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pennymanb
#495972 Wed, 02 Apr 08 09:11 PM
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Brenda PennymanGina FournierComposition IIFeb. 15, 2008Not A Bed Of RosesI Know Why the Cage Bird Sings by Maya AngelouI Know Why the Cage Bird Sings (Random house Inc.1970,289pgs), by talented Maya Angelou – author, poet, actress, etc…was dedicated to Angelou’s son, Guy Johnson, and to all the other strong people who defied the odds and lead their life with much dignity regardless of their unforgettable past. Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson, (later called My, or Maya by her brother) April 4, 1928, in St. Louis Missouri to Bailey and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson. At the age of three Angelou and her brother was sent to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Living in the back of the general store her grandmother ran and owned after her parents divorced. That’s when Angelou endure pain, racism and learned to hate herself for not being white.Riding the train with notes pinned to their clothes with a porter in charge of their ware fare. Angelou remembering little of the journey just knew she was being displaced from the only family she ever knew. Thinking other adult negro passengers whom normally traveled with bag lunches felt pity for the motherless children and fed them cold chicken and potato salad.This autobiography tells how the author was willing to recreate the past and suggest to it’s readers that she had indeed accepted, recognized the beauty, ugliness, liabilities and assets, for that strength she was transformed into this talented person she is today. Readers will appreciate their lives, parents, and how their lives would have been if they had to experience such obstacles as the author. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is the first in a six-volume series which covers her childhood and young adult life. Susan Gilbert, writer for the questia says this book “opens in church on Easter Sunday with the child dressed up in lavender taffeta dress lovingly tucked by…her grandmother.” In the mix Angelou thinks it’s only a dream and wishes to awaken from this “black ugly dream.” (pg4) The book ends with a sixteen year old unwed mother who’s afraid to handle her newborn baby. Later books included in the series are Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’Merry Like Christmas (1976),The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God’s Children need Traveling Shoes (1986), and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002).The author recalls an incident of how some white girls no older then she humiliated, tormented and mocked her grandmother, one even showing her pubic hairs. Angelou recites a song that her grandma sang at the time “Bread of heaven bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.” (pg32) When the girls ran off her grandma found her behind the door crying and praying, because she didn’t know what to do or what her grandma would have wanted her to do. See, Angelou was taught that the less you say to a white folks “or even white trash” (pg28) the better off you were. She was taught to be obedient and to address all adults with respect. Not really understanding how they were getting away with this terrible thing they were doing to her grandmother when she wouldn’t dare defy what she was taught. Today even if you are told to respect your elders and they don’t respect you that’s like talking to deaf ears. Today’s society has grown; we have over come most of the obstacles Angelou was accustom too. Many people are treated as equal and if not many organization will inform you of what consequences they may face. Reaching the age of seven there was another bizarre twist to the already make believe life of the author. Not remembering to many details about her parents her father returned to Stamps to take them to live with him, so he said; she was actually to live with her mom. But as fate is not always like you may want or hope for she again was shuttle out to live with her maternal grandparents for the next year. Finally moving in with her mom she was raped at the age of eight by her mom’s friend, who swore to harm her brother if she ever told anyone. That was another set back for the already troubled child who already felt that the hectic life she was brought up in had damaged her mentally.The man that raped Angelou was later found dead. Due to the man’s death Angelou thought it was her fault, since she never revealed in court that it was more then once. Do to her keeping silent he was able to go free. Do to the tragedy she had to endure Angelou become silent and responded only to her brother Bailey. Angelou said “Just my breath, carrying my words out, might poison people and they would curl up and die.” (pg87) So she figures if she became ignorant to sounds and voices of others then no one would be hurt because of something she did or did not do. Due to Angelou’s behavior she was once again up routed and sent back to her paternal grandmother in Arkansas. If she only had the stability that children long for growing up and wasn’t told not to ever mention what had happen to her ever, may-be her relatives would have understood the agony she was going through, and not criticize the way she was acting out an instead tried to help her.The Biography Resource Center wrote an essay about the writer growing up in Stamps and they had this to say “Economic