Racial Protest, Identity, Words, and Form in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings
Author(s): Pierre A. Walker
Source: College Literature, Vol. 22, No. 3, Race and Politics: The Experience of AfricanAmerican Literature (Oct., 1995), pp. 91-108
Published by: College Literature
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112210 .
Accessed: 14/11/2014 15:33
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
College Literature is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to College Literature.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Racial Protest identity;
Words, and Form in
Maya Angelou's
I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings
A.
PIERRE
WALKER
has told in interviews
Maya Angelou
how Robert Loomis,
her eventual
Random House
her
editor, goaded
into writing
with
her
teasing
autobiography,
the challenge
of writing
literary autobiogra
a poet and play
herself
phy. Considering
she
had
refused Loomis's
wright,
repeatedly
until
requests that she write an autobiography
he
said
told
that
her
that
to write
it was
an
just
as well:
"'He
. . .
liter
autobiography?as
ature?is
almost impossible.
I said right then
I'd do it'" ("Maya Angelou," with Hitt 211).
often admits that she cannot resist a
Angelou
itwas not the challenge
challenge; however,
of writing autobiography
per se that Angelou
could not resist (and that led to the 1970 pub
lication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings),
but the challenge
implied in Loomis's remark
about the difficulty of writing
autobiography
"as
literature."1
Angelou
does
not elaborate
on how
she
from any
distinguishes
literary autobiography
other kind of autobiography,
and of course,
for a poststructuralist,
to write
the challenge
rather
than
literary
"ordinary" autobiography
ismeaningless
there is no difference
because
between
the two (see Eagleton
201). For a
Walker
is the author
Reading
Henry
French
Cultural
Contexts
Illinois
cles,
of
James
in
(Northern
1995)
reviews,
and of arti
and
tions in theory and
transla
19th
and 20th-century
American
literature
culture. He
writing
is currently
a book on politics
and aesthetic form
ography. He
in
autobi
African-American
professor
and
is assistant
of English
at
Western Michigan
University.
91
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
formalist
erary
or
aesthetic,
poetic
however,
language
as
the distinctive
opposed
and characteristics
qualities
to ordinary
are
language
central
of lit
oper
ative concerns
Brooks's belief
ly, and related
(see Brooks
729-31,
12, Fish 68-96). Cleanth
Shklovsky
that "the parts of a poem are related to each other organical
to the total theme indirectly" (730) was a primary tenet of
for
American New Critics, ultimately
related to their determi
interpretation
nation to distinguish
in its
literary from ordinary
language. Poststructuralism
most
anti-formalist
manifestations
belittles
Brooks's
vehemently
usually
in organic unity and in the uniqueness
beliefs
of literary language, but criti
cisms of formalism, and of "literature" as a distinct and privileged
category,
so typical of much poststructuralist
theorizing, become
specially problemat
ic
to African-American
in relation
literature.
texts were written
to create a particular political
Many African-American
a
one
can
As
in
result,
impact.
hardly ignore either the political conditions
which
the slave narratives and Richard Wright's
for example,
early works,
or the political
were
impact their authors (and editors and pub
composed
intended them to have. Even African
lishers, at least of the slave narratives)
texts that are not obviously
American
part of a protest tradition are received
as
in a political
in much
is
clear
from
the tendency
critical com
context,
on
an
to
Hurston
Zora
demonstrate
element
of protest
elusive
Neale
mentary
in her
novels.
to the experience
So important is the political
of African-American
liter
ature that it comes as no surprise that the increasing
of
the
incorporation
into
mainstream
academic
studies
African-American
tradition
literary
literary
of the
since 1980 coincides
exactly with the increasingly greater significance
a
in
what
better
the
critical
for
paradigm:
political
literary
political
prevailing
criticism to address than an overtly political
literature?
than one
literature has, on more
The problem
is that African-American
occasion,
relied
on
confirming
its status
as
literature
to accomplish
its politi
cal aims. Since slavery relied on a belief that those enslaved were not really
human beings, slave narrators responded
by writing books that emphasized
were
to be treated as
who deserved
humans
fact
that
themselves
the
they
have
used the same
African-American
authors
Since
such.
emancipation,
that relegated them to second
strategy to fight the belief in racial hierarchies
was
to
to
status.
One
citizen
do
this
class
way
produce
"high art," which was
one
to
of human civ
of
the
orders
of
the
achievements
be
highest
supposed
of
this strategy:
ilization. African-American
poetry provides many examples
on
Countee
reliance
Cullen's
Claude McKay's and
traditional, European poet
"O Black and Unknown
Bards."
ic forms and James Weldon
Johnson's
"Yet Do IMarvel," for instance, relies on recognizable
Cullen's
English "lit
erary"
features:
Shakespearean
sonnet
form,
rhyme,
meter,
references
to
as old as the
and the posing of a theological
Greek mythology,
question
Book of Job and as familiar as William Blake's "The Tyger."
