In honor of
the late Maya Angelou—the honorable author, poet, and activist—who died on May
28, 2014, I decided to read her beautiful autobiography: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Really, before actually reading
it, I have never realized that this book is really an autobiography of Maya
Angelou, not just an autobiographical fiction. I just realized my fault when
Marguerite told how her brother, who loved her so much, used to call her Maya
(from Mya sister). It was then that I
realized that is has been Maya Angelou herself who was telling her story.
Maya was only
three years old when her parents divorced. They sent her and her big brother
Bailey (four years old) to Stamps, Arkansas, by train, with only a porter to
accompany them, to live with their grandmother. This journey (and the sense of
abandonment) wounded both children. In Stamps, the grandmother, Annie
Henderson, lived with her crippled son Willie (Uncle Willie). It was the two of
them who raised Maya and Bailey. Momma Henderson (Maya’s appellation for her
grandmother) ran the Store where the Blacks (mostly very poor cotton pickers)
shopped their daily needs. Mrs. Henderson was a strong and respectable woman,
and the way she maintained her dignity against the Whites’ insults was
tremendous. During her life in Stamps, Maya witnessed the struggles as well as
the bitter hopes of the Blacks amidst the Whites dominion. All these built the
inferiority (if not hatred) in little Maya towards the Whites, although she
almost never saw them in reality. She even felt guilty of having Shakespeare as
her favorite author because of his whiteness.
When Maya
was still nine or ten years old, her father came to Stamps and brought the
brother and sister to St. Louis, to stay with their beautiful mother. One day Maya
was raped by her mother’s boyfriend, and this changed her life completely. She
became very quiet, and suddenly Maya grew much more mature than her age. I
think Maya’s turning point optimism of being black was in her eight grade graduation,
when Henry Reeds led the audience to sing Negro National Anthem with pride. It
was then that Maya started to realize of her own value, as a Black, and as a
human being. Her visit to her daddy’s home was another phase of Maya’s
transformation, where she eventually found her own strength.
I liked this
book from the first page; in fact, it did not feel like reading an autobiography
at all. Maya Angelou was certainly a great story teller, and her way of
re-telling her own bitter past was filled with hope and optimism, instead of
condemnation or lamentation. As a title, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”
offers a deeper meaning of Angelou’s sight of her people. I found an interesting article about this, which revealed that the title was taken
from a poem by an African poet: Paul Laurence Dunbar—and it is a beautiful
poem! When the world has not been free from prejudices and discrimination—even until
now—what the oppressed must do is to maintain hope, and to keep in mind that as
long as they think they are free, no one can snatch that from them.
A beautiful
and inspiring reading indeed! Four stars for Maya Angelou!
~~~~~~~~~~~
I read Ballantine Books Mass Market edition
This book is counted
as:
6th book for 2014 TBR Pile Challenge
74th book for The Classics Club Project
72nd book for 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
Wasn't this one beautiful! I thought it was be sad and slow, but it was just wonderful.
ReplyDeleteMee too, I thought it would be full of sorrow (like Morrison's Beloved), but I was wrong. It was beautiful and full of hope.
Delete