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Summary: I know why the caged bird sings
Review: Book Review By Jillian CarrickGrowing up in a time of depression and racism, Maya Angelou's first autobiography narrates the struggles she coped with as a black child living in the south. Her first of many vivid memories in the opening of, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is when she is three years old and her brother Bailey four, and their parents send them by train to live with relatives in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya is formally raised in a proper and religious manner by her grandma Henderson (Momma) who serves as a role model for her because she triumphs in spite of her restrictions. While in Stamps, Maya encounters many insightful people who prepare her for prejudice, but help build her the confidence to succeed in a world lacking equality. She is taught that as long as she abides by the Lord and the rules of the bible, she will never be mislead. Maya Angelou, known as Marguerite Johnson in her early years, is able to clearly recapture her ambitious efforts through moving, tear-jerking tales of her life up until age sixteen. Throughout this dynamic, straightforward autobiography, Angelou provides a child's perspective on a repressive and challenging world of adults. She states, "The art of autobiography as a means for a writer is to go back to the past and recover through imagination and invention what has been lost" (Novels for Students; volume 2). In her first, and many say her best of a series of five autobiographies, Marguerite reveals the gruesome details of being raped at age eight by her mother's lover. She explains her perplexing fears after the incident, and how she refuses to speak much at all for five consecutive years believing that she was responsible for Mr. Freeman's death (the man who raped her) simply by speaking his name in court. Marguerite soon becomes aware of her expected place in society just by observing how her race is treated throughout her years of silence. As she tries to discover herself and recover her own voice she realizes how many closed doors she will face, and how it seems very few will ever open. Marguerite thinks, "It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense" (153). She begins to comprehend a reality that, "we were maids and farmers, handymen and washerwomen, and anything higher that we aspired to was farcical and presumptuous" (152). Maya Angelou's, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is not just any old book to pass the hours, but rather the true story of a miraculously distinguished woman who deserves to be remembered as an extraordinary human-being. This book is special in the way that it keeps your feelings and opinion racing while it simultaneously expands your culture. In addition, "This work also affords insights into the social and political tensions pervading the 1930's" (Gale literary databases document). I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings leaves you full of curiosity about the next fifty years of Maya Angelou's successful life which she doesn't entice us with until her following four sequels. With Marguerite's coming of age in this overwhelming autobiography, the reader senses a truth about her, and it becomes no challenge to understand her suffrage in an expanding country full of discrimination. Maya writes, "If growing up is painful for a Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat" (3).
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Summary: A Beautiful Memoir
Review: A lot of negative criticism flows around 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', based on people's conception that Angelou is a racist or trying to obtain sympathy from the reader, but these people obviously have never been introduced to the basic definition of memoir. A memoir is a person's own account of their life, and this account is typically written complete with all thoughts and feelings from various ages. Angelou writes with a pro-black slant through the book (I won't deny this) because that is how things were when she was growing up. This doesn't reflect her current opinions on white people in any way. The book, as a memoir, is meant to show the reader how things were, not how they are. She is accurately portraying a time that most younger readers of today cannot understand, because of the integrated society that they have grown up in. It's a shame that people can no longer empathize with an author who had a different situation from their own. To these readers, I suggest reading the Brittany Spears biography or some such similar claptrap. Secondly, Angelou is not trying to evoke sympathy, she is simply stating the events of her life, as she percieved them at the time. No where does it say that the reader must percieve them in the same way, or that Angelou herself maintains the same thoughts to this day. If you feel that writing about bad situations is an automatic cry for sympathy, then stay away from this book and read something with a happy ending. People complain that this book had no story. How incredibly egocentric of them not to recognize that Caged Bird tells Angelou's story, and that she is thoughtful enough not to rap everything up in a nice little bow at the end, which would have totally cheapened a fabulous piece of literature.
