I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
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Book Reviews of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Book Review: I know why the caged bird sings
Summary: 4 Stars
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"By Maya Angelou
I enjoyed reading this book. It made me think of how life is different, in different places, but at the same time not so different. All people have similar feelings, and what happens to other people could happen to anyone, or me. This book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is an autobiography. Angelou wrote it 1970, she has written some more autobiographies among others "The Hart of Woman" 1981. She has also given out some collection of poems, and some plays. Angelou was born in 1928 April 4, St. Louis, Missouri she was named Marguerite Johnson.
The book I have read is the first autobiography. The protagonist name is Marguerite Johnson and she is a black girl living in the southern USA with her grandmother, crippled Uncle, and Bailey Jr. her two-year-older brother. Marguerite and her brother were sent to their grandmother when they were two and four-years-old because their parents were getting a divorce and non-of them could take care of them for the moment. Later on their dad comes home to visit, the purpose of this visit is to bring Marguerite and Bailey to their mother. Marguerite and Bailey are living with their mother and her new husband for a while, but when Marguerite gets raped, her mother decides it's better for them to live with their grandmother again. After a few years the grandmother decides the children need their mother and she brings them to her. The mother is now living in San Francisco, California.
Throughout the book there are a lot of things happening, much of it I have a hard time understanding is true, it is just too much happening to one girl, but life is different, and all the things are happening. Marguerite is a shy girl who has a lot of questions she would like to ask, but she does not know whom to ask. And that is why there are so many things happening, and she feels guilty of things she could not help, but no-one tells her it is not her fault, so she believes it is her fault. As I said earlier the book made think of life, how it is different, and all people do not know all the things we all take for granted they know. It is a well-written book, and it is not too hard to understand, I got in to the book right away. This is definitely a book everyone has to read at least once a lifetime.
Book Review: READ MY REVIEW!
Summary: 3 Stars
The following is a review of Maya Angalou's autobiography, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Read while discussing the great American novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in my eighth grade English class, the assignment was to compare the differences in point of view, between the two authors, Angalou and Lee. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings expresses the opinions of an African-American girl, growing up in the mid 1940's-50's. Throughout her life the girl, Marguerite, finds herself oppressed by different race related issues. As her goals in life change, her points of view fluctuate from highly optimistic and confident, to severe self hatred and depression to the point of wanting to commit suicide. She feels her life to be beyond her control and completely insignificant because she is black. She has accepted racism and feels that things will never change. People like Abraham Lincoln, who try to prevent racism, have just made things worse (in Marguerite's opinion) by presenting the idea of change, and at one point in the story, Marguerite wishes that all people like Lincoln had never been born. She feels defeated and finds little value in life, all because of racism and segregation. This point of view on racism represents that of many African people in the time of this story, while Lee in, To Kill a Mockingbird, expresses an opposite point of view, an optimistic one, where change is something that is on its way and welcomed by the black community. Lee and Angelou are both women, though Lee is white and Angelou is black their stories are similar in many ways (they both involve a rape and map out the story of a girl growing up in racist America), but ware they vary reflects upon their of point of view. Black people have been the victims and Angalou's story illustrates their point of view, while white people have been the cause of the problem and Lee's story narrates from that point of view. This shows how one's interpretation of a situation is a casual factor in ones point of view. Reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has enlightened me of more racial issues, and beside from gaining a wealth of new vocabulary through reading Angalou's flowery writing, I also enjoyed my self, as Angalou's poetic style is most pleasing and intriguing.Book Review: READ MY REVIEW!
