Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide
June 1998
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
- Did your response to Caged Bird differ from the way you felt about the other books we've read so far? What are the main points of difference, do you think?
- The nature and nurturing of relationships -- particularly close, familial relationships -- is an important theme in this book. What are Maya's most significant relationships? How do these change as she grows older?
- We often describe a narrative in terms of its journey structure. In some stories, the heroine must journey through a series of trials, crises, or obstacles that she overcomes by learning to exercise her gifts and talents or by relying on the assistance of helpers along the way. What characterizes the trials or crises that Maya must face? Can you see any patterns? What helpers does she encounter? How is she changed by these meetings?
- Religious belief is shared, to varying degrees, among all the characters. In what ways is this belief a positive force? In what ways is it a negative force?
- The relationships between black people and whitefolks create an important tension in this book. The graduation scene in Chapter 23 (which is frequently anthologized) offers a dramatic example of the conflict. How is the racial tension created? How is it resolved? What does Maya learn from this episode? Can you
find other examples of this conflict? How are they resolved?
- There are many scenes involving cooking and eating in this book. How are these used thematically? What are their functions? Clothing is another strong element. How is it used?
- In telling her story, Angelou often uses a narrative device called "flash-forward." Here is one example, from p. 16 (in the Bantam paperback):
"I watched him [Mr. McElroy] with the excitement of expecting him to do anything at any time. I never tired of this, or became disappointed or disenchanted with him, although from the perch of age, I see him now as a very simple and uninteresting man who sold patent medicine and tonics to the less sophisticated people in towns (villages) surrounding the metropolis of Stamps."
What happens to your perception of the situation when Angelou uses this device? If you're working on your own story, what use might you make of it?
- In our last session, we didn't get to talk about this question, so I want to remind us of it. I think it's worth considering in light of the three "survivor" narratives we have read -- An Unknown Woman, Waist-High in the World, and Caged Bird. Here is it: In a book called Living to tell the Tale, Jane Taylor McDonnell writes,
"The very act of writing is a part of recovery. In the telling , the writer becomes a survivor -- one who has changed, but lived to tell the tale. These narratives...seek to reconsititute the lost self and reconceive the traumatizing experience as a survivor's story. In them, the more mature writer can reflect with profound sympathy on that earlier self which suffered but did not yet know the meaning of the suffering. Furthermore, the best examples of this kind of writing are more than just private. They are also deeply spiritual and historical accounts that bear witness to some universal trauma experienced on a personal level."
Please think about the significance of McDonnell's statement to the books we've read -- we'll talk about it at our session.