Critical Analysis and Detailed Summary I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings|Poetry Analysis of Maya Angelou's Caged Bird Essay|Maya Angelou

Critical Analysis and Detailed Summary I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | Maya Angelou

Blog by Lalit Sharma (B.A (Hons.) English)

Background

In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou describes her coming of age as a precocious but insecure black girl in the American South during the 1930s and subsequently in California during the 1940s. Maya’s parents divorce when she is only three years old and ship Maya and her older brother, Bailey, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, in rural Stamps, Arkansas. Annie, whom they call Momma, runs the only store in the black section of Stamps and becomes the central moral figure in Maya’s childhood.

As young children, Maya and Bailey struggle with the pain of having been rejected and abandoned by their parents. Maya also finds herself tormented by the belief that she is an ugly child who will never measure up to genteel, white girls. She does not feel equal to other black children. One Easter Sunday, Maya is unable to finish reciting a poem in church, and self-consciously feeling ridiculed and a failure, Maya races from the church crying, laughing, and wetting herself. Bailey sticks up for Maya when people actually make fun of her to her face, wielding his charisma to put others in their place.

Maya endures several appalling incidents that teach her about the insidious nature of racism. At age ten, Maya takes a job for a white woman who calls Maya “Mary” for her own convenience. Maya becomes enraged and retaliates by breaking the woman’s fine china. At Maya’s eighth grade graduation, a white speaker devastates the proud community by explaining that black students are expected to become only athletes or servants. When Maya gets a rotten tooth, Momma takes her to the only dentist in Stamps, a white man who insults her, saying he’d rather place his hand in a dog’s mouth than in hers. The last straw comes when Bailey encounters a dead, rotting black man and witnesses a white man’s satisfaction at seeing the body. Momma begins to fear for the children’s well-being and saves money to bring them to Vivian, who now lives in California.

When Maya is thirteen, the family moves to live with Vivian in Los Angeles and then in Oakland, California. When Vivian marries Daddy Clidell, a positive father figure, they move with him to San Francisco, the first city where Maya feels at home. She spends one summer with her father, Big Bailey, in Los Angeles and has to put up with his cruel indifference and his hostile girlfriend, Dolores. After Dolores cuts her in a fight, Maya runs away and lives for a month with a group of homeless teenagers in a junkyard. She returns to San Francisco strong and self-assured. She defies racist hiring policies in wartime San Francisco to become the first black streetcar conductor at age fifteen. At sixteen, she hides her pregnancy from her mother and stepfather for eight months and graduates from high school. The account ends as Maya begins to feel confident as a mother to her newborn son.

Summary & Critical Analysis

In the first stanza, the speaker describes a bird taking flight and gliding on a wind current. The bird revels in its freedom, feeling the warmth of sun rays on its wings as it flaps them. The speaker describes the free bird's flight as "dar[ing] to claim the sky." The opening lines show a bird leaping ‘on the back of the wind’ demonstrating the freedom it experience to move about and glide freely through the air. It hovers over a stream of wind and floats downwards to where the current of the stream ends and the wind is calm. It dips its wing in the sea of orange sunlight. The bird is shown in a state of great tranquility. It has the freedom to move about wherever it desires. It is so utterly free and without restraints that it ‘dares to claim the sky’. The whole firmament is his one big home.

The second stanza introduces a comparison of the free bird to a caged bird. Imprisoned, the caged bird stalks his cage and feels rage over having clipped wings and tied feet. The flight-limiting cage, wing clipping, and tied feet prompt the bird to sing. Here, poet Maya Angelou contrasts the situation by presenting the image of a caged bird. The caged bird tries to go after his cage in vain. The cage is narrow and its metaphorical bars are of rage. The caged bird is seen to be angry with its situation. It desires with all its heart to escape its plight. But the caged bird cannot see beyond his cage. Its wings are clipped, that is, its freedom is taken away. Wings are associated with flight, which in turn is associated with freedom. The words ‘his wings are clipped’ mean that its freedom is forcibly taken away. It cannot fly even if it desires to. Its feet are tied. A bird tied to the ground represents an image completely opposite to its true nature of flight. This represents the fact of alienation of the bird. But the most important thing is that despite being in this utterly despondent predicament, the caged bird ‘opens his throat to sing.’ That seems to be his only joy and achievement in life.

In the third stanza, the speaker says the caged bird sings a song infused with a fear of the things the bird does not know but longs for nonetheless. The caged bird's tune reaches a distant hill because it is a song yearning for freedom. The caged bird has a wavering voice. He is singing of freedom, something he does not have. The idea of freedom is his dream, one he cannot achieve. So, he sings about it. There is fear in his voice. He had never known what freedom tastes like, but hopes to have it for his own. His voice can be heard from distant places, on hills where it inspires others to dream of freedom. The caged bird doesn’t sing of sadness, but of hope, inspiration and of freedom.

Stanza four returns to the free bird, who contemplates the arrival of another strong wind and thinks about the fat worms which await him on lawns in the morning. He claims the sky as his own. The free bird on the other hand revels in his freedom. He enjoys flying through the trade wind that blows through the trees. ‘Sighing trees’ probably refers to the sighing sound made by the breeze while passing through the leafy branches. It gives an indication to their lack of freedom, as the trees are also ‘tied’ to the ground like the caged bird.

The free bird thinks of the fat worm that will be his food. With the wind in his feathers, water and earth beneath him, and the whole sky with him, he feels majestic in his freedom and calls the entire sky his own domain. By ‘names the sky his own’ the poet’s wishes to express that the bird knows himself to be the proprietor of this whole universe. Here the sky stands for the universe.

