Maya Angelou Research Papers

Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is autobiographical telling of Angelou’s childhood and experiences. She relates to the reader her disheartening childhood experiences with her trouble of being black but also her troubles in being a woman. From a young age, Angelou battled these societal demons she confronted both in a racist white and black society. In her own life and times, The women in Angelou’s life were hardly seen as important in societies eye, one part of her narrative relating how her grandmother had been called “Misses” by a Judge on accident, the white community laughing it off, but a young Maya thinking of it as something more. (Caged bird 18) Through her novel, Angelou attempts to unify all black women and shake off

Maya and Bailey feel that they are to blame for their parents’ divorce and near adandonment. They travel through life desperately in search of a home, some place where they can escape the feeling of being alone and unwanted. They feel the same as many other children going through divorce. General feelings of despair, worrying they’ll never find a place they belong- and general feelings of chaos; not knowing what was going to happen to them. (Harvey 31) Her sense of inability and worthlessness is highlighted in the opening pages when she dreams of waking up transformed into a pretty white girl with blond hair and blue

It regarded us a while without curiosity but with caution” (Caged Bird 6). The children often feel like orphans in their community- alone and unaccepted. They are scared and worried about their lives as normal children would be in their situation. (Kirkpatrick 2) When Angelou was merely three years old, her grandmother took the responsibility to raise and consistently nurture her. She was also called by the author as “Momma.” Throughout the novel, Momma represents to Angelou as both a symbol of being strong and being weak, both kindness and punishment, both affection and rejection. Although Maya doesn’t receive any real or true love from her mother, her grandmother provides some security for the young Angelou which has a strong effect in forming her view of the world. Momma, other than being a symbol of continuing and faith also reinforced the serious values of African American families. But on whole, Momma acts as her sister and her mother, interpreting society to Maya and prepares her with the applicable skill both in the scope of her childhood and adolescence which later allows her to survive. Her role as grandmother is strong since she puts her grandchild in picture about the racial inequality. It’s more obvious when she takes her granddaughter to a dentist to pull her tooth out. But despite the grandmother's former help the dentist