Thus for a critical style to dismiss the closely related categories of form
and of literature is to relegate to obscurity an important tradition of African
92
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
in the
American
tool of the struggle
literature and an important political
of African descent. This is clearly true in respect
United States of Americans
to Caged Bird, which
the kind of literary unity that would
displays
please
to
but
the
how to fight
Brooks,
significant political end of demonstrating
racism. Angelou wrote Caged Bird in the late 1960s, at the height of the New
in order for it to be the literary autobiography
and therefore
Criticism,
at the
Loomis referred to, Angelou's
book had to display features considered
time typical of literature, such as organic unity. This is a political gesture,
in creating a text that satisfies contemporary
criteria of "high art,"
one
how undeservedly
of
book's
its
underscores
the
central
themes:
Angelou
was
to
in
To
second-class
her
years.
protagonist
relegated
citizenship
early
book, therefore, would mean
ignore form in discussing Angelou's
ignoring a
critical dimension
of its important political work.
Because
of Angelou's
works have
scholarly discussions
autobiographical
in any significant number in the last fifteen years, Caged Bird
only appeared
on one's view, been
and her other books have avoided?or,
depending
kind of formal analysis typically associated with New Criticism
spared?the
or Structuralism.2 Scholarly critics of Caged Bird, often influenced by femi
nist and African-American
studies, have focused on such issues as whether
since
the
of Angelou's
story
trash"
ing
or
is personal
protagonist
or
universal,
on
race,
or a combination
of these. In relation to these
identity, displacement,
scene with
the
discuss
like
the "powhite
important episodes
they
gender,
issues,
with
young
young
girls,
Mrs.
Flowers,
in a
the
or
junkyard,
rape
Maya's
and
the
graduation,
her
struggle
subsequent
to
visit
dentist,
a San
to become
her
muteness,
the
experience
Francisco
liv
month
Maya's
con
street-car
as Angelou
con
ductor. 3 Wliat they do not do is analyze
these episodes
an
structed them?often
within
incidents
juxtaposing disparate
episode?and
the chronology
of her
them, often undermining
arranged and organized
one
childhood
events
the
of
and
with
the
events
story
juxtaposing
chapter
ones so that they too comment on each other.
of preceding
and following
The critics do not explore how Angelou, who has never denied
the princi
in the writing of autobiography,4
the
material
of her
ple of selection
shaped
and adolescent
childhood
life story in Caged Bird to present Maya's first six
teen
years,
as
much
a
would,
bildungsroman
as
a
process
progressive
of
and resisting racism.5 What scholars
affirming identity, learning about words,
have focused on in Caged Bird does merit attention, but an attention to the
uses to emphasize what the book expresses
formal strategies Angelou
about
race
and
identity
reveals
a sequence
of
lessons
about
resisting
racist
oppres
that leads Maya progressively
from helpless
sion, a sequence
rage and indig
nation to forms of subtle resistance, and finally to outright and active protest.
The progression
to subtle resistance
from rage and indignation
to active
a
thematic unity that stands in contrast to the oth
protest gives Caged Bird
erwise episodic quality of the narrative. To claim thematic unity is to argue
that
form
and
content
much
current
Pierre
A. Walker
work
together,
literary theory. However,
an
assertion
the formal
that
is an
in Caged Bird
to
anathema
is the vehi
93
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ele of the political, and not analyzing
this text formally can limit one's appre
ciation of how it intervenes
in the political. Critics should not focus on the
political at the expense of the formal but instead should see the political and
the formal as inextricably
related. Indeed, some of the most well-received
works on American
literature in the last decade offer compelling
demonstra
tions of such a symbiosis of form and content. Jane Tompkins'
Sensational
and Walter
Benn Michaels'
The Gold Standard
and the Logic of
Designs
for
Naturalism,
are
instance,
instances
exemplary
of
new
or
historicism
cul
tural criticism, but they nevertheless
integrate virtuosic close formal analyses
of literary texts into their overall projects.6
commentators
have discussed
how episodic
the book
is,
Caged Birds
are crafted much
like short stories, and their arrangement
but these episodes
the book does not always follow strict chronology7
throughout
Nothing
an
to be chronological,
but an expectation
of
requires
autobiography
on
a
as
is
in
text
reader's
the
normal
that
Bird
part
chronology
begins,
Caged
one of the most
does, with earliest memories.
