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I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Analysis

1000 Words4 Pages

Maya Angelou never felt safe in her life. She had horrible influences all around her, and no one who she could look up to. She constantly lived in fear, and never found a place she could call home. “We are the victims of the worlds most comprehensive robbery. Life demands a balance.” (Angelou, 219) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography of Maya, perfectly describes how Maya feels trapped and caged throughout her childhood and life. Maya also wrote a poem named “Caged Bird”, which clearly speaks to the racism of her time. Maya felt caged throughout her life, and as the poem states, she longed for freedom- freedom from the horrible memory of rape and freedom from the racism surrounding her. The setting of this autobiography is in Stamps, Arkansas, an extremely racist small town. Trapped and caged in a small town, Maya realizes the racism of her time, a reality that no one should have to deal with. Black people during this time were considered a minority, making life for them extremely difficult. Many whites had a clear advantage over black people, and took advantage of the rights they had over them. The white people “dared to claim the sky”, meaning they came close to forever claiming superiority over black people. One example of this in the book can be seen when a group of white kids calls Momma by her first name. This was a sign of disrespect in the town of Stamps, and was a shock since many people in the town respected her. This didn’t seem to phase Momma,

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