I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou Speaking at President Bill Clinton's inauguration. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQQThtav41o

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou narrates a period of time in Angelou’s early childhood. This essay highlights the reality of an African American child in a time of segregation as well as Angelou’s relationships and feeling towards her family members while growing up. Mary Angelou was a civil rights activist whose writings focus primarily on racism. She worked with both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X and recited her poem, On the Pulse of the Morning, at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration.

This passage is an excerpt from the opening sections of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou’s first autobiography. In this piece, Angelou tells her readers of how events in her life changed her perspective on being a minority. This essay was written for people who feel silenced from a superior race, gender or other factors. By watching her relatives respond to oppression, Angelou is able to conceive that if one does not let their persecutor get to them, they are better off.

One important rhetorical device used by Angelou is her anecdotes. Examples of her fond memories with family members provide evidence that though racism was dealt with on a daily basis, they were still able to relish life. In one particular story, Angelou’s mother gets humiliated by a group of young white girls in their family store. Rather than showing the girls her vulnerability, her mother chooses to ignore them, singing as she continues to clean the store. Singing is seems to be a metaphor (that appears a number of times in the passage) for happiness and celebration, another rhetorical device used by Angelou. This further proves that through oppression, liberation can be found. Angelou accomplishes her purpose in this way, as she uses real life experience to inspire her readers through hardships.