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Maya Angelou: Facts from Biography
In this essay, I make a research of the life of Maya Angelou. I aim to find out why she could relate to a theme of a caged bird in many of her poems. From my understanding of her autobiography, Maya had a difficult childhood which may have intrigued her to write the poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. Maya Angelou was born on the 4th April 1928. She had to live with her grandmother after her mother and father divorced.
It is during this time that she encountered the difficulties in her life that shaped her to be the great woman she is today. She was sexually abused at the age of eight by her mother’s lover. This fact devastated Maya for five years. She did not speak to anyone after her uncles killed the man who raped her.
Maya believed that she had caused the death of the man and felt guilty about the whole incidence, her reasoning being that had she not told revealed the identity of her rapist, he would be alive. Her life is full of challenges for, at the age of sixteen years, she gave birth to her son Guy, and she started trending down the life of single parenthood.
Though, later on, she was married, it did not last long. However, her passion for writing did not die with her difficulties. She pressed on amid the difficulties to even receive great awards. The Angelou’s childhood experience her life in general. The poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” published in 1983 is also a reflection of it.
The Message of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”
I choose to analyze the poem from two perspectives that are; a poem denoting the life of Maya through the ups and downs of her life and from a bird’s eye view, a poem describing the life of the black Americans in the 1930s (Angelou).
From a political understanding; Maya uses the symbolism of the caged bird to depict the oppression that the blacks were under in the 1930s. She talks of a caged bird that sings (Angelou), which can be interpreted as the freedom the blacks in American. This is probably the main message of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. Analysis made by the historians shows that racial discrimination haunted the black man in America at around that time. The black man was seeing what was happening all around, more especially when the comparison is made on the life within the cage and that one outside it.
The mere fact that the caged bird wishes to escape from the cage indicates that the blacks also wanted to live as equals with the whites (Angelou). The societal prejudices are the cage in which the black and the white are enslaved. Angelou wishes that these social prejudices that jeopardize peaceful coexistence be the cage that should be removed to promote peace and liberty (Angelou).
The poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou can also be used in the context of the struggles of the African American at the time when they were forced into slavery (Angelou). They were working in the whites plantations where they used to sing their traditional tribal songs.
These songs were a means of solace and a way of seeking comfort from their hardships. It is possible therefore to think that the “caged bird” denotes the Africans during that advent of slavery (Angelou), some of the songs sung at that time are present in the form of Jazz music which is listened to by the people of this generation (Angelou).
One can, therefore, not be mistaken to look at it from this perspective. Angelou, in the last stanza, says, “but longed for and still and his tune is heard on a distance hill’. That could be a pointer to the advent of the civil rights movement that emerged to advocate for the liberation of the blacks. The songs were a way of comforting themselves as well as uniting them
In the first place, why is the caged bird singing (Angelou)? It is singing a song filled with hope that it is going to be heard by the concerned parties so that it can be rescued from the cage. Songs, as a means of communication, are used to pass information faster than just standing up and lecturing about what you want. Songs are sweet and easy to receive and sink in into the minds of a people so that they digest them. The caged bird sings. He is optimistic that his message is going to be taken in by many people (Angelou).
That his music is going to be appealing to its fellow bird that is caged. To those who have confined them to the cage, and those other birds that are outside the cage. This, therefore, symbolizes the fact that so much has been taken away from the black people; their voices sure cannot be taken away and therefore will continue to seek justice and freedom through their songs, songs of freedom (Angelou).
From a different perspective of the poem, the author has used the caged bird as a symbol of the struggles she went through in her early childhood (Angelou).
The poem shows that a part of Maya as an individual is caged and hidden. Her feelings are deep inside her; she is determined to bring them out. The lack of freedom that is necessary for her to speak out her mind, that is when she gets to sing of freedom, she is set to achieve that freedom first. That is when she seeks her tool of expression, that is literature and specifically poetry.
Through poetry, she can seek the freedom and justice she needs. The injustices were done to her (Angelou), that is the rape ordeal, makes her keep quiet because her uncles killed the rapist. That is so torturous to her such that she has to think that she is the reason as to why the man was dead. She remained caged in her mind and conscience such that she does not mingle freely with society (Angelou).
Though later on, she opens up to society, a part of her had been negatively dealt with, she becomes a mother at a very tender age, and this renders her a single mother, she goes through the hardships of raising her son single-handedly and very young. That notwithstanding, she raises against all the odds to become a respectable member of society. She, therefore, can be thought of as the free bird that was able to sour through all problems.
The class and caste system of the South serves as the background upon which Angelou derives the inspiration to write the poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. Analysis shows that the caged bird can best describe the blacks, and the free bird can befit the whites in the American context, which inspires the composition of this poem. The caged bird is enclosed in the ‘bars of rage (Angelou)’.
This indicates that it has got no freedom of movement and therefore, its life is in the cage and nowhere else. ‘His wings are clipped, and his feet are tied (Angelou)’, the bird cannot even fly or move. This shows how much the bird’s hopes of freedom are thwarted and its only tool of expressing its feelings is its voice which cannot be stopped by its captors (Angelou).
That is why it resolves to sing its heart out for someone to hear it and therefore rescue it from its problems. This poem points to the enslavement of the black people who wish for the freedom to come and save their dashed hopes of a better life. The bars used to tie the bird down signify the superior white class.
Racial discrimination is deeply engraved in the American context, the free bird is free to do whatever it pleases, and it can swim downstream until the end of the current. It has got the freedom denied the caged bird. The free bird is seen to possess a positive attitude towards life; that is why it is portrayed as a daredevil that can fly high and even reach the sun.
Whenever a bird is free, it has got the freedom to fly wherever it wishes. Whatever it pleases, when it has all its independence, it has room to eat whatever it wants whenever it does all that it can do without fear of being reprimanded. That is the kind of world that Angelou advocates for.
That is the world that exists in her poetic life, a world where the caged bird is caged no more (Angelou), that it can move about freely and relate with the free bird. The free bird, on the other hand, has to be accommodative of the caged bird so that they both sing a uniformed song, that song of freedom.
The line-by-line analysis shows that metaphor, alliteration and imagery are the main literary devices used by the author to raise strong emotions in the readers. In the last stanza of the Maya Angelou’s poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, we see how the dream of freedom is just but dead, ‘the caged bird stands on the grave of dreams’. This puts it clear that the caged bird has got no courage to accomplish the dreams that it has; this could be because of a lack of courage. To summarize, it could indeed mean that its freedom is not going to come by and that it will never be accomplished.
Conclusion
This essay is a research of Maya Angelou’s life. It aims to find out why she could relate to an image of a caged bird in many of her poems. In the mainstream American context, people from all walks of life have to be accommodated into this diverse community; skin colour should, therefore, not the reason why one should be mistreated (Angelou). Racial segregation should be a thing of the past; all people should relate freely (Angelou); they should understand each other and accommodate each other in all aspects of life. The fat worms could be a representative of the hope and opportunity for the free bird, but these need to be shared with the enslaved one. In summary, this protest against racial discrimination is the main theme and message of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”.
Works Cited
Angelou, Maya. “I Know the Caged Bird Sings”. PoemHunter.com. 3rd March, 2011.
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