A Brief Analysis of Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou (1928- 2014) an African American poet and a member of the Harlem writers had always been one step ahead to publicly discuss her personal life. She was highly respected as a spokesperson for Black people and women. Her contribution to the Black American literature Caged Bird is first and foremost about the coming-of-age of a young black girl in the South. The eighteenth and nineteenth century of African American women’s writing initiated largely by Black women authors often stirred up controversy as they were addressing sexism, sexuality and abuse. “Critics of many races and nationalities began to speak simultaneously of renaissance in Black women’s writing,” attests Braxton in her oeuvre Black Women. The poem Caged Bird is relevant to Angelou’s autobiographical themes and has greatly contributed to her popularity as a contemporary writer. While James Weldon Johnson and Frederick Douglass may have shaped her views about Black female narrative structures, it should also be emphasized that many of her literary heroes were poets; both Whites and Blacks, and male and female. They influenced the way she wrote, thought and imagined. As a child she was affected by the ideas and the rhythms of lyric poetry as well.  

Feminism is a system of thought that is focused on women’s right. The basis of the system in the western world is fundamentally patriarchal. Women who contest societal decisions in the quest for social change are feminists, whether they identify with the term or not. Most scholars trace the origins of feminism to the Industrial Revolution in Europe and America in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The wave of feminism began to surge in America in 1970’s, the year Caged Bird was published. As for being a feminist, Angelou has a practical but elusive comment: - “I am a feminist. I have been female for a long time now. I would be stupid not to be on my own side.” Angelou in no way abandoned her affection for men. She told a reporter, “I really enjoy men,” then added, “I really enjoy women too, but not sexually”. As her poems and autobiography reveal, she does not permit any of her sexual relationships to dominate her being.

Maya Angelou, well known for being feisty, in her poem Caged Bird (1970) symbolizes the ‘caged bird’ as a woman, who is terminally trapped by men folk. The freedom to sing that is awarded to the caged bird is reminiscent of Harlem Renaissance. “A cage”, as Georgia Johnson warns us, “restrains not only the black body; a black woman is doubly threatened because of her race and gender” (Bloom 30). As Caged Bird follows Maya’s transformation from an “unbeautiful, awkward, rather morose, dreamy, and too big Negro girl” (45) to a confident young woman is beautifully narrated. The caged bird’s singing could be compared to feminism. The cage could be compared to society’s unspoken rules that are set for them, or, in a more literal way, to the house back when women stayed home all day. There have been obvious improvements for women since those days; “the bars on our cages are much, much thinner/ none of it would’ve happened if we didn’t sing.” Angelou’s poem shares elements of the prison narrative but on a symbolic rather than an actual level. The central image of the Caged Bird represents imprisonment of women through marriage, economic system and patriarchal order.

The psychic and physical injuries inflicted upon Angelou in her childhood by her separated parents and the guilt of having been sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend Mr. Freeman made her to believe that she had been a mouthpiece of devil. As an outburst, Angelou depicts the isolation she felt as a young girl enduring racism and surviving violent sexual trauma and traces the journey of her development into a strong and independent woman. 

Though Maya Angelou struggled with insecurity and displacement throughout her childhood, she had a remarkable number of strong female role models in her family and community. Her Mother Vivian Baxter, Grandmother Mrs. Baxter; and Angelou’s girl crush, Bertha Flowers have very different personalities and views on life, but they all chart their own paths and manage to maintain their dignity and self-respect. Fighting to become the first black street car conductor in San Francisco, she does so with the support and encouragement of her female predecessors. It can be thus deduced that, the Black women who can weather the storm of sexism and racism obviously could shine with greatness. They have survived, and therefore by definition they are survivors. One striking aspect of Angelou’s characters is unabashed honesty in describing her ability to love, in both her books and interviews. Her love for her mother is movingly presented in Mother and Freedom, a prose piece from her works. 

In Caged Bird, Maya Angelou describes her efforts to adapt to the role of a young Black girl, the painfully humorous failures and the gradual realization of how to transcend the restrictions. Eminent critic Harold Bloom comments on Angelou’s tone that “it is one of the profound intimacies and radiates goodwill with the terrors and degradation she suffered as a very young woman.” Angelou shows how Black and female are to be twice oppressive; and that for Black women to survive, they must be strong. From her experiences that she was black and female, somebody said against her, “If you’re black, you’re black. Whatever you do come out of that. It’s like being a woman. No matter what age or even sexual preference, if you’re a woman you’re a woman.” The Black poetry genre meant to offer helpful models, for young Black women, is important to the Black tradition. It encouraged a positive sense and response from the community too. 

The Caged Bird reveals the spiritual, resilience, determination and growing self confidence that underlie Angelou’s later achievements. It is a triumphant account of several Black women raising a young Black girl in a racist and sexist society. It points out how Black women love themselves and each other despite living in a world that does not love or value them. The collective identities of Black women who support each other and remain individuals, free to sing their own songs of freedom are depicted in the poem. 

References: 

1. Bloom, Harold. Maya Angelou. Pennsylvania: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001. Print.

2. Lupton, Mary Jane. Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. Print. 

3. -----------------------. Talking with an Icon: An Interview with Maya Angelou. 16 June 1997.