I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou

BACKGROUND

Without question, Maya Angelou is one cool woman. She dragged herself from a potentially crappy and horrible life to an educated, strong well lived life. She grew up under racial hatred in the Deep South of Arkansas. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a book about her early childhood struggles and the stuff that went down for her. Maya Angelou has written many novels and poetry including a poem for President Clinton’s inauguration. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is Angelou’s life story from the time she was three until she graduated high school. This story is autobiographical, that is a true story about oneself. The author and the narrator are both Maya Angelou telling about Maya Angelou. It is about the growth and inner strength of a person, namely Angelou, and her journey from almost orphan to mother of a son.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Marguerite "Maya" Johnson: She is the main character of the story. It starts when she is three and ends when she is sixteen. Maya is a tall, dorky girl but very smart. To help her through life and its racial prejudices she reads books and tries hard in school. She handles a lot of family garbage (orphaned, strict Grandmother, mother is a gambler) by staying tough mentally and reading. She is basically a nice girl with a weird family.

Bailey Johnson, Jr.: Maya’s older brother. He is always there for Maya when the problems hit the fan. He is funny, sarcastic and as he gets older, more street wise. He is very loyal to his sister. Leaves home when he is sixteen to join the Merchant Marines.

Annie ‘Momma’ Henderson: Maya and Bailey’s Grandmother on their father’s side. She is one tough, small town, southern black woman. Bible fearing and believing. Momma takes care of the kids when her son sends them to her. She runs the general store in her hometown of Stamps, Arkansas. She has the respect of both black and white people although more so the black.

Bailey Johnson: Maya and Bailey’s father. He is a large, well speaking man who also is a bit materialistic and egotistical. He has worked as a doorman, Naval dietician (a cook) and comes from Stamps. On to bigger and better things he left and went to California.

Vivian Baxter: Vivian is Maya’s mother. She and Bailey call her "Mother Dear". She is hot to trot and looks like a movie star. She works in gambling houses and likes to party. When her kids come to live with her she takes pretty good care of them. She’s real cool but doesn’t play and will (and has) shoot you.

Uncle Willie: Bailey SR’s brother and Maya’s uncle. Willie lives at the store with Momma (his mother) in Stamps, Arkansas. He is crippled because a babysitter dropped him when he was young. He is stern but nice.

The Baxter’s: This is "Mother Dear’s" clan. It includes Grandfather and Grandmother Baxter and three uncles. They all live in St. Louis. They are tough, know the cops and protect their own. The uncles kill a man for raping Maya. Grandmother Baxter is a smooth operator.

Daddy Clidell: A conservative property owner who marries Vivian "Mother Dear" Baxter after WWII. He is a decent father to Maya and Bailey.

Mr. Freeman: A large and flabby fellow. He raped Maya when she was eight and threatened to kill her brother if she told. He wound up dead in a ditch after getting a light sentence.

 

PLOT

The book opens with a young Maya having a tough time in a church play. She can’t get her lines right. Even though Momma has made a pretty dress for her she becomes self-conscious and feels ugly. This sets the theme and tone for the rest of the book. Throughout the story Maya grows up. Her life started on a train in California when her parents stuck her and Bailey with a porter (who got off in Arizona) bound for Stamps, Arkansas to live with their grandmother. There they grow up under the dominance of the racially prejudice south. Momma owns the store in town and when the kids are old enough to help they do. Momma and Uncle Willie are strict on Bailey and Maya but fair. They always go to church and church plays a large part in Maya’s young life.

As Maya gets older she still feels insecure but immerses herself in schoolwork and excels. When they are around seven they are sent to St. Louis to live with their Mom who they have never seen or met. Momma made them leave Stamps because of the racial hatred. In St. Louis they are ‘wowed’ by the big city and all its stuff. They go to school and find out that they are ahead a little and they do well. "Mother Dear" works a lot but Mr. Freeman, her boyfriend, is around when he comes home from work. He first molests, then rapes Maya. He threatens to kill her brother Bailey if she tells. When her bloody panties are found, she tells. Mr. Freeman goes to trial and gets off easy. He winds up dead. It is assumed that the Uncle’s Baxters kill him. After this Maya won’t talk and is shipped back to Stamps.

Momma takes care of Maya and life goes back to the small town routine of church, school and working in the store. Maya reads more than ever and becomes smart by doing so. She experiences things through books that she isn’t able too in real life. She graduates from the eighth grade with honors. She realizes that for Black people life is held down by the Southern whites but keeps her head up and is determined to do well in life.

Momma takes her and Bailey to Los Angeles to live with their mother. They stay there for a few months while Vivian gets settled in San Francisco. They live in SF with the whole Baxter clan who have moved from St. Louis. Maya is awakened to people of all races and creeds in San Francisco and there is a more racially tolerant attitude there. While here she does well in school and graduates. She worries about her brother who runs off to become a man in the Merchant Marines. She visits her father in Los Angeles and goes to Mexico. Back in SF Maya becomes sexually interested because she is worried that she is a lesbian so she gets pregnant from a one-night stand.

 

CHAPTER BY CHAPTER

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

 

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

 

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

 

CHAPTER 22


CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36

 

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