Nevertheless,
important early
in Caged Bird comes much earlier in the book than it actually did
episodes
in Angelou's
life: the scene where
the "powhitetrash"
girls taunt Maya's
takes up
grandmother
"was
ten
around
the book's
old"
years
fifth chapter,
two
(23),
but
after
years
it occurred
Mr.
when
Freeman
Maya
her
rapes
occurs
in the twelfth chapter).
Situating the episode early in the book makes sense in the context of the
ends with Angelou describing her anger
previous
chapters: the third
' chapter
at the "used-to-be-sheriff
who warned her family of an impending Klan ride
on her early inabil
(14-15), and the fourth chapter ends with her meditation
as
to
scene
human
with the "powhite
white
The
(20-21).
ity
perceive
people
trash" girls follows this (24-27), indicating how non-human white people can
be. But if that was
all that motivated
the organization
of her episodes,
as
on
white
could
have
followed
the
meditation
Angelou
easily
people's non
(which
humanity with the episode where young Maya breaks the china of her
employer, Mrs. Cullinan. What really organizes
chapters three through
that Angelou
of
the
presents
indignation and the utility of subtle
futility
to racism. The scene with the ex-sheriff
tance as ways of responding
at the beginning
of this sequence and only leaves Maya humiliated and
If on
Iwere
summoned
Day
Judgment
by
act of kindness,
Iwould
used-to-be
sheriffs
behalf.
of
His
that my
confidence
the Klan's
coming
en droppings was
uncle
ride would
too humiliating
and
scurry
to give
St. Peter
testimony
to say anything
be unable
other
every
under
their
Black
houses
man
angry:
to the
in his
who
to hide
white
five is
resis
comes
heard
in chick
to hear. (14)
the "powhitetrash" girls causes Maya to react with the same
and
but through the response of her grandmoth
humiliation,
anger
helpless
er Henderson
to the girls' rudeness and crudity,
she
calls
(whom
Momma)
The
Maya
94
scene with
learns
there
can
be
a better
and
more
effective
way
to
respond.
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
to the "powhitetrash" girls is like her reaction to
When
the
indignation, humiliation,
helplessness.
thinks of getting her
posture, Maya weeps,
throw lye and pepper on them and to scream at
(24-25). When
scummy peckerwoods"
they leave
to them, Maya's rage peaks:
calls good-bye
At first, Maya's reaction
the used-to-be
sheriff: rage,
her
ape
girls
grandmother's
to
uncle's rifle, and wants
them "that they were dirty,
and Momma
I burst.
Miz?
politely
A
The
firecracker
mean
cool
store
then
if they were
when
nasty
we
burst.
July-the-Fourth
couldn't
things. Why
saw
them breasting
dirty,
mean
and
How
she
have
come
the hill? What
impudent,
why
Momma
could
inside
did
she
did Momma
call
the
them
sweet,
And
prove?
to call
have
them Miz? (26)
But once
the girls leave, young Maya realizes
that her grandmother
has
out
I
achieved
had
which
couldn't
there,
"Something
something:
happened
.
. . Whatever
the contest had been out front, I knew
understand
completely
Momma had won"
claims that her ten-year-old
self could
(26-27). Angelou
not fully understand what had happened,
she
did
understand
that
though
it.
there had been a contest of wills and that her grandmother
had won
conscious
of how to comprehend
The young girl can be only vaguely
the nature of the contest, but her next act and the organization
of the whole
it. Angelou's
how readers should comprehend
chapter indicate nonetheless
of the "powhitetrash" girls emphasizes
their dirtiness. They are
description
"grimy, snotty-nosed
girls" (23), and "The dirt of [their] cotton dresses con
tinued on their legs, feet, arms and faces to make
them all of a piece" (25).
In contrast to this, Maya's household
is a model of cleanliness.
The first thing
Momma
tells Maya after the "powhitetrash" girls have left is to wash her face
seems appropriate because
This
of how much Maya had been crying,
(26).
is apparent when
but its real significance
in the context of the
considered
at
of
and
does
the
of the chapter. The
what
end
chapter's beginning
Maya
not
'"Thou
not be impudent'
shall
and
be
'Thou
shall
chapter begins:
dirty'
were
the two commandments
of Grandmother
Henderson
upon which hung
our
total
salvation,"
and
the
two
subsequent
paragraphs
recount
the
ends
to
to ensure her grandchildren's
Momma went
cleanliness
(21). At first
to do with the pain and humilia
appear to have nothing
glance, this would
tion of racism. But what
the entire chapter demonstrates
and what
the ten
is that cleanliness,
racism, and her grand
year-old Maya vaguely understands
mother's
to do with
"victory" over the "powhitetrash" girls have everything
seem to have understood
each other. Maya would
this?even
though the
which
once she has washed
adult Angelou
claims she did not?for
her face, with
out being told to do so, she rakes the trampled front yard into a pattern that
her grandmother
calls '"right pretty'" (27).8
trash girls, they are
that, unlike the white
Maya and Momma demonstrate
neither dirty nor impudent. This iswhere
the victory lies. Part of it consists
of Momma's
resisting the white girls' attempts to goad her into descending
to their level of impudence.
