I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou

Racism is a very serious and terrible experience for someone to go through, so how do people still stay strong to this day? How do people have the strength to speak out about it, and get enough stamina and power to cope with this adversity? Racism has been around the US and the world for such a long time, with examples like the slave trade and slavery, colonialism, and internment camps. Its a wonder how people can survive such terrible ordeals, and it leads one to question how they got through it all. In her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou narrates her incredible life story to give the long awaited answer. Angelou argues that when people face painful racism, a supportive community helps them to grow stronger despite their

It was our people falling… yet another Black man hanging on a tree… It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps. It was a white woman slapping her maid for being forgetful” (135). Angelou and the people watching the fight may be disappointed, but Angelou also describes her entire race as groaning in unison. They all feel defeated, almost as if they are Joe Louis fighting in the match. If he loses the match, it would be yet another tragedy to hit Angelou’s race. Additionally, Angelou compares Joe Louis losing the fight to the lynching of a black person, or a white woman abusing her maid. This rich detail highlights how Angelou understands the immense gap between people’s treatment towards a white person and people’s treatment towards a black person, and Angelou endures feeling anguished for her race and her people. Later in the text, as Donleavy insults the crowd at Angelou’s graduation, she remarks: “It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young

After Joe Louis wins the heavyweight boxing championship as the first black man to do so, Angelou wonderingly observes the reaction of her community: “Champion of the world. A Black boy. Some Black mother’s son. He was the strongest man in the world. People drank Coca-Colas like ambrosia and ate candy bars like Christmas” (136). Angelou marvels at how Joe Louis landed on top, and won the heavyweight boxing championship as a black man. He got through many hardships throughout the fight, and came out of it as the winner. This causes Angelou to feel in awe of him, and her pride for her race is strengthened through Joe Louis’ win. Even though at one point of the fight it may have seemed he was about to lose, he fought hard and strong and eventually triumphed. Additionally, the joy and ecstasy caused by the win is demonstrated through Angelou’s friends and family, who drink and eat foods like they are gods. They feel on top of the world. At another moment, after Henry Reed leads the room in the “Black National Anthem”, Angelou marvels at how her community bounced back from insulting remarks made previously: “We were on top again. As always, again. We survived. The depths had been icy and dark, but now a bright sun spoke to our souls… I was a proud member of the wonderful, beautiful Negro race” (184). As Black people throughout history have shown, they are able to survive and surpass all the