The fifth stanza shifts back to the caged bird, whose perch is "the grave of dreams" and whose "shadow shouts on a nightmare scream." Because his wings are clipped and his feet tied, he opens his throat to sing. The caged, inversely, knows that he is not flying in the sky, that he is not free, but a captive, a prisoner. He  thus ‘stands on the grave of dreams’ He knows his dreams of flying in a free firmament, to experience freedom is futile. He had lost all hope of freedom. His shadow ‘shouts on a nightmare scream’. It is more pitiable, more adverse than a nightmare. His wings are clipped and feet are tied; there is only a little hope of freedom, and so the bird opens his throat to sing. The bird wishes to travail against all adversities. There is a faint but kindling voice of hope in his song.

The sixth and final stanza is a word-for-word repeat of the third stanza. The caged bird sings a song that is fearful of the things the bird does not know but for which it longs. The speaker concludes the poem by repeating that the song reaches a distant hill because "the caged bird sings of freedom." This refrain recurring as a stanza justifies the bird’s stout determination to keep going after his dream of freedom. Moreover, the caged bird chooses to sing as this is the only freedom available to him, that he can enjoy without any restriction. His wings are clipped, feet are tied, but his throat is not chocked yet. This is something the poet have felt at heart and that’s why she uses the title ‘I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings’.

This might be seen as the poet’s message to raise our voice, to express ourselves even though the stronger wants to suppress the weaker and to never ever give up, no matter  what situation we are in.

In Short

• Maya Angelou creates contrasting images of how a free bird and a caged bird live their lives.

• The free bird enjoys the open sky and floats on the back of the wind while the caged bird’s wings are clipped and feet are tied.

• The caged bird’s future looks bleak. Still he sings in a fearful voice and he sings of freedom.

• Angelou, with the metaphor of birds, represents the inequality of justice seen in the society of her time which differentiates between the African-American community and its White American counterpart.

Caged Bird: Commentary

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is a free verse written by the American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou is widely regarded as the “Black Woman’s Poet Laureate.” Her reflections on the society and the times she lived in are vividly expressed in her poetry. Angelou’s life is a testament to the whole Black American’s lives and the way they have struggled throughout history against every form of exploitation and looked for freedom. This poem sings that narration through the traditional metaphor of bird.

Outwardly the poem “I know why the caged bird sings” or “Caged Bird” as it is often interchangeably known, can be seen as a reflection on social disparity, and the ideals of freedom and justice. Angelou, with the metaphor of birds, represents the inequality of justice seen in the society of her time which differentiates between the African-American community and its White American counterpart. Through her poem, she also illustrates the nature of both freedom and captivity by creating a stark contrast between the two using birds as the metaphor.

In many ways the poem ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ can be considered as the poet’s personal expression. Maya Angelou can be regarded as the caged bird in the poem. A stanza in the poem is repeated to catch the attention to the idea of the caged bird singing for freedom. The poem uses a metaphor to compare caged birds to African Americans fighting for equality during the civil rights movement.

The poem is divided into six stanzas, describing the state of two birds, where one is free and ‘floats’ and ‘dares to claim the sky’, while the other is caged in his ‘bar of rage’. The first and the third stanza shows the delight of the free bird experiencing freedom, whereas the rest of the stanzas concentrate on the plight of the caged bird. Angelou puts greater emphasis on the lamentable state of the caged bird, and contrasts this with that of the free bird.

Although the poem I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has no definitive rhyme scheme, it creates the illusion of rhyme with the clever use of consonance. The enjambment in the poem draws the reader’s eye to things of importance in a blunt manner.

At a Glance:

Full TitleI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

AuthorMaya Angelou

Type Of WorkAutobiographical novel

GenreAutobiography

LanguageEnglish

Time And Place WrittenNew York City, late 1960s

Date Of First Publication1969

PublisherRandom House

In depth Facts:

NarratorMaya Angelou

Point Of ViewMaya Angelou speaks in the first person as she recounts her childhood. She writes both from a child’s point of view and from her perspective as an adult.

TonePersonal, comical, woeful, and philosophical

TensePast

Setting (Time)1930s–1950s

Setting (Place)Stamps, Arkansas; St. Louis, Missouri; Oakland, California; San Francisco, California

ProtagonistMaya Angelou

Major Conflict Coming-of-age as a southern black girl, confronting racism, sexism, violence, and loneliness

Rising ActionMaya’s parents divorce; Maya and Bailey are sent to Stamps; Maya and Bailey move in with their mother in St. Louis; Maya is raped; Maya and Bailey return to Stamps; Bailey witnesses a victim of lynching; Maya and Bailey move to San Francisco to live with Vivian; Maya spends the summer with her father

ClimaxMaya runs away from her father, displaying her first true act of self-reliance and independence after a lifelong struggle with feelings of inferiority and displacement; here, she displaces herself intentionally, leading to important lessons she learns about humanity while in the junkyard community

Falling ActionMaya lives for a month in the junkyard with a group of homeless teenagers; she becomes San Francisco’s first black streetcar conductor; she becomes pregnant; she graduates high school; she gives birth to a son and gains confidence

ThemesRacism and segregation; debilitating displacement; resistance

MotifsStrong black women; literature; naming

SymbolsThe Store; Maya’s Easter dress

Foreshadowing   The opening scene in the church foreshadows the struggles Maya will have to overcome in her life; when she cannot recite the poem and flees the church while crying and peeing, Angelou notes her fear of the people laughing at her and her sense of displacement and inferiority even among other blacks; she also leaves the church laughing, however, which foreshadows her ultimate success.