Summary: 3 Stars
The following is a review of Maya Angalou's autobiography, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Read while discussing the great American novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in my eighth grade English class, the assignment was to compare the differences in point of view, between the two authors, Angalou and Lee. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings expresses the opinions of an African-American girl, growing up in the mid 1940's-50's. Throughout her life the girl, Marguerite, finds herself oppressed by different race related issues. As her goals in life change, her points of view fluctuate from highly optimistic and confident, to severe self hatred and depression to the point of wanting to commit suicide. She feels her life to be beyond her control and completely insignificant because she is black. She has accepted racism and feels that things will never change. People like Abraham Lincoln, who try to prevent racism, have just made things worse (in Marguerite's opinion) by presenting the idea of change, and at one point in the story, Marguerite wishes that all people like Lincoln had never been born. She feels defeated and finds little value in life, all because of racism and segregation. This point of view on racism represents that of many African people in the time of this story, while Lee in, To Kill a Mockingbird, expresses an opposite point of view, an optimistic one, where change is something that is on its way and welcomed by the black community. Lee and Angelou are both women, though Lee is white and Angelou is black their stories are similar in many ways (they both involve a rape and map out the story of a girl growing up in racist America), but ware they vary reflects upon their of point of view. Black people have been the victims and Angalou's story illustrates their point of view, while white people have been the cause of the problem and Lee's story narrates from that point of view. This shows how one's interpretation of a situation is a casual factor in ones point of view. Reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has enlightened me of more racial issues, and beside from gaining a wealth of new vocabulary through reading Angalou's flowery writing, I also enjoyed my self, as Angalou's poetic style is most pleasing and intriguing.Book Review: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Summary: 5 Stars
Bagna Braestrup 5/15/00 English 8W I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings My name is Bagna and I am currently in 8th grade. As an assignment for my English class I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Dr. Maya Angelou. While reading this book, I experienced a lot of different emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger. It was hard to believe how horrible life was for the black people. Dr. Maya Angelou talked about all the terrible events that happened in her life and transfered her feelings into her writing. Many of them took courage to write about. While reading this book I was additionally reading To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings described the Blacks' perspective on life during that era. To Kill a Mockingbird was written from a white persons point of view. Because it was written from the point of view of a white man, the Blacks in the story do not seem individual, they were portrayed as a group seemed to possess the same traits. It was the contrary in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The lifestyles of the two races, were very different. The grammar each race used was dissimilar, the Whites being more educated. By contrasting the two books, I can see how the Whites and the Blacks lived in two different worlds, one of luxuries and the other of necessities. The diction Dr. Maya Angelou uses to describe the setting with is fitting to the story line. Her knowledge is shown in her style, by the way she writes so articulately. It shows her education compared to the schooling of the other Blacks. One sentence in the book genuinely shows this: "My relief melted the fears and they liquidly stole down my face." This sentence is describing her crying out of relief. The way in which she words it is truly beautiful. There were points in the book that were tiring because the author kept describing everyday events that were irrelevant to the story. Dr. Angelou talked about living in a town called Stamps longer than necessary. This book was very good. I would certainly recommend this book to a friend. The events are described in such a way that the reader can not put the book down. The author apparently is very scholarly, and can tell her story in a very admirable way.Book Review: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Volume 1 Issue 1
Summary: 4 Stars
"Wouldn't they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blond, would take the place of the kinky mass that Momma wouldn't let me straighten? My light blue eyes were going to hypnotize them.....Then they would understand why I had never picked up a Southern accent, or spoke the common slang, and why I had to be forced to eat pigs' tails and snouts. Because I was really white and because a cruel fairy stepmother, who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth." The beginning moments when we are introduced to Maya are when we receive a sense of Marguerite's lack of self-confidence. The reader lives and sees life as Marguerite, or Maya sees it, as a young black girl who feels the entire world is staring at her faults and can't see past the color of her skin. With the authors strong use of symbolism and metaphors the reader can actually feel like he or she is traveling with Maya through her life's journey.
Maya is the daughter of divorced parents and has only a thing close to her, her brother Bailey Junior who was a year older and the only person Maya looked up to.
Maya lives behind a store that her Grandmother owns in Stamps, Arkansas with her crippled Uncle, her grandmother, and her brother. The store holds a sense of security for Maya as she watches the over-worked cotton pickers come in everyday with the same routine that puts them farther into a debt that they will never pay off.
Maya experiences how difficult life is with prejudice people, but as her life progresses she defeats the matter as well as she can. Throughout this time she is introduced to her parents, who she barely knows, who take her and her brother away from the store and to unfamiliar places which brought on an unforgettable event that changed Maya's life forever.
Maya experienced many things that many people don't. She is one of the few people whose life story was actually moving enough to be published.
Maya Angelou goes from a little, southern, black girl who wishes to be a "a long and blonde haired, light-blue eyed, white girl", to a very mature young adult that is proud of her race.