I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Angelou’s words sat me in a comfy chair as if in a favorite movie theater as the lights dimmed.

The world unrolling before me enveloped me from the red dirt of Arkansas in the 1930s all the way to the California sun. Her prose read like poetry and led me into each space she inhabited, including the ones in her mind. She slowed down the moment and let me ponder—no sideways judgments or explanations.

Her experience of childhood sexual assault ripped through me as my own had. She didn’t shy away from the horrors or beauty of life as a… show more.

Maya Angelou is a celebrated and brilliant writer. In her memoir she writes about identity and racism and what it was like being a Black girl growing up in the 1930s and 1940s South. And it’s pure poetry.

I read it back when I was about thirteen and it has stuck with me ever since. It’s the kind of book you can pick up and read a few pages of and feel more connected with humanity. I have never read anything as unflinchingly honest before.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiography by Maya Angelou that describes her coming of age as a black girl in the American South and then on to California.

At age sixteen, when she becomes a mother, to discovering her own voice as a writer and poet. Angelou is forced to face racism, extreme trauma, abuse, and poverty, but she also discovers the ability to love and finds the strength to liberate herself from these oppositional forces.

The title is from a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar that expresses her longing for freedom. It is a… show more.

This first memoir in what would become a canon of the life of a woman of extraordinary courage and talent introduced me while reading it in college to a writer who would be an example of what one can do with one’s life and how writing can be poetic, vivid, and unforgettable.

The beautiful creation of family, place and the pivotal role that silence can play in our lives remain in my memory as indelible imprints. Maya wrote about her grandmother’s pride and her mother’s love with unflinching truth and made every person in this memoir complex and complicated and… show more.

When I first read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings over several late nights under the covers when I was supposed to be asleep, I couldn’t let it go even when sleepiness overtook me.

This coming-of-age true story of the formidable Maya Angelou entertains, teaches, and compels. The young Maya’s story growing up with a grandmother and Uncle in the segregated South with a cool big brother and distant glamorous parents is history and entertainment.

I was a thoughtful, poetry-loving girl with a complex home situation and really identified with the same in young Maya whose life was vastly… show more.

As a literature major I’ve always been fascinated by the conversation authors have with each other via their work, conversations that sometimes span decades or centuries.

I was immediately captivated by the title of Maya Angelou’s famous 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings because I recognized that Angelou was engaging in a conversation. The title comes from a poem called “Sympathy” written by African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1899.

Dunbar writes of the mystery of a bird who sings even while beating its wings bloody against the bars of its cage. Angelou answers Dunbar’s question… show more.

As a teenager, reading Angelou’s autobiographical coming-of-age story woke me up to possibilities outside the small town where I grew up.

I realized that if young Maya could overcome the perils of rape and racism, then surely I could survive my own trials and become a strong female and a writer myself. Angelou taught me that writers should never fear the words that must find the page, even if those words are embarrassing or uncomfortable for others to read.

No one reveals characters and their motivation, nor family struggles and sacrifice, like Angelou does. She portrays the African American experience… show more.

I first read this book in high school and it had a profound impact on me. This memoir of Angelou’s life is described as “a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself.” I find myself returning to it again and again, especially when I am preparing to write something new. Angelou’s voice, her vulnerability, and her honesty inspired me as a 15-year-old and still feed my soul today. Reading her words feels like home.

The reason I chose this book is because it serves as an inspiration for anyone who has experienced hurt and disappointment. This book spoke to my soul, I could identify with the feelings of hurt in my life that have caused me to crawl up into a tiny space and isolate myself from the world. I could also identify with feeling like there’s nobody in the world that can identify with the pain that one feels sometimes. The most important takeaway I gained from this book is that we all have hidden gifts inside of us that are waiting to… show more.

Maya Angelou’s famous memoir captures her childhood in rural Arkansas and wild adolescence in California with extraordinary sensitivity and insight, and rich, evocative detail. Every character, from her powerful grandmother, tumultuous parents, dear brother Bailey, and a panoply of others, fairly roar off the page, illuminating the wondrous, weird, tragic, and punishingly ordinary events of Angelou’s often heroic young life.