But another part of the victory lies in maintain
PierreA.
Walker
95
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
of cleanliness
and
ing personal
through the symbolic
dignity
importance
The victory will not of itself bring about the downfall of segrega
politeness.
as ulti
tion (which is perhaps why some critics see Grandmother
Henderson
racist
Kent
[see
76, and Neubauer
118]),
against
mately helpless
oppression
but it does allow Momma
and Maya to be proud of themselves.
By demon
and politeness,
strating their own cleanliness
Maya and her grandmother
in the face of racism and subtly throw
respectability
them back on their oppressor.
there is
Furthermore,
establish
their family's
the attempt to degrade
a more
effective
for
strategy
to racism
reacting
and
than
segregation
rage
and
a strategy of subtle resistance, what Dolly McPherson
calls "the
indignation,
course
Later
of
silent
endurance"
demonstrate
the
(33).
dignified
episodes
its powers:
limitations of subtle resistance, but one should not underestimate
without
is able to preserve
risking harm to life, liberty, or property, Momma
her human dignity in the face of the white girls' attempts to belittle her. It
South at the time, but it is some
may be all that she can do in the segregated
thing.
as
is more,
What
Angelou
subsequently
it serves
shows,
as
a basis
from
to actively protesting
racism.
which Maya can later move
and combating
An important feature of the chapter is that Angelou
it like a
organizes
it ends, with cleanliness
short story. It begins where
and raking the yard
the white
trash girls, and it leaves the reader to
the scene with
bracketing
out the relationship between
the confrontation
with the girls and the
the chapter becomes more
cleaning of the yard. Because of this organization,
than just a narration of bigoted behavior
and Momma's
and Maya's respons
work
es
to
it: "Such
says
experiences,"
"are
McPherson,
not
recorded
simply
as his
inner world"
revelations
of Angelou's
torical events, but as symbolic
(49).
The "powhitetrash" chapter takes on the additional dimension
of a lesson in
the utility of endowing
raking a yard, or
everyday activities such as washing,
minding
Making
turn means
one's
manners
every minute
that
with
symbolic
value
of the day a symbolic
segregation
is not
a
helpless
as
means
and
a way
of
resisting
of fighting
hopeless
bigotry.
segregation
in
situation.
in
the fifteenth chapter, the one about Mrs. Flowers,
organizes
Angelou
a similarly tight fashion, interrelating the themes of racial pride, identity, and
that run throughout. The positive effect that the atten
the power of words
tion of the elegant Mrs. Flowers has on the insecurity and identity crisis of
young Maya is obvious.9 By helping Maya to begin to have some self-confi
to the young girl's affirmation of her identi
dence, Mrs. Flowers contributes
. . . for
was
a
Iwas respected
itmade.
"I
and
what
difference
liked,
ty:
just
.
.
.
me
tea
made
had
cookies
for
and
read to
she
being Marguerite Johnson.
me from her favorite book" (85). Such respect and affection from an older
person Maya admired surely had an important positive effect on a young girl
that resulted from being raped by
suffering from the guilt and self-loathing
It is no wonder
feels that Mrs. Flowers
her mother's
Angelou
boyfriend.
"threw me my first life line" (77).
While
the Mrs. Flowers chapter seems, at first glance, not to have much
to do with the politics of racism, this important step in Maya's sense of iden
96
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
to do with race. Since she had been twice sent away by
tity has everything
it is no surprise that Maya had an
her parents to live with her grandmother,
In
and
the
opening pages of the book, Maya suf
insecurity
identity problem.
fered
white,"
Maya
from
a strong
with
case
of
eyes"
"light-blue
her
separates
entirely
racial
self-hatred,
sense
of
self
that
fantasizing
"long and blond"
and
from
her
she
was
hair (2). At
sense
of
race,
"really
that point,
and
is
this
she is and
part of her identity crisis, since she refuses to accept being who
of received
ideas of white
hankers after a foreign identity that is a compound
is the case. When
feminine beauty. By the end of the book, the opposite
the
white
of
secretary
sonally:
the
San
street-car
Francisco
for a job interview, Maya
her attempts
"The
incident
was
a recurring
company
dream,
concocted
frustrates
repeatedly
is at first tempted
not
years
to take it per
before
by
stu
... Iwent further than forgiving the clerk, I
accepted her as a fel
pid whites
But then Maya decides
low victim of the same puppeteer."