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Summary: My Review
Review: I thought that this book was very good and very interesting, but I also felt that there was too much vivid sexual descriptions...I read this book as an assignment for my eighth grade english class, and it was very awkward to discuss some of the chapters. We were even instructed not to read the chapter where she is pondering her sexuality and lesbianity. I think that, as good a book as I found this to be, it was not appropriate for an eighth grade english class....not that its Maya Angelou's fault! well I hope you all enjoyed this book as much as I did...
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Summary: Most Overrated Author of Our Time, Thanks Ophrah!
Review: Try Derek Walcott if you have any intelligence.
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Summary: i know why the cage bird sings
Review: I am recently studying the book for my 2nd yr A Level, and I am facinated by it.I feel that the book is really good, maybe a little far fetched in some places when you realize the age of the child. I read a review the other day from america. It said that some parents had wanted the book to be banned because of the paunagraphic material that was in the book. I thought that this was very amusing, they obviuosly didnt read the book at all... i have got to do the book for a coursework module and i am looking forward to writing an essay on this stunning read! ;o)
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Summary: No logro interesarme
Review: Esta obra me resulta increíblemente pesada y su lectura me pareció infructífera. La autora no logro interesarme en el tema familiar que trataba y creo que este libro esta muy por debajo de sus poemas, que son rítmicos y hermosos, llenos de vida. Quizás este un poco prejuiciado a leer biografías o autobiografías pero he leído unas cuantas mas o menos soportables. Creo que las personas interesadas en Maya Angelou deberían leer sus poesías y dejar a un lado este libro. Luis Mendez
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Summary: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Review: How I see it, people are like little machines living in a repetitive cycle that just want to get out. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is what you might call an escape route to experience life from another perspective. The enthralling book by Maya Angelou tells a story about a young girl and her many adventures through the troubles and joys of family, school, church, people, and just plain life. What I found to be the strongest point in the book was the character development. I thought that it was very clear and organized and it kept my interest through her many back and forth moves from her grandmother to her dad, and to her mom and then back again. I also found that I could relate to many of her situations and I understood her choices. I also felt the plot was very becoming. I found it interesting and captivating the writer's words were so well detailed I could picture everything. I flowed so smoothly I found myself no being able to stop reading, The only complaint I have about the plot is that one or two parts did not have a true significance, otherwise all was well. The meaning, even though it depended on the individual reader, I thought was all very relevant and it taught the reader about many life adventures as well as tragic events. It also gave the reader some historical information on World War two and the depression. I felt this adventure of a young girl's life in the early 1900's was a great experience and I enjoyed it thoroughly.It led you through twists and turns so and the end you were just yearning for more. I would most definitely recommend this to anyone if they were looking for a great entertaining story.
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Summary: I Know why the Caged Bird Sings
Review: I dont really have a review. i really just wanted notes in a book i am supposed to read for school. Instead of giving me cliff notes or even a summary, I get this sight adking me if i want to bye the fricking book when i already have it. i have read the book, I just want notes to do journal entries on so i dont fail the fricking class. So thanks for nothing. This site sucks. and I dont want to follow you guidlines. I dont care about your guidlines. i dont care if this gets posted or not. I just want to say that i couldnt find notes here or anywhere and your sight pisses me off the most. if you are at all offended by my opinions, Im sorry in advance but that still doesnt get me the notes i need and that really pisses me off that Imapoligizing to you for something i didnt get but need desperatley.and im 15 not twelve. send me to jail for lying but i know this wont be posted so i dont care all that much who reads this and who doesnt.
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Summary: Wow, this is a true story!
Review: This woman is beautiful and her life is more than worthy of the many volumes of her autobiography. This is the first. It tells the story of a little black girl growing up poor in Stamps, Arkansas. All the more moving for it's reality.
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Summary: classic? I think not.
Review: The book is awful. I get the feeling that the angelou just wants some self pity by gripping about it in her books--the same scene plays over and over: racism , racism, we grew up poor, racism, we grew up poor. I don't doubt that racism was/is a big part of society--but it gets old when people starts yammering and whining about the ethics of racism cuz no one really cares about it anymore.
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