” (42) Segregation in Stamps is so strongly enhanced that a variety of Black children don’t know what white people look like. Hence, Maya says she once believed that white people were not real. Something that anyone born in the United States could not imagine being that more than 75% of our population is white. The beginning chapters like most books set the tone and setting of the story of Maya’s life in Stamps, creating an understatement of the inequality and inhuman treatment for the African Americans during this period for the readers.

Shifting from a stance where the author describes the setting of the town Stamps and the tone of the people within it, to the major tragic events that shaped Maya Angelou into the person she is today. Throughout the story, the author speaks and describes of a variety of life crises, such as, the sexual abuse and the realization the consequences of your actions.  In the midway of the book, Maya Angelou describes the inappropriate actions that led her to years of silence, “Then there was the pain. A breaking and entering when even the senses are torn apart. The act of rape on an eight-year-old body is a matter of the needle giving because the camel can't. The child gives, because the body can, and the mind of the violator cannot.” (78) Maya's thinking and use of figurative language make us forget that we are hearing about her own experiences. Instead of describing the rape in detail like most writers would to create an emotional experience for the readers, she tries to elaborate it differently. The eight-year-old Maya couldn't process what had happened, but adult Maya has had time to reflect, to heal, and to understand from the experience. Although Maya does not explain the tragic event in detail, it holds a greater emotional significance, due to the fact that the reader could make an assumption that she felt that she had no power and the overpowering amounts of guilt, creating a mental understanding. In following to this tragic event, the author reveals the heart racking moment where Maya tells others of the issues that were causing her to fall apart. While in the hospital, Maya is questioned and reveals that Mr. Freeman has raped her. She feels guilty when she is asked if there was more than one time so she ultimately lies and admits to only one. Soon after the hearing, Mr. Freeman is killed by her overprotective uncles, Maya creates an understanding that he has died as a result of her and resorts to becoming mute in order to insure that she does not kill anyone else. This dwell in self punishment, interrupts the carefree childhood causing her to grow up faster than expected. “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meanings.” (162) this quote was taken from the mouth of Mrs. Flowers. Thus far, Maya’s family has tried to make her speak by punishing her and ignoring her, with no success. Mrs. Flowers as an idea that in order to get Maya to speak again, she must make Maya have a desire to speak again. She knows Maya has a love of literature and tells the girl that books take on new and deeper meaning when read aloud. Maya begins the road to recovering her voice because she wants to fall deeper into the alternate meanings within the literature. Then in chapter 14, Maya and Bailey return to Stamps, this could be the potential result to Maya going mute in the earlier chapters. Bailey is frustrated but even in the flusters of rage, he misses both their mother and the city. However, Maya finds comfort in the simplicity of the town and is glad to have returned. “Bailey took it upon himself to answer every question, and from a corner of his lively imagination wove a tapestry of entertainment for them that I was sure was as foreign to him and it was to me” (90) This shows how even the expectations between the same race individuals had a certain criteria to met. Bailey wanted to impress his surroundings while Maya wanted to forget the past and move on. The distinctive difference between them, gradually becomes noticeable as the readers go into following chapters. The middle chapters, were major to the overall understanding to why Maya Angelou is the strong independent individual she is today.

In the final chapters, Maya Angelou brings her story to end but by discussing the true society issues, that her story has shed some light on.

A couple of the aspects are the effects of rape, segregation, and self acceptance. The statement Maya is black seems simple enough. But the word black holds a stronger meaning than just a descriptive word for the physical appearance of an individual. The title of the book mentions a cage, in which one could interpret that racism is the cage around the caged bird. Limiting the freedom in social aspects and political as well, African Americans birds that the rights they should have been born with.But by the end of the book, Maya learns how to fight back in her own way at her own time“It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life.” (301), these are heartfelt and bitter words torn from Maya’s soul during her school graduation. This sentence sums up the lives of Black Southerners during the early to mid-1900s. Maya feels this when her teacher reminds the Black students of Stamps that they are expected to be athletes or hired help. Because of Donleavy’s speech, Maya feels that she has no control over her life choices and is incapable of achieving her dreams. Slowly bringing the metaphorical cage into reality. Maya is raped when she is eight years old as mentioned above. From that moment on, her abuse pushes her sexual identity into question. She confuses sex with love, she feels torn between womanhood and girlhood. Throughout the

course, Maya works her way through an understanding of sex. In the end, even if she's a bit misguided in her actions, she takes charge of her sexual identity, “In my particular case, I could not hide behind the curtain of voluntary goodness. ” (53-54). Maya feels like she has to prove something. Sex and proving something is never a good combination and in Maya's case it ends in teen pregnancy. From the beginning, Maya lets us know that she isn't here to stay “I didn't come to stay…” (Prologue.1) and she sure doesn't break her promise. She moves from place to place, meets tons of new people, and grows as a person. At first, all of this change leads to insecurities, but her experiences along with the reflections of adult Maya. Sets a great example for us all. “The command to grow up at once was more bearable than the faceless horror of wavering purpose, which was youth.”(145)  Maya exposes the transition from youth's willful life to the grind of adult responsibility and its expectations of conformity. She notes that many people make this transition willingly because it provides a sense of stability and routine: from this perspective, complying with the demand to "grow up" is the easiest option, asfor Peter Pan might complain about the overwhelming amounts of responsibility and the feeling of suffocation from the society’s norms. Creating the connection between her experiences within her lifetime and society issues was a major stepping stone to connect the readers to Maya Angelou’s life and the common peoples’ as well.

The life of Maya Angelou, was filled with misery, unfortunate events, self acceptance, and many other aspects. That created a heart shaping and mind shifting story for reader all across the world. The idea that the past holds great influence towards the present you, shaping you into the person you are today. This statement can be supported with the book, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”, the author Maya Angelou draws on social context to develop the main theme of the past lays the foundation of the person’s values and point of view in the future.