I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Book Summary

Here we are giving I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings book summary. Summarizing the book means summarizing the life of Maya Angelou. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography of the poet and writer Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou wrote this book as her autobiography of the age she was a teenager.

A teenager insecure black girl in South America during the 1930s and in California during the 1940s. In the book ” I Know Why Caged Bird Sings” Maya Angelou depicts her stories of life from the age of 3 to age 16.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Book Summary In Simple Words

This is an autobiographical book by the writer Maya Angelou. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is the first part of her autobiographical literature. And there are not many characters in this part of the book. Just speaking the events in a prose style.

When describing the events; characters are coming to life. So, without further delay let’s give I Know Why Cages Bird Sings summary.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Book Summary:

At the start of the book, I Know Why The Cased Bird Sings Maya’s parents get divorced when she is only three years old. After the divorce, Maya and her older brother, Bailey, lived 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. For that childhood incident of their parents, Maya and Bailey struggle with the pain of being rejected and abandoned by their parents.

Maya also torments herself with the belief that she is an ugly child. And she will never measure up to white girls. She does not feel equal to other Black children either.

One day at the age of 8, Maya’s father; whom she has no memory of, arrives in Stamps unexpectedly and takes her and Bailey to live with their mother, Vivian, in St. Louis, Missouri. One morning Vivian’s live-in boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, sexually molests Maya, and he later rapes her.

They go to court and afterward, Mr. Freeman is violently murdered, probably by some of the underground criminal associates of Maya’s family. In the aftermath of these events, Maya endures the guilt and shame of having been sexually abused.

She also believes that she bears responsibility for Mr. Freeman’s death because she denied in court that he had molested her before the rape. Believing that she has become a mouthpiece for the devil, Maya stops speaking to everyone except Bailey.

Momma( Annie)  manages to break through Maya’s silence by introducing her to Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a kind, educated woman who tells Maya to read works of literature out loud, giving her books of poetry that help her regain her voice.

” I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings ” is the first part of the autobiography of Maya Angelou depicts her story from 3 to the age of 16.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Synopsis

To write I Know Why Caged Bird Sings synopsis we need to know I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings summary first. So, I’ve summarized the whole book for you.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a piece of literature that helped Maya Angelou to surpass her childhood trauma. In the last plot of the autobiography, we find that Maya stopped talking with people after the murder of Mr. Freeman. And she continued to push herself negatively until Momma introduced her to Mrs. Bertha.,

At that time Mrs. Bertha; who was an educated woman tried to put down all the negativities from Maya and told her to read literature. Read out the poetries loud; louder than her pain. And Maya continued to read literature to live. She became a stronger girl and after that, a strong woman day by day, and lastly became a poet, an author, and a full-time civil rights activist.

Maya Angelou published her I Know Why Caged Bird Sings in 1969 when she was 41 years old. She had the urge to tell her life stories to the people who may have been suffering the same life. A push to the pained to break through all the negative chapters of life.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Poem

Maya Angelou was an excellent writer and an inspiring personality who broke through her pain and silence through literature. And, Maya Angelou beautifully depicted her life through 7 volumes autobiography that was published in different times.

But; to tell a thing the name ” I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” is not an original title. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings was first written by the first African-American author Paul Laurance Dunbar in his poetry ” Sympathy”

And when Maya Angelou started reading literature extensively; she got inspired by the poem and named her first biographical book on that title. And, Maya Angelou even wrote a poem named ” I Know Why Caged Bird Sings “.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.

So, this is Why The Caged Bird Sings summary and I’ve tried to give you the simplest synopsis in my words. Hope you like this article. If you are Looking for more Poetry out there, be sure to check out our collection too!