Theme
of Race
Maya is black. Seems
simple enough, right? Not so much. Racism is the cage around the caged bird,
and it means not getting jobs, not getting medical treatment, and even the risk
of lynching. The incidents of racism in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings are illogical and seem at first like
insurmountable obstacles. But by the end of the book, our main squeeze learns
how to fight back in her own way. Standing on the shoulders of black women
before her, Maya is able to lay the path for the Civil Rights Movement to come.
Theme of Change
From the
very first page of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,
Maya lets us know that she isn't here to stay ("'I didn't come to
stay…'" [Prologue.1]), and she sure doesn't break her promise. She moves
from place to place, meets tons of new people, and grows as a person. At first,
all of this change leads to insecurities. But in the end, our girl embraces it.
And she's a total role model, because she's struggling with questions that we
all face: What does change mean in our lives? How do we deal with it? Should we
ever fight it? This is pretty tough stuff for a middle-schooler, but her
experiences—along with the reflections of adult Maya—set a great example for us
all.
Theme of Appearance
It's
what's on the inside that counts, right? Well, it takes Maya thirty-six
chapters of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings—oh,
and sixteen years of life—to figure that out. This girl thinks she's just plain
ugly. Chalk it up to young girl insecurities, a lack of parental love, or a
culture that praises white beauty, but Maya just doesn't see herself as
attractive. But once that baby is in her tummy, everything changes.
Theme of Identity
There are
no two ways about it: Maya's rape calls her identity into question. Suddenly,
she is both a woman and child—but she feels like neither. She spends the rest
of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings trying on different identities and
hoping that one will stick. In an era beforeBlack Is Beautiful and Take
Back the Night, Maya isn't sure what to think of herself. And just to make
things tougher, she's forced to figure out who she is on her own terms, without
family or friends to help her. Life's a… you know, difficult journey.
Theme
of Love
How many
times are the words "I love you" written in I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings? Go count 'em, we'll wait. Back so
soon? Yeah, we thought so. Love definitely isn't oozing out of the pages of
this book. And because of that, our characters go searching for it—in sex, in
religion, in acceptance. By becoming a mother, Maya will be able to give the
love she never received—and we're pretty sure she'll finally feel it in return.
Theme
of Sexuality and Sexual Identity
Maya is
raped when she is eight years old—that's about as messed up as sex and sexuality
can get. And from the moment she's abused, her sexual identity comes into
question. She confuses sex with love, she feels torn between womanhood and
girlhood, and she doesn't know which way is up. Sex is only for bad people,
right? Or married people? Or perverts? Throughout the course of I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya works her way through an
understanding of sex. In the end, even if she's a bit misguided in her actions,
she takes charge of her sexual identity.
Theme of Religion
When Maya
asks Momma if she loves her, Momma responds, "God is love. Just worry
about whether you're being a good girl, then He will love you" (9.6).
Hmmm. That doesn't really answer the question. In I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the
people in Stamps seem to hold on to religion so tightly that it replaces other
human connections. It defines relationships (because of the use of honorifics),
it sets up rules for living, and it provides comfort in oppression. Maya is
definitely confused about religion. No wonder she seems to always be peeing her
pants at church.
Theme of Literature and Writing
Go check
out the list of literary "Shout-Outs" we found in I Know Why
the Caged Bird Sings. Pretty impressive, right? We can't say we're surprised—this is a
coming-of-age story of an author and a poet, after all. Maya falls in love with
Shakespeare at an age where many people haven't even learned to read. And from
that moment, books never leave her side. Reality is just a little too real, and
our girl uses literature to escape. As she grows older and begins to morph into
author Maya, literature becomes a tool to understand the world and create her
own identity.
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