Why I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Be Banned

The banning of books is a popular and effective way to restrict works of literature in certain areas, although it does not always end with a book being banned. If a book has been attempted to be banned but did not get banned, then it has been challenged. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published on May 26th, 1969, and has been banned over thirty times since 1983. The book holds Angelou’s recollections of her experience in the South in the 1930s. The book is extremely honest in its telling, therefore I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings should be age-restricted for students under eighteen. Caged Bird begins in the 1930s, when Maya’s parents divorce. From there, Maya’s parents ship her and her brother Bailey to live in the South with their grandmother in a town called Stamps. Maya lives with feelings of discouragement and self-consciousness compared to other white and black children. When Maya’s father takes them to their mother and leaves, Maya has something happen to her that shapes her future in a way. She becomes mute, and is sent back to her grandmother in Stamps, where her grandmother helps Maya regain her voice by reading aloud. Maya eventually moves again, and despite being free from the segregated South,

The most used reason for its banning is its depiction of graphic sexual content, for which it has been banned in over 15 locations. The first banning by the Alabama State Textbook Committee took place in 1983, because the book encouraged “bitterness and hatred against whites” (“Banned 52”). The most recent “banning” happened in 2016 at Lemont High School, Illinois, with parents remarking that “it’s very explicit”; however, students may choose to opt out of reading the book and read other books instead (Lotus). Overall, the book deals with sexually explicit passages, with excerpts alike that are deemed unsuitable for younger