I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)
Four and Half Stars out of Five
Maya Angelou
How many people have experienced, seen, done and learned
from their experiences as much as Maya Angelou? How many depression-era Black
girls (raised for the most part in the rural South) have grown to an adulthood
that includes on her resume the following: author, poet, modern dancer, singer,
journalist, Broadway actor, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership
Council and (oh yes), fry cook, prostitute, and night club dancer. Who else has
had working relationships with Martin Luther King, Malcom X, the Clintons and
the Obamas? Has anyone accomplished as many firsts such as the first Black
woman screenplay writer with a movie that reached production or the first Black
woman director of a major motion picture? And how many others have been
nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, for a Tony, and received the National Medal of
Arts, the Lincoln Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Who else has a
resume like Maya Angelou?
Maya Angelou began a period of intense artistic endeavors in
1968 that was to last almost until the day of her death at age 86. After a
period of mourning over the murder of MLK (on her 40th birthday), she
wrote, produced and narrated a 10 part documentary on Jazz and Blacks in
America for public television. Later that same year she was challenged by her
soon to be publisher (Robert Loomis at Random House) to write an autobiography;
an autobiography that was written with the intention of establishing a new
artistic direction for the genre. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was her
answer to Loomis and the first big step in a artistic career with few
parallels. “Caged Bird” would actually fall into the sub-genre of
autobiographical fiction. Angelou would for the first time establish a Black
woman as the central character in a novel. She would use the first person narrative
style where each time she wrote “I”, she meant “we” for the Black people of
America. She would be one of the first to describe “Blackness” from within, she
would do so without apology or defense, and rather than focusing on politics or
feminism, she would write her autobiography as a means of self-revelation. Each
chapter in her life would be written almost as short stories from her life, as
episodes that help explain her life and that of Blacks in America. “Caged Bird”
would the first of seven autobiographies, three books of essays, multiple books
of poems, two cookbooks, seven children’s books, seven plays, fourteen
screenplays, and numerous audio recordings.
Angelou begins her story by relating how she and her brother
Bailey (Jr.) were sent away from their parents in California to their paternal
grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The stated reason was that her parents’
marriage was breaking up, but as she continues her story from age 3 (Bailey Jr.
was 4) when they were first sent to Arkansas, it becomes increasingly clear
that Maya and Bailey Jr.’s parents were far from ideal (though her later
autobiographies suggest she reconciled with her mother). Her grandmother in
Stamps who they came to call Momma was quite the opposite. Annie Henderson was
Bailey Sr.’s mother and was one of the few people in the Stamps Arkansas area
(white or Black) that came through the depression in a reasonably comfortable
manner. Because she owned and operated a store, and because she was an
intelligent manager, she, her crippled son Willie and her two grandchildren
were able to experience some minor comforts during this otherwise difficult era
in American history. In fact, she was sufficiently prosperous that she could lend
money without interest to white people undergoing their own fiscal problems.
Angelou is able to show in a poignant and illustrative manner that this
kindness by Annie was not returned after the Depression. The local white
dentist for example refused to treat Maya because she was Black, and he refused
in language that was the very definition of racially offensive. Life in Stamps
was at times good for young Bailey and Maya, but the overt and covert racism
they experienced was a constant feature of their life.
A good example of the covert racism was displayed during a
high school graduation ceremony where a local white politician (Donleavy) described
the big changes coming to the local white and Black high schools: in the case
of the white school, there would microscopes, new books, things designed to
help them academically, while for the Black schools, Donleavy extolled the
virtues of the local Black athletes. Young
Maya described it as such: “It was awful to be a Negro and have no control over
my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and
listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense.” Such
institutionalized insults were combined with the daily abuse such as
experienced by Annie Henderson at the hands of the ignorant “powhitetrash”
children who could at their leisure walk by Annie’s store and hurl insults at
her – the very woman that provided a moral and financial pillar for their joint
communities. There was no respect displayed by the white community, nor even
any appreciation that the two races were one species. Maya summed it up early
in her life by commenting: “ I could not force myself to think of them as
people”.
As young Bailey and Maya grew to the age of eight and seven,
they were suddenly and without explanation driven from Sparks to St. Louis to
live with their mother and her boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. This change in place and
culture was severely dislocating for the children. It was further compounded as
the two young people had to re-assess the idyllic vision each had of their
absent father and mother for the new, now visible reality. Their father was a
flashy, charming rascal that worked as a dietician in the Navy and later as a
doorman – but never displayed the firm control of his behavior demanded by his
mother (Momma to the two children) that she required of young Bailey and Maya.
And their mother, Vivian turned out to be a local beauty though trained as a
nurse, made her way in life as a card dealer and ran with a very rough crowd –
a crowd that included her three brothers. After living for a year with Vivian
and Mr. Freeman, Maya was sexually molested and later raped by Mr. Freeman.
This low point in Maya’s life is actually the highpoint, though a painful one
to read within the book. Maya Angelou uses language to describe her absolute
ignorance as to what was taking place to her eight year old body. Her mind was
so confused, she believed she was finally getting the emotional love that she
yearned for from her natural father when Mr. Freeman would hug her following
her molestation. Her young mind was so lost from the reality of her situation,
that when he actually raped her and caused her so much pain and physical damage
that she had to be hospitalized, she still never understood that she was being
violated and not loved. Later when Mr. Freeman’s guilt was exposed and he was
murdered (presumably by her rough uncles), she blamed herself. She concluded
her voice could kill, and she refrained from speaking for five years.
“Caged Bird” is written with such fluid prose that it can be
read and enjoyed just for the language. But it contains such vivid insight into
the world of the Black American during the depression that it is an excellent
tool to teach about understanding on a deeply personal level how one of a
different race experiences life. It can be read for the personal details of
young Maya Angelou, but written within the context of the story is a history
and an explanation for the Black experience in modern America. Maya Angelou
gives a clear interpretation of the book’s title in her 1983 poem’s (Caged Bird)
final stanza:
The caged bird sings/ with a fearful trill/ of things
unknown/ but longed for still/ and his time is heard/ on the distant hill/ for
the caged bird/ sings of freedom
How ironic then, that a country that prides itself on
declaring its best virtue is its freedom, when over one tenth of its people is
still crying out for their freedom. A freedom that goes well beyond simply
saying we are free, but one where young Black men can go to the store to buy
some candy and not expect to be shot by a vigilante, or a child with a toy gun
won’t be killed by a local policeman, or if running won’t be shot in the back
by yet another policeman, or left to die in the back of a police van. When it
stops being open season on young Black men, young men guilty of nothing more
than being Black, then we will have taken one step towards that freedom we so
frequently proclaim that is here in America for all – when the truth of the
matter is, that it here for only part of our society. Let’s take the even
smaller step and at least be honest about the nature of our freedom.
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