that the rebuffs,
to do with her race, also have everything
to do with
which have everything
and this is because her personal
her personally,
identity and her racial iden
"The whole
charade we had played out in
tity cannot be entirely separated:
room
to
do
had directly
with me, Black, and her, white"
that crummy waiting
not only a victory for
the street-car conductor's
(227). Attaining
job becomes
civil
rights,
as
a
result,
but
also
a
personal
victory
for Maya's
sense
of
self.
over the course of the
One of the crucial transition points in this evolution
entire book from the total separation of self-image
and race to the connec
in the Mrs. Flowers chapter, for not only does Mrs.
tion of the two comes
Flowers make Maya feel liked and respected, but "she made me proud to be
(79).10 This is the first statement of black racial
Negro,
just by being herself
in
but
others
the
book,
appear later: Joe Louis's victory, which
"proved
pride
in the world" (115), and Maya's conclu
the strongest people
that we were
scene that "Iwas a proud member
sion at the end of the graduation
of the
beautiful Negro race" (156).
wonderful,
black racial pride by combining
The Mrs. Flowers chapter emphasizes
on the basis of their thematic affinity,
two apparently
disparate
episodes
much as the "powhitetrash"
chapter did. Here the affinity is not cleanliness
a theme central to African-American
but the power of words,
autobiography,
to Richard Wright's Black Boy and beyond.
from the slave narratives
The
in themselves
and in poetry, and by
importance of the power of words,
the importance of literature run throughout Caged Bird,11 espe
implication,
trial
cially after the rape, when Maya fears that her lie at Mr. Freeman's
caused his death. Black Boy demonstrates
the negative power of words each
time Wright
is abused for not saying the right thing,12 yet the book concludes
on a positive note when Wright
realizes that he can harness
the power of
to his own artistic and political ends. Much the same thing happens
words
in Caged Bird. Maya refuses to speak because
she fears the potentially
fatal
the
of
but
second
half
of
the
book
she
acknowl
words,
power
throughout
to great ends.
the power of words
edges that the imagination can harness
One of the high points in this realization comes at the end of the graduation
Pierre
A. Walker
97
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
when
scene,
the
audience,
been
having
insulted
by
a white
guest
speaker,
lifts itsmorale
"Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing"
Johnson's
by singing James Weldon
(155). Maya realizes that she "had never heard it before. Never heard the
the thousands of times I had sung them," and this leads her
words,
despite
to appreciate
the African-American
poetic tradition as she never had before
an allusion
to another
that
with
(and Angelou
expresses
appreciation
and unknown
"Oh, Black known
Johnson poem):
poets, how often have
the lonely nights made
your auctioned pains sustained us? Who will compute
less tragic by your
less lonely by your songs, or by the empty pots made
tales?"
Because
(156).
like
words,
Johnson's
are
story,
Angelou's
gathered
"from the stuff of the black experience, with its suffering and its survival," to
use Keneth Kinnamon's words,
the singing of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" at
own artistic
"is a paradigm of Angelou's
the end of the graduation
episode
in
I
Know
endeavor
Why the Caged Bird Sings" (132-33).
Mrs. Flowers
for this later appreciation
of the
lays the groundwork
of
the
word
the
lesson
of
the positive
power
stating
poetic
by explicitly
in her conversation with the ten-year-old Maya (her message
power of words
is further emphasized
because
the main point of her invitation and attention
to
the mute
Flowers
low man
Maya,
and
. . Words
.
is to convince
girl
tells
mean
is man's
"language
it is language
more
to use
her
alone
than
words
way
that separates
is set
what
with
communicating
Mrs.
his
fel
him from the lower animals.
on
down
in mind,"
"[Blear
again).
of
It takes
paper.
the
human
to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning"
(82). Mrs. Flowers's
her
and
from
Dickens
themselves
make
Maya appreciate
speech
reading
heard poetry for the first time inmy life" (84), she says about Mrs.
poetry?"I
voice
Flowers's
the
reading?and
word,
spoken
but
the
arranges
Angelou
entire
a
to emphasize
The chapter begins with
of words.
the power
chapter
of standard English,
of Mrs. Flowers and her elegant command
description
contrasts in their conversations
with Momma's
which
heavy dialect, much to
shame:
Maya's
the
verb.
Wilcox
Why
is sho'ly
"Shame
not
made
'How
ask,
the
me
want
are
to hide
you,
Mrs.
my
Flowers?'
'Is,' Momma?
meanest?'
. . .Momma
face.
. . . 'Brother
'Is'? Oh,
please,
for two or more"
(78-79). As a result, Angelou
Momma,
on
of
words and their pronunciation,
the
importance
chapter
first
pages,
before
enters
Maya
Mrs.
