Maya Angelou

Her life was never easy. From the time she was born, Maya Angelou was

subjected to racism, rape, grief and dehumanization. She beared enough

emotional stress in a time frame that most people don't experience in a

lifetime. Yet she prevailed. She forced herself to become stronger. And in

doing so, she produced writings, which in turn, helped others to become

strong. Her experiences and the lessons learned gave her confidence to be a

teacher, a preacher, and an inspiration to millions. Maya Angelou was

courageous. Based on Angelou’s most prestigious autobiography, I Know Why

The Caged Bird Sings, along with others, certainly reveals the occurring

hardships and misfortunes of her life.

In Maya Angelou’s first published autobiography, I Know Why The

Caged Bird Sings, in 1970, she focuses in on the concept of black skin, and

the emotions and fears that come along with it. Caged Bird begins, it opens

with a symbolic presentation expressing Angelou’s fears as a little girl being

stared at in church by the whites in society who looked down on the people

of colored skin. Further, Jon Zlotnik Schmidt of American Writers

separates this introduction as one of the several, in which Maya Angelou

feels abused because she is a black child, and sees herself as an outcast in

all of society(American Writers IV 2). Throughout Caged Bird, Angelou

remains displaced as being a racist in society. She is deserted and rejected

by her mother, Vivian Baxter(Black Women Writers 5). In several of her

related fantasies, Angelou, as a child imagines her mother lying in a coffin,

dead with no face: “Since I couldn’t fill in the features I printed

M O T H E R across the O, and tears would fall down my cheeks like warm

mil...

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...ith herself. Now, as she is

trying to lead a life on a houseboat in San Francisco, Angelou is entertaining

the legendary Billie Holiday just a few months before the singer’s

death(American Writers 8). One of the most memorable pieces of the

narrative is Angelou’s four day friendship with the moody image of Billie

Holiday.

Certainly, Maya Angelou has undergone a tremendous amount of

lifetime experiences, whether they have been ups or downs she has gone

through it all. Numerous experiences in which were negative have given

Angelou a prayer by allowing herself to write her negativity in such a way

that a reader can feel. Maya Angelou, as a remarkably talented writer and

autobiographer, has succeeded in life despite her hardships and

misfortunes. Her successes have resulted from these, which she so

beautifully indicates in her autobiographies.