Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical novel of Maya Angelou, detailed the first fifteen years of this African American young woman's journey while growing up during the early years of the 20^th century. "Margarite" or "Ritie," as she was often called, guided her readers through the intense and often painful journey of her experiences as a young girl growing up in her grandmother's store.

The journey began with the author and her brother, Bailey, a year older, being sent by their mother to live with their grandmother and Uncle Willie in Stamps, Arkansas, when she was three years old, after their parents' divorce. Throughout the next twelve years, she and Bailey were then sent to live in St. Louis with their mother and live-in boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. Sadly, she was raped by Mr. Freeman and the children return to Stamps for a period of a few years, until they are sent to live in California. Throughout this tale, the author intricately weaved her thoughts, feelings and beliefs about the world around her, as she was led and taught to believe them, from a poor, African American's perspective.

The book recounts how the siblings worked in their grandmother's store. She commented that local citizens, of both Caucasian and African American races, upheld her grandmother with the highest level of respect due to her owning a moderately successful store. This, in itself was very unusual. Ritie was fully aware of their low socioeconomic status which held that, since they were black, ownership of any property, let alone a store, was highly unlikely. The culture she grew up in was not one of an individualistic nature, as opposed to a collectivistic nature. A culture of individualism would hold that each member was independent, autonomous and self-reliant. The African American population, as a whole, did not believe in relying in their own independence, as their culture, as propagated by treatment by the white population, was one of a collectivistic approach. Children did not speak back to their elders. Mothers were very matriarchal and clearly held the authority role in these families. This was unquestioned, which was clearly evident in the telling of Ritie's tale.

The children, their grandmother and their uncle were very aware of their socioeconomic status and conducted their daily lives in acceptance of this standard, as held by others, particularly the white population. In one portion of the book, Ritie commented that it was expected that most whites had refrigerators but, virtually unheard of for any of the black population to own such an extravagance. She recounted one particular occurrence of a visit to her grandmother's store by the "powhitetrash" residents who lived behind the store. On one occasion, several of these girls came to the store and attempted to instigate an altercation with her grandmother with verbal insults and other oral degradations. When she failed to respond in the negative manner they had hoped she would, they proceeded to further degrade themselves and her by exposing themselves to her. She calmly asked them to leave but failed to further respond. Ritie was horrified by the girls' acts and confused by her grandmother's response. She rebelled against the ultimate assumption and practice by the black population that it was unacceptable for a black person to respond to such behavior and, to, in fact, accept this treatment in general from whites.

Ritie recounted how famous black boxer Joe Louis won a match against white boxer, Carnera. At such a young age, even then she understood that a loss by Louis would signify "another lynching of a black man while a white woman was slapping her maid for being forgetful." Her grandmother and local community simply accepted this fact as reality and refused to rebel against this standard of behavior. In another portion of the book, her brother, after seeing a black man's dead body being pulled from a nearby pond by several white men, asked their uncle for a reason behind the whites' intense hatred of the black people. Uncle Willie aptly responded that it was not hatred but, rather, the white population's fear of the black population. The white population feared what they did not know about. The segregation practices were so strictly followed that many black children did not even know what white people looked like, and assumed they must simply be imagined. When Ritie obtained her first job working as a maid for a local white woman, she rebelled in anger at the white woman's acceptable practice of intentionally calling her by a shortened name. Ritie held strongly to her identity by her name, her full name, not a shortened version, such as "Mary." Unlike her grandmother, she was not willing to simply accept their life as the white population had dictated.

The treatment of the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor further displayed evidence of the blacks prevalent acceptance of their socioeconomic status as subservient to whites. They viewed the rampant discrimination against U.S. Japanese citizens as simply a part of life and an advantage to them, since there were more jobs to be filled due to the Japanese workers' vacancies. The black citizens accepted this treatment as normal, given their own experience with this discrimination, and even viewed this as a promotion to new employment opportunities.

It is interesting to note the drastic differences in parenting styles between Ritie's three "parents" - her grandmother, her mother and her father. Her grandmother was clearly authoritarian. This is a style of parenting wherein strict rules for behavior are set for children and complete adherence was expected. While parents utilizing this parenting style clearly love their children, the physical affection is not quite as apparent. Grandmother rarely showed affection to her grandchildren. She rarely reached out in a gesture of physical emotion, whether to express love, adoration or empathy. These children knew nothing other than absolute obedience, as there were no other options. It was simply expected of them. Sadly, this parenting style did not lend itself to Grandmother outwardly expressing sorrow or sympathy to Ritie upon her return to Stamps after being raped in St. Louis, by her mother's live-in boyfriend, Mr. Freeman.