Flowers's
left
and
out
Sister
not
'is,'
has focused
the
even in its very
house.
the
The chapter's end, after Maya returns from her visit, also emphasizes
use
in
contrast
to
time
the
white
of
this
way
words,
people
importance
words. When Maya tells her brother, "By the way, Bailey, Mrs. Flowers sent
Momma
threatens to beat her granddaughter
(85).
you some tea cookies?,"
the Truth and the Light," saying
The crime is that since "Jesus was the Way,
inMomma's
(86). This episode would
view, blasphemous
"by the way" was,
seem thematically unrelated
to the rest of the chapter and only an example
it not for the chapter's final sentence:
of Momma's
domestic
theocracy were
'Whitefolks use "by the way"
"When Bailey tried to interpret the words with:
to mean
98
while
we're
on
the subject,' Momma
reminded
us that 'whitefolks'
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
an abomination
in general
mouths were most
loose and their words were
the "by the way" episode concludes
before Christ'" (86-87). While
the chap
an
with
of
the
awful
this
Black
of
ter,
words,
power
Boy fashion,
example
and chapter just as the emphasis
both the episode
final sentence
concludes
on cleanliness
concluded
the "powhitetrash"
chapter: through their greater
clan shows itself to be superior
attention to details, the Henderson/Johnson
to be abusive and tyrannic, the
to whites,
and instead of showing Momma
the
affirmation
the
later in the book of the
way" episode
anticipates
"by
of words,
poetic?use
strength blacks find in the careful?even
just as Mrs.
Flowers does in her reading and in her speech about words.
The internal organization
of chapters, as in the "powhitetrash" and Mrs.
into thematic units that would make Cleanth Brooks proud
Flowers chapters,
is but one of the effects Angelou uses in Caged Bird. Equally effective
is the
she follows the Mrs. Flowers
way Angelou
juxtaposes chapters. For example,
its lessons on the power of words
and on identity, with
the
chapter, with
the
chapter (the sixteenth) where Maya breaks Mrs. Cullinan's dishes because
to take a single but important word?Maya's
white
employer
neglects
name?and
Maya's
identity
seriously.
This
chapter
comments,
then,
on
the
previous one by showing Maya acting on the basis of what she has learned
in the previous
and about affirming
chapter about the importance of words
an
is
the
also
of
dishes
identity. Maya's smashing
important stage in the pro
to
for
racial
of
from helpless
gression
strategies
responding
oppression
indig
to
to
No
active
subtle
resistance,
nation,
protest.
longer helplessly
angered
as she was by the former sheriff and the white girls taunting
and humiliated,
her grandmother, Maya shows in the Mrs. Cullinan chapter that she has inter
nalized the lesson of the "powhitetrash" episode and can figure out, with her
brother's advice, a way to resist her white employer's
of her that
demeaning
con
is subtle and yet allows her to feel herself the victor of an unspoken
frontation. After Mrs. Cullinan insists on calling her Mary instead of Margaret
her real name, Marguerite), Maya realizes that she
(which best approximates
nor simply quit the job. Like her grand
can neither correct her employer
mother with the rude white girls, Maya cannot openly confront her oppres
sor,
nor
can
she
allow
the
situation
to
continue.
Instead
she
breaks
Mrs.
favorite dishes and walks out, exulting as Mrs. Cullinan tells her
"Her
name's Margaret, goddamn
it, her name's Margaret!" (93).13
guests,
a
this
with
series of three chapters,
follows
the seven
Angelou
chapter
teenth through the nineteenth,
each of which depicts subtle black resistance
to white oppression.
the sixteenth chapter ends with Maya
However, while
at
resistance
the
of
her
of Mrs. Cullinan,
these chapters
exulting
efficacy
the
of
limitations
resistance.
The
subtle
seventeenth
express
increasingly
tells
of
and
movies
chapter
Maya's
Bailey's viewing
starring Kay Francis, who
resembles
their mother,
how Maya
turns the stereotypical
and describes
in
movies
onto the unknowing
of
black
back
Hollywood
depiction
people
white members
of the audience. As the whites
snicker at the Stepin Fetchit
like black chauffeur in one Kay Francis comedy, Maya turns the joke on them:
Cullinan's
Pierre
A Walker
99
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
I laughed
too, but
that she was white,
that
she
my mother.
the woman
was
white
lived
not
at
the
hateful
star
the big movie
in a big mansion
with
And
it was
to
funny
they were
adoring
was
and my mother
jokes.
looked
...
a thousand
think
of
I laughed
like my
because,
mother.
just
she
servants,
not
the whitefolks'
could
be my mother's
Much
prettier.
prettier.
