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A review by saritaroth
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4.0
Favorite Quotes Of The Book - "Then there was the pain. A breaking and entering when even the senses are torn apart. The act of rape on an eight-year-old body is a matter of the needle giving because the camel can't. The child gives, because the body can, and the mind of the violater cannot."
"I knew that even now he wouldn't have allowed death to have me unless he wished it to."
This book was amazing, awe-inspiring, and in parts disturbing, as one would expect. Maya Angelou paints the scene of the Deep South and other locales with a brush splashed with sorrow, confusion, innocence, humor, and above all, hope.
Angelou has written more than six autobiographies and this one was her first foray into the sordid details of her life. The story began when she was three and her brother, Bailey, was four. Little Marguerite, or Maya as her family called her, and Bailey were put on a train by themselves to travel from Long Beach, California to Stamps, Arkansas to live with their grandmother. A porter was responsible for their well-being, but he got off the train in Arizona at which point the two little children had to undergo the rest of their journey by themselves. They were both wearing tags on their wrists with their names and destination printed on them as if they were two small packages being sent through the mail and not actual human beings. Thus began a journey through life as cruel and unforgiving as their first journey to the Deep South. Marguerite was lucky to have her brother, Bailey, to look out for her as her life only seemed to get more difficult from there. Bailey, in fact, was the one who endowed her with her nickname, Maya. Originally, he kept calling her "Mya Sister." That eventually got shortened to "My" or "Maya."
At the age of seven, Maya and her older brother, Bailey, travelled with their father to St. Louis, Missouri to meet up with their mother. Their father stayed with them for awhile, but eventually left them with their mother. As Angelou stated regarding her father's departure, "I was neither glad nor sorry. He was a stranger, and if he chose to leave us with a stranger, it was all of one piece." Living with their mother proved not to be the right thing for Maya, however; their mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, ended up raping Maya when she was only eight years old.
I chose the quotes above, because they describe in detail and so clearly what a victim of sexual assault must be feeling and experiencing both during and after the violation. I found this book to be not only heartbreaking but wonderfully well-written. It opened my eyes to the hardships of Black society in a White world. As a white woman, I will never really know how difficult it is to grow up as a woman of color in this society, but this book gave me a clear taste of all that a woman of color does have to grow through. Unfortunately, Maya was not only having to deal with what it means to be black in a prejudiced society, but she was also being violated by members of her own race. Fortunately, Maya had her brother, Bailey, to turn to in the trying times and he was always there for her. I highly recommend this book; it is a timeless masterpiece that will change your view of the world and make you realize what people of color really have to go through on a daily basis even to this day.
"I knew that even now he wouldn't have allowed death to have me unless he wished it to."
This book was amazing, awe-inspiring, and in parts disturbing, as one would expect. Maya Angelou paints the scene of the Deep South and other locales with a brush splashed with sorrow, confusion, innocence, humor, and above all, hope.
Angelou has written more than six autobiographies and this one was her first foray into the sordid details of her life. The story began when she was three and her brother, Bailey, was four. Little Marguerite, or Maya as her family called her, and Bailey were put on a train by themselves to travel from Long Beach, California to Stamps, Arkansas to live with their grandmother. A porter was responsible for their well-being, but he got off the train in Arizona at which point the two little children had to undergo the rest of their journey by themselves. They were both wearing tags on their wrists with their names and destination printed on them as if they were two small packages being sent through the mail and not actual human beings. Thus began a journey through life as cruel and unforgiving as their first journey to the Deep South. Marguerite was lucky to have her brother, Bailey, to look out for her as her life only seemed to get more difficult from there. Bailey, in fact, was the one who endowed her with her nickname, Maya. Originally, he kept calling her "Mya Sister." That eventually got shortened to "My" or "Maya."
At the age of seven, Maya and her older brother, Bailey, travelled with their father to St. Louis, Missouri to meet up with their mother. Their father stayed with them for awhile, but eventually left them with their mother. As Angelou stated regarding her father's departure, "I was neither glad nor sorry. He was a stranger, and if he chose to leave us with a stranger, it was all of one piece." Living with their mother proved not to be the right thing for Maya, however; their mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, ended up raping Maya when she was only eight years old.
I chose the quotes above, because they describe in detail and so clearly what a victim of sexual assault must be feeling and experiencing both during and after the violation. I found this book to be not only heartbreaking but wonderfully well-written. It opened my eyes to the hardships of Black society in a White world. As a white woman, I will never really know how difficult it is to grow up as a woman of color in this society, but this book gave me a clear taste of all that a woman of color does have to grow through. Unfortunately, Maya was not only having to deal with what it means to be black in a prejudiced society, but she was also being violated by members of her own race. Fortunately, Maya had her brother, Bailey, to turn to in the trying times and he was always there for her. I highly recommend this book; it is a timeless masterpiece that will change your view of the world and make you realize what people of color really have to go through on a daily basis even to this day.