i know why the caged bird sings book cover

Maya gives birth to a beautiful baby boy, and she is so afraid to hurt him she can barely touch him.

She hides her pregnancy for six months before finally telling Mother and Daddy Clidell-they are exceedingly understanding and capable, and help her through the rest of her pregnancy and her labor. She does, and the experience is unremarkable until she realizes she is pregnant. She fears she is turning into a lesbian (though she doesn’t understand what “lesbian” really means) and believes if she has sex with a boy she will be cured. Things are going well for Maya until she becomes concerned about her sexuality. Shortly thereafter Bailey moves out, and Maya gets a job as San Francisco’s first black streetcar employee. She doesn’t want to humiliate her father, so she runs away and lives in a junkyard until her wound is healed, then goes back to her mother. One day Maya goes to southern California to stay with her father, and gets in a fight with his live-in girlfriend Dolores Stockland, which results in Maya’s needing stitches. Maya and Bailey love their mother dearly, and Maya continues to perform well in school. The children move to San Francisco, and live with Vivien and eventually Vivien’s new husband, Daddy Clidell, a con artist whom Maya loves as if he were her own father. Literature and language will remain in Maya’s life as a source of strength and comfort.Īfter Bailey is threatened by a white man, Momma decides it is time for the children to be with their mother, who has moved to California. Flowers, a woman who teachers Marguerite how to read, recite, appreciate, and memorize poetry. She is rescued in a sense by the mentorship of Mrs. Freeman’s conviction (shortly after which he is murdered) Marguerite returns to Stamps and becomes withdrawn, and she believes her mother sent her and Bailey away because she was too sullen.īack in Stamps, Marguerite struggles to cope with her assault. Louis, Marguerite is just beginning to adjust when she is repeatedly assaulted and raped by Vivien’s live-in boyfriend, Mr. They leave Stamps for St Louis, and Marguerite feels a longing for home, but isn’t sure where home is.

One day, Marguerite’s father, Big Bailey, arrives, and announces he is taking her and her brother to stay with their mother, Vivien.

Yet life is difficult for all black people in the segregated American south, and the children encounter various forms of discrimination, degradation, and racial violence. Their grandmother owns a store, and the children enjoy a certain measure of security. She and her brother Bailey are sent away from their parents on a train to live with their grandmother (“Momma”) and Uncle Willie when they are just three and four years old. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings tells the story of Maya Angelou’s childhood in Stamps, Arkansas.

I know why the caged bird sings book cover