I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Novel Project Mini Review A hard era for most, the 1930’s through the 1950’s are chronicled in the perspective of black author Maya Angelou in the autobiographical novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published by Random House in 1969. The story, as told by Angelou describes how she and her older brother, Bailey were abandoned by their divorced parents in California. From then on, they were to live with their grandmother Annie Henderson in Stamps, Arkansas, whom they referred to as Momma and was a very respected woman in the black community. She set examples for young Maya and Bailey but was not able to completely protect Maya from the dangers that she was about to face including abandonment, sexual abuse, …show more content…
The most important event of the situation stemmed from Maya’s intense anger toward the girls for “aping” her grandmother. The girls pretended to be apes and called out Momma while doing so which made Maya want to “throw a handful of black pepper in their faces, to throw lye on them, to scream that they were dirty, scummy peckerwoods (30). Maya also questioned how Momma could stay quiet and bear the cruelness, and then refer to the girls as “Miz” as they were leaving. Momma assured a young Maya with her silence that not reacting to such behavior is to win. This lesson of not letting others’ judgements effect you was an important one for Maya to learn. Unfortunately, it took a few years for her to do so as she notes that from that situation, a “lifelong paranoia was born” …show more content…
He was able to pay other people to work for him” (205). Specifically for Maya, these people who she had seen gave her an example of “what she wanted to be as a grownup” (205). Even whites and blacks came together, working in factories and setting aside their disputes for the greater purpose of everyone’s improvement. Her being in San Francisco, witnessing the living proof that people could overcome their given attributes and make them work towards success for not only themselves, but each other is extremely important because then she knew that she could do so