hardship, murderous hate and ingrained denigration were part of daily life in Stamps.” So Angelou remained much as a hermit after being raped at an early age, feeling that incident had robbed her of childhood and some how deemed her a woman until she met a girl her age she could enjoy life as a child should. At that point she said “after being a woman for three years I was about to become a girl”. (142)In 1940 at the age of twelve the author was informed by her grandmother they would be going to California. The explanation was they were getting older and needed to be with their parents. Angelou knew that wasn’t true, assuming since her brother (Bailey) discovery of a corpse of a black man that men took a pleasure of him seeing was the real reason.Life in San Francisco appeared to be rewarding her mother married a man that was the first to become a real father to the writer, she was excellent in school that she was moved up two semester; but still she was wasn’t able to settle down. At fourteen she got a scholarship to the California Labor School were she choose drama. Angelou never knew why she had chosen drama since she had never ever seen a play. But by the persuasion of family she continued with it not knowing that in later years her drama lessons would prove to be worth while.Life for the author seem to be one turmoil after the other, spending time with her father and his lady friend was a far fetch from what she had become accustom to with her mother. Her father’s friend became extremely jealous with out cause and threatens her well being so she decided to leave and to the streets she went. Angelou being all alone and afraid that if she related this incident to anyone something may happen bad like with the man that raped her. So Angelou at fifteen recalls life had taught her “undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice”. (249) After spending over a month homeless sleeping in street cars the author returned home wiser then her actual age. Time changes a person predicaments make them want more so getting a job would be all the better for her. After much determination and being shuttle back and forth like being on badminton court, telling near truths and total lies finally to land a job as the first black on the SanFrancisco streetcars.As Angelou enters into adolescence she becomes worried that she is a lesbian initiate sex with a teenage boy that she barely knew. The encounter causes her to become pregnant. Being afraid of being disowned by her mother kept it a secret for over three months informing no one other then her beloved brother. After much secrecy Angelou and eight months into the pregnancy she finally got up the nerves to tell her parents. Even thou the author had many hills to climb; becoming a mother at the age of sixteen she also didn’t let that stop her from graduating and continuing her life with great accomplishments. Being a mother at an earlier age four years prior to being a senior didn’t detour my odds. Having a child only maid it so that I wanted a better life for my child and for it not to go through the pain and suffering I had to endure. This is a must read memoir for all ages to relate to. The Biography resource Center says I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a “Testimony form a Black sister marks the beginning of a new era in the minds and hearts and lives of all Black men and women.”I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings is an autobiography about the earlier years of the author’s life. This book explores the isolation and loneness she felt growing up after dealing with racism, being raped, and sexism. All that for a young mind would be too much to handle. Surprising with much determination Angelou was able to beat the odds.In addition to Angelou’s books of autobiography, she has written several volumes of poetry, made several appearances on television and in 1993 she was the first African American to read a speech at a presidential inauguration. The New Sun also printed an interview Angelou had with David Frost, one of the question Frost ask was where did Cage Bird come from? Angelou response “It came from t poem written by Sir Lawrence Dunbar, a black male poet writing in the 1800s. With beating those odds Angelou says with all the misfortunate’s in her life she can leave women with this “In one way, it means all the work,… my work exacts, demands, is not in vain. …that I’ll never die.”(Biography Resource Center pg4) The heart ships that made her become an adult at an early age she was willing to share with the readers in hope it would make a difference in someone’s life. Work CitedAngelou, Maya. “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.” New York: Random House, 1969Frost, David. “An Interview with Maya Angelou.” The New Sun, reprinted fromWNET/channel 13. 18 Jan 2008<http://www.newsun.com/angelou.html> Gilbert, Susan. “Maya Angelou’s I know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Path to Escape Questia.com. 18 Jan 2008<http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?o&d=98188363>. “Maya, Angelou”. Contemporary black Biography, Volume 15. Gale Research, 1997.Reproduced In Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. 7 Feb. 2008 <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC>.
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Joined on
Wed, Mar 19 2008
Detroit MI
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pennymanb
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