Review of Autobiography of Maya Angelou
Review of Autobiography of Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a coming of age story of a young black woman during a critical time of African American History. The story is an autobiography about Maya Angelou during the 1930’s in rural segregated Stamps, Arkansas. Within this framework Maya jumps back and forth between triumphs and drama. However, this poses several questions: Why does she do this? And what effect does it have on the reader? Maya jumps back and forth between triumphs and drama in order to keep the reader interested, and this allows the reader to remain focused on the story and this also makes it more suspenseful and enjoyable to read.
First off, it is important to understand that the story goes from triumph to drama quite quickly. A prime example of this is when Maya successfully drove the car from the Mexican bar to the border (guard’s box) and said, “No matter what happened after that, I had won.” However, just as quickly as Maya praised herself over this triumph, when she pulled away from the guard’s box she slammed into another car. Suddenly her triumph became drama. Now, one might wonder how this keeps the reader interested. Well, the sudden change draws the reader’s attention and thus it is more interesting. Not only this, but the fact that the story changes from triumph to drama so quickly affects the reader in the sense that it keeps him/her on their toes, or in other words makes it suspenseful.
Secondly, the fact that Maya chooses opportune times to change from triumph to drama keeps the reader interested and affects the reader by making it more suspenseful. In other words during boring parts of the story where a reader would appear to be becoming less interested, Maya attracts the reader’s attention by a sudden change from triumph to drama. For example, Maya spends an entire chapter discussing how she lived in a junkyard. There is no real triumph or drama-taking place here; thus the reader becomes less interested. Though, just at the right time Maya suddenly jumps toward triumph, “I was at home again. And my mother was a fine lady.” Maya expresses her triumph in returning home to her mother after spending a month living...