by Alex Li

Created on: June 29, 2008   Last Updated: July 01, 2008

The world today with its racism, corruption, and discrimination, is lucky to have such an inspirational author as Maya Angelou. In her works of poetry, drama and memoir, she describes the imperfections and perversions of humanity, men, women, black, and white with an unrelenting and sometimes jarring candor. In her first autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", she describes her own experiences as a Black African American girl growing up in the deep south of Stamps, Arkansas.

James Baldwin illustrates the motivation he got from reading this book as follows:

"Black, bitter and beautiful, she speaks of our survival This testimony from a black sister marks the beginning of a new error in the minds and hearts of all black men and women...I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood when the people in books were more real than the people one saw everyday, had I found myself so moved...Her portrait is a biblical study of life in the midst of death."

Maya Angelou went through many impediments throughout her life including the separation of her parents at age three, the rape and molestation by her mother's live-in boyfriend, and the prejudices of her community.

Maya was just three years old when her parents got divorced. Her and her brother Bailey, who was four years old, were sent on a train with a porter to Stamps, Arkansas to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. Even though the porter abandons the children at Arizona, they made it safely to Stamps. Annie Henderson, whom the children begin to call "Momma" is one of the community's most respected residents. One Easter Sunday, Maya was in church and was unable to finish a poem. While feeling ridiculed, Maya runs out of church crying, laughing and wetting herself all at the same time. As she continues to be raised in Stamps, Maya faces deep-seated southern racism manifested in wearying daily indignities and terrifying lynch mobs. She spends much time at Mrs. Henderson's store where she realizes that the stereotype of happy, singing cotton pickers is completely wrong when she witnesses the grueling work they have to go through in the fields only to be ripped off by supposedly illegally weighted scales.

As Maya turned eight years old, she has completely forgotten about her father. However

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