Focus+Assignment

__** "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" **__
 * By Maya Angelou **
 * Focus Assignment: Plot Summary **

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is an autobiography written in first person. The main settings of the story are Stamps, Arkansas, to St Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. It is set in the 1930's through to 40's. The title of the book comes from the Paul Lawrence Dunbar poem "Sympathy" (see Journal Entry 1 for details). The climax of the story for me is when Maya discovers she is pregnant, although very close to the end, this is the one event that could permanently change her life. Maya feels alienated and alone, and afraid to tell her family. The climax is resolved by her parents being supportive and kind, and Maya learning to love and care for the baby as the story ends.

In the beginning pages of this book, what Maya Angelou first does is help you get a sense of the narrator: herself. Young Maya is sitting in church, but instead of filling us in with details of the current situation, you get a sense of the racism that Maya has grown up with. She constantly puts herself down- saying that she is really a beautiful white girl, but a fairy godmother jealous of her beauty turned her into a 'too big negro girl, with nappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth that would hold a number-two pencil'.

Maya and her brother, at the ages of three and four, were abandoned by their parents and sent to live with their Grandmother (Momma) and handicapped Uncle Willie in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya tells of her life living in The Store, a general store owned by Momma for over twenty-five years. She talks about the racism existing in the southern United States during the 1930's. Momma is also extremely religious, and Maya and her family regularly attend church, where they will be whipped if they are not totally silent.

Suddenly, Maya and Bailey's father arrives, but instead of going to live with him, Maya is surprised to find herself and her brother being dropped off at their mother's house in St. Louis. Maya can not get used to life there, because it is so different from her life in Stamps. Her mother's boyfriend, Mr Freeman, rapes Maya when she is eight years old. He is then killed- most likely by Maya's uncles on her mother's side. Maya feels guilty and refuses to speak to anyone but Bailey. When they are sent back to Stamps, Maya meets Ms Bertha Flowers, who encourages her to speak again.

Back in Stamps, things progress in a hectic manner- Maya goes to learn manners in the house of Mrs Viola Cullinan, and stands up to her when she is called 'Mary'. She and her brother dearly miss their mother, and Maya turns to religion as a form of escape. She becomes friends with a girl named Louise at school, her first real friend. Later, Maya has cavities and has to go to a white dentist- but he refuses to fix her teeth, even though Momma at one point lent him money.

Momma decided that the racism in Stamps is too much, so to protect her grandchildren, she send them back to their mother, who is now living in San Francisco, California. Her mother marries a kind man, Daddy Clidell, who turns out to be Maya's first real father because he actually cares about her.. Maya attends high school and gets a job as a streetcar conductor. Bailey and Mother fight so much that eventually Bailey leaves home, upsetting Maya. After a while of not having a boyfriend, Maya begins to think that she is a lesbian and needs to find a boyfriend. Soon after, she becomes pregnant and worries what her family will think, but has the baby boy and learns to take care of it.