I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Review
The first volume in Maya Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is not an easy read. Information technology picks upwardly when she'due south three and her brother is four and they're being shipped from California to Arkansas–solitary on a train. They live with their paternal grandmother for years. Maya writes poignantly and centre-breakingly, simply never with self-pity, about life as an African-American daughter in a segregated South.
I'1000 having a hard fourth dimension writing this review. I occasionally run into this problem with memoirs. Who am I to judge what someone has had the backbone to put on brandish for all the globe to read? They accept more often than not lived through experiences that I don't even desire to retrieve about.
Maya, or Marguerite as she'southward by and large chosen in the book, is a "tender-hearted" soul. She's intelligent, she'south a reader, she'southward a dreamer, but she has no prospects, simply because of the color of her skin. She unflinchingly lays downwards her history. There were parts that I had an unbelievably hard time reading, merely by sharing them, Maya lets the globe call back what segregation leads to, and even lets others who have shared some of her experiences know that they are non alone. Some sections left me feeling sickened by the casual cruelty of humanity, others left me infuriated for the same reason. I was never indifferent.
Information technology'south not all darkness and misery though. She has good times growing upwardly too. There's 1 scene at a picnic that stands out as a cute bright spot. And when she meets some of the women who become her mentors, they are spots of promise also, encouraging the states to reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves.
I did feel similar this volume merely kind of stopped. I gauge you could say that it stopped when her childhood concluded, but there's not much of a conclusion or a wrap upward.
I have to admit that I wasn't also clear on why, exactly, the caged bird sings. Luckily, Wikipedia had the answer. "The title of the book comes from the third stanza of [Paul Laurence Dunbar's] poem 'Sympathy':
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bust sore,
When he beats his bars and would be free;
Information technology is not a ballad of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings –
I know why the caged bird sings"
It makes sense at present and it's an absolutely perfect title.
Option this up to read a story of survival against the odds. Actually, she more than survives. Wikipedia describes her equally "one of the well-nigh honored writers of her generation" and follows up with a long list of honors and awards.
Permit's go back to Wikipedia to run into why this mod classic is number six on the American Library Clan's list of the most banned/challenged books of this decade. "Co-ordinate to the National Coalition Confronting Censorship, parents and schools have objected to the book's depictions of lesbianism, premarital cohabitation, pornography, and violence. Some have been critical of its sexually explicit scenes, apply of language, and irreverent religious depictions."
Wow. People are completely missing the bespeak.
Lesbianism? Non there at all. Questions near sexual identity? Aye. Any acts that could possibly be construed as lesbianism? Not at all. And so what if there were? I won't tell you lot who to honey if you don't tell me who I can love.
Premarital cohabitation? Yes. It's an autobiography–she tin can't exactly prevarication virtually it. People live together earlier they become married. Ever have and always volition. Get over it.
Pornography? Only if you use Wesley Scroggins' definition of the term. People who see the sexual acts in this volume every bit pornography are the ones whose morals I question. While nosotros're on this one, let'south tackle sexually explicit. I thought Maya Angelou presented the facts as tactfully as she could while however making information technology clear what happened. There was null explicit about it.
Violence? Sure is in there. And you know what? A lot of it is the racist whites in the town assaulting and lynching black men. It happened. It absolutely shouldn't have. But if we don't recall our history, nosotros are doomed to repeat it.
Irreverent religious depictions? Get a sense of sense of humor. Some funny stuff happens in church building. I've had to sit down under my daddy's watchful eye and hold in gales of laughter in church building. Any of us who have spent much time in church building tin can probably say the same. But you know what? That's 1 scene. Maya'south Momma is one of the most God-fearing, truly Christian souls you will meet in or out of literature. Read. The. Book. People!
Not one person who has challenged the book will tell you that the volume is a history of an ugly time in our nation's history. It's the story of a young girl surviving and somewhen thriving. Information technology'south almost her taking the worst that people could throw at her and moving on. It'southward ultimately well-nigh hope. Because if Maya Angelou can brand it through all that she fabricated it through, I (And you. And you. And youandyouandyouandyouandyou) can make it through any troubles nosotros have.
Source: https://introvertedreader.com/book-review/know-why-caged-bird-sings/
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