Maya Angelou

The biographical facts of Angelou's early life in Stamps, Arkansas, in the 1930s, where she lived from the age of three to thirteen with Grandmother “Momma” Henderson after the divorce of her parents, are interwoven with many accounts about that life in her first autobiography, the highly successful and immensely popular I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). This book contains a series of anecdotes linked together by a theme of displacement: “If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult”. Caged Bird takes Angelou through high school graduation and the birth of her son. It includes most of the general elements of childhood autobiographies (Angaza). A lack of self-esteem and a sense of insignificance show when Angelou says she is “Awful” because she is a “too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth that would hold a number-two pencil,” and she wears hand-me-down clothes. Rejection is a factor related to the mostly absent mother and father. The father is never depicted as affectionate. Being black in a segregated society, Angelou sees herself as dependent, ineffective, and small. She had to rely on ministrations of others—mainly her grandmother.

Angelou's four subsequent autobiographies proceed chronologically. Covering her life as a teenage mother, her introduction to drugs and illicit activities, and the basics of economic survival is the thrust of volume two, Gather Together in My Name (1974). Focusing on her young adult years as a show business personality is Singing 'and Swinging 'and Getting 'Merry like Christmas (1976). Most of the book tells about her adventures while on a Porgy and Bess tour for the U.S. State Department (Boyd). Her life as an activist embroiled in social causes reflects a maturing Angelou in The Heart of a Woman (1981). The fifth book, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), relates her experiences as an expatriate in Ghana.

Author of five autobiographies and four volumes of poetry, as well as plays and screenplays, Maya Angelou is prolific and immensely popular. Her work in the fictional genre of creative autobiography is as engaging as her poetry, and is as truthful as autobiographies can ever hope to be (Gillespie). Her selection of scenes is based on their emotional weight; she does not try to capture all the weeks and months and years, as a diary might, but only those that hold the most growth and meaning. The first and fourth books, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) and The Heart of a Woman (1981), have received the most critical acclaim. But all of the works are exciting because of Angelou's honest, funny voice, her indomitable spirit, and her rich life of moves, travels, lovers, friends, mothering, and jobs.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is written from the child's point of view and covers up to age 16 of Angelou's life. Its climax is the ...