Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
A concise biography of Maya Angelou plus historical and literary context for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
In-depth summary and analysis of every chapter of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Visual theme-tracking, too.
Maya Angelou grew up in the segregated American south with her grandmother, an unusually well-off black store owner. She eventually left Arkansas to live with her mother and attend high school in California, where she also worked as the first black streetcar employee in San Francisco. Shortly after obtaining her high school diploma, she gave birth to her son. She was a lifelong lover of language, performance, and learning. She went on to become an accomplished dancer and performer, but is most famous for her many decorated collections of poetry and for her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. At the time of her death, Angelou was working on another autobiography. Her work addresses issues of racial and gender discrimination, and she is often hailed as one of the most important cultural critics of this century.
Get the entire Caged Bird Sings LitChart as a printable PDF."My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The book begins in the segregated American Jim Crow South of the early 20th century and ends in San Francisco, shortly after the end of WWII. This turbulent period in American history is insightfully catalogued and examined by Angelou as she recounts the events of her own life. Angelou investigates the effects of systemic segregation and racism on the minds, bodies, and identities of black individuals. In many ways I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings provides readers with a crucial account of the first half of the 20th century from the perspective of a Black southerner.
Angelou worked closely with author and civil rights activist James Baldwin in writing this memoir. The book is interesting in the importance it places on literacy and language itself, and therefore examines various kinds of writing and poetry, from Shakespeare to Dickens to Langston Hughes. The book is also an innovation on a typical autobiography, for it uses techniques and styles common in fiction, while remaining true to Angelou’s life story.
Key Facts about I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsInaugural Poet. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. This made her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost in 1961.
Cite This Page Download this Chart (PDF)
“Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”
Get the Teacher Edition
“This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved Save time. Stress less.AI Tools for on-demand study help and teaching prep.
Quote explanations, with page numbers, for over 44,070 quotes.
PDF downloads of all 1,992 LitCharts guides.
Expert analysis to take your reading to the next level.
Advanced search to help you find exactly what you're looking for.
Expert analysis to take your reading to the next level.Advanced search to help you find exactly what you're looking for. 