In contrast, their biological parents each exhibited permissive parenting styles, with her mother utilizing an indulgent parenting style and her father utilizing a neglectful parenting style. When the children went to live with their mother, first in St. Louis, then in San Francisco, she appeared to view them as more like peers or confidantes, rather than children to be guided and disciplined in the way they should be. Their mother failed to implement with her children any strict rules and boundaries concerning accepted behavior or morals. In fact, she included them in many of her carefree, frivolous adult behaviors. From Ritie's telling, it did not appear she knew how to be a role model nor cared to. She loved her children too but failed to care for them in the manner expected of a mother.

Alternatively, their father, also a permissive style parent, utilized more of a neglectful parenting style. He appeared to be arbitrarily doting then indifferent. Ritie went to stay with her dad and his white live-in girlfriend, Dolores, for a short time. During the stay, Dolores made it quite clear she did not desire to be a mother to Ritie and verbalized that she wished Ritie was not a part of the relationship equation with her father. At one point in the visit, her dad took her on a trip to Mexico, stating his purpose was to shop for food, but refused to include Dolores on the trip. The two drove to Mexico, where he proceeded to become inebriated and spent a significant time with his mistress. At the end of the evening, Ritie was forced to drive the two of them home, though she had never learned to drive previously, due to her father's drunken state. After returning to her father's house, Dolores instigated a physical fight and caused physical injury to Ritie. Her father chose to send her to a couple friend's home to care for Ritie, at which point, she ran away from home. He refused to take physical responsibility for her and allowed her to do as she pleased. Eventually, she did return to her mother's home in San Francisco.

Despite these seemingly at odds parenting styles, Ritie was a very determined, disciplined, honest young girl. She was very intelligent and intuitive. She described occasions where she would self-punish and not allow herself little pleasures for what she described as "bad judgments." Sadly, this would pave the way for some of her future experiences and how she viewed herself, in light of them.

At age fifteen, having received no instruction or discussion on sexuality from any adult, she began to experience curiosity coupled with self-doubt. She read a fictional book based on lesbianism and began to wonder if she was not "normal." She saw her physical body naturally develop and assumed that there must be something wrong with her. She discussed this concern with her mother, who laughingly dismissed her fears. Given her mother's indulgent permissive parenting style, her father's neglectful permissive parenting style and her grandmother's authoritarian style, it is little wonder this young girl was self-conscious and lacked self-esteem. This low view of her self-worth led her to experiment with a neighborhood boy in an attempt to determine her sexuality. She described her first sexual experience as very cold, unfeeling and not at all as she expected. She had little knowledge, expectation or understanding of the magnitude of such an event. How could she have? Therefore, when she became pregnant, she did not tell her mother and step father until she was eight months. This should surely be an event a young teenage mother shares with her mother. Both her mother and step father were alarmingly understanding, accepting and acquiescing to her impending motherhood. An authoritative parent would have previously explained to this young the pleasures and responsibilities of undertaking such an event, parenting she did not receive. She gave birth to a baby boy shortly after graduating from high school and the book ends with her describing her awe, wonderment and hesitating acceptance of her new role.

This book easily evidences an example of the "butterfly effect," a phenomenon Maya Angelou is most certainly aware of. She refused to adhere to the accepted norms and adhere to how blacks expected to be treated by the white population. She refused to accept her station in life. Who she is today was built upon the experiences she had as a young girl, including her rape at age eight and her pregnancy at age fifteen.

It is my opinion that this book can be summarized best by discussing the three domains of development: biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial. Biosocial domain would hold that biological influences directly affect one's development. Therefore, her development would be primarily effected by her physical conditions. If this were accurate, she would likely have succumbed to the physical environment she grew up in. Cognitive domain would hold that thought processes, perceptual abilities, language mastery and educational institutions stimulate one's intellectual development. Therefore, her development would have been primarily impacted by her cognitive surroundings, which, given their low socioeconomic status, would have been low at best. While it is true she chose to excel and explore as much as was given her, and was able to go above and beyond some of what she was given, she clearly was not afforded as many opportunities as others. Psychosocial domain would hold that emotions, personality, interpersonal relationships with friends and family hold more of an influence. Therefore, her development would have been primarily affected by her social development. Clearly it is an understatement to say that she was a shy and introverted child. She did not have many close friends, having only one close friend in grade school, Louise. She does not discuss many social events or other friends during her high school years. In addition, she experienced two very difficult events in a very young girl's life, rape and pregnancy. While each theory holds a portion of truth with respect to her development, perhaps a more epigenetic perspective, that is, combining all three theories is more applicable. Each domain attributed to her development into an incredibly bright, talented, intelligent and self-confident young woman.