twin,
except
Except
just like
lived
that
knowing
that
except
she
(99-100)
This passage works very much
like Momma's
trash
victory over the white
are
on
taunts
turned
the
whites'
back
the
whites
them, though
may not
girls:
know it. Nonetheless,
this permits the black person to feel superior instead of
humiliated while avoiding the kind of open confrontation
that could lead to
is problematic
violence. What
about the seventeenth
chapter is that, as in the
and
the
the
of
nineteenth
end
eighteenth
chapters,
chapter casts a shadow on
the success achieved
in the moment of subtle resistance by describing Bailey's
itmakes him sullen, and on their way
very different reaction to the movie:
train (100).
home, he terrifies Maya by running in front of an oncoming
In the eighteenth
and nineteenth
which
tell
of
the
revival meet
chapters,
is able to feel superior to
ing and the Joe Louis fight, a black community
Both chapters,
whites.
with a reminder that the
though, end ambiguously,
is transitory and fragile. At the revival, the congregation
feeling of superiority
thrills to a sermon that subtly accuses whites of lacking charity while
remind
of the ultimate reward for their true charity. The con
ing the congregation
leaves the revival feeling, "Itwas better to be meek and lowly, spat
gregation
upon and abused for this little time than to spend eternity frying in the fires
are able to feel superior without
of hell" (110-11). Again, the oppressed
risk
an
two
The
final
violence
confrontation.
of
the
of
the
open
ing
paragraphs
at
music
the
the
revival
with
the
compare
gospel
"ragged
chapter, however,
run by "Miss
sound" of the "barrelhouse blues" coming from the honky-tonk
at the revival, the
(111). Like the parishioners
Grace, the good-time woman"
customers of the suitably named Miss Grace "had forsaken their own distress
for
a
little while."
Reality
However,
its tedious
began
and hungry
and
needy
over were
in the driver's
crawl
back
despised
seat. How
asked the same questions. How
into
their
After
reasoning.
and
and
dispossessed,
long, merciful
Father?
long, oh God? How
all,
sinners
How
they were
the world
long?
...
All
long? (Ill)
the "powhitetrash" and Mrs. Cullinan chapters ended on a note of
victory, this chapter ends on one that rings more of defeat. This is because
to white
racist
the book moves
through the three strategies for responding
Whereas
oppression?helpless
indignation,
subtle
resistance,
and
active
protest?and
at this point is preparing
the transition from the limited victories of subtle
resistance to the outright victory of active protest.
at the
the community
The next chapter, the nineteenth, which describes
store listening to a Joe Louis match,
follows the same pattern as the revival
of racial pride and
chapter. Louis's victory provides his fans a stirring moment
son.
A
Some
Black
Black
mother's
the
world.
exaltation:
of
boy.
"Champion
100
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
in the world.
He was
drank Coca-Colas
like
the strongest man
People
ambrosia and ate candy bars like Christmas" (114). But while Louis's victory
allows his black fans to feel themselves
stronger and superior to their white
can rejoice in its
there are limits to how far the black community
oppressors,
lived far out of
that those who
superiority. The chapter ends by mentioning
town spent the night with friends in town because,
"Itwouldn't
do for a Black
man and his family to be caught on a lonely country road on a night when
in the world" (115).
the strongest people
Joe Louis had proved that we were
Because
nineteen
the
limits to subtle, but
and
explore
chapters eighteen
the
resistance,
passive,
to white
responding
on
to go
has
book
The
oppression.
to present
climactic
other
possible
ways
of
that
consists
of
one
response,
is Maya's persisting
active resistance and outright protest,
and breaking
the
street-car company,
in the thirty
color line of the San Francisco
described
in the late sixties, at the height
fourth chapter. Since Caged Bird was written
of the black power movement,
and at a time that was still debating
the value
no
is
it
of Martin Luther King's belief in non-violent
protest,
surprise that this
act of protest is the climactic moment
to white oppression
in
of resistance
was
the book, a moment
that says: Momma's
of
resistance
in
its
fine
type
time and place, but now it is time for some real action.14 There are at least
in the second half of Caged Bird, however,
three other episodes
which
line
but
resistance
the
and
between
subtle
active,
open
passive
explore
the
protest:
street-car
subtle
(chapter
con
man
company
resistance
to active
protest.
scene
dentist
(chap
friend, Red Leg, tells of dou
twenty-nine).
the Joe Louis chapter
three
these
chapter,
Clidell's
(chapter
as they do between
the
twenty-three),
and the story Daddy
a white
ble-crossing
Falling
scene
graduation
ter twenty-four),
The
and the San Francisco
chart
episodes
scene
graduation
transition
the
for
the most
from
part
fol
in Caged Bird.
lows the early, entirely positive examples of subtle resistance
is that the resistance
is no longer so subtle and that it
The only difference
in itself valorizes
takes the form of poetry, which
the African
specifically
American
literary
tradition
as
a
source
for
resisting
white
racist
oppression.
the graduation chapter conforms to the pattern established by the
Otherwise,
and Mrs. Cullinan chapters: first, there is the insult by the
"powhitetrash"
the speaker tells the black audience of all the improve
white person, when
ments which
the white
school will receive?improvements
that far surpass
the few scheduled
for the black school (151). There is Maya's first response
and anger: "Then Iwished
of humiliation
that Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner
in their beds" (152), shared now by the communi
had killed all whitefolks
class of 1940 had dropped
their heads" (152).
ty: "[T]he proud graduating
Then there is the action on the part of a member
of the black community?
in "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing"
Henry Reed's improvised
leading the audience
at the same time avoids an irreversible confrontation
with
the
(155)?that
to feel its dignity and
white
and permits
the black community
oppressor
superiority:
Pierre
"We were
on
top
again.
As
always,
again.
We
survived"
(156).
101
A Walker
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The
primary
audience
sings
in the graduation
difference
the
together,
chapter
is a community
resistance
is that because
action.
the
resistance
The
is still not exactly an outright protest and it still avoids open confrontation,
since the white
insulter has left and does not hear the singing. Otherwise,
the scene resembles a civil rights protest two decades
later. The graduation
is similar to the
also serves as an introduction
for the dentist chapter, which
it highlights
of the way
literature as a possible
graduation
chapter because
source for resisting racist oppression,
is the crucial transitional
and which
it opens the door to
chapter from subtle resistance to active protest because
instance in
the eventuality
the
closest
of open confrontation
by presenting
a racist white.
in Stamps openly confronting
the book of a black person
The insult in the dentist chapter occurs when
and only
Stamps's white
had lent money,
dentist?to
whom Maya's grandmother
interest-free and as
a
to
favor?refuses
treat
toothache,
excruciating
Maya's
telling
and
Maya
than in a
Momma,
"[M]y policy is I'd rather stick my hand in a dog's mouth
ceases
to
the
follow
the
From
this
nigger's" (l60).
point on, though,
chapter
Momma
the
of
resistance.
leaves
of
Instead,
pattern
previous examples
Maya
in the alley behind
in italics,
the dentist's office, and in a passage printed
enters
the
office
transformed
into
a
and
superwoman,
to
threatens
run
the
that this pas
dentist out of town. Readers quickly perceive
now-trembling
it isMaya's fantasy, but they do have to read a few
sage is italicized because
sentences of the fantasy before realizing it. The chapter ends, after Maya and
travel to the black dentist in Texarkana, with Angelou's
Momma
explanation
collected
of what really happened
inside the white dentist's office?Momma
interest on her loan to the dentist, which
pays the bus fare to Texarkana?
remark: "I preferred, much preferred, my version" (164).
and Angelou's
it is the only one like it in
The fantasy scene bears attention because
in
It
is
the
book and the only one that
the only italicized passage
Caged Bird.
confuses
is fantasy.
the
if only
reader?even
Some
critics
have
argued
for
a moment?over
that
this
passage
what
serves
is real
the
and
what
purpose
of
limited Momma's
ability to fight racism is,15 and it is true
underlining
have been able to exact proper and
that in a better world, Momma would
care from a dentist who was beholden
to her. This reading, how
courteous
not
account
of the
either
of
does
for
the
the presentation
ever,
uniqueness
as
or
for
her
feels
the
real
very
passage
they ride
grandmother
pride Maya
was
so
"I
her
of
and
Texarkana:
the bus between
proud
being
grand
Stamps
how
to me"
and sure that some of her magic must have come down
daughter
contrast
one
On
does
the
the
italicized
the
(162-63).
hand,
passage
highlight
could do to a racist with what
between what Maya wishes
her grandmother
the limitations of subtle resistance
little she can do, thus again demonstrating
as an overall strategy for responding
to racist oppression.
On the other hand,
of
the
confrontations
between
kind
the fantasy passage
anticipates
outright
racist
broke
the
occurred
when
black
that
and
oppressor
Maya
oppressed
it
street-car company's
color line and in the civil rights movement.
Although
is only a fantasy, it is the first instance in Caged Bird of a black person open
102
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
a racist white, and thus is the first hint that such confrontation
ly confronting
is a possibility.
is also signifi
is an act of imagination
The fact that the fantasy passage
cant, since it hints that imagination and storytelling can be forms of resisting
in this way because
of its
racism. It is natural to read the fantasy passage
to "Black known and unknown
after the apostrophe
placement
immediately
of this passage
poets" at the end of the graduation
chapter (156). Because
more
see
we
are
to
all
the
inclined
the
itali
black
poets,
praising
imagined,
as
an
For
instance
later
itself
of
five
one,
pages
cized, fantasy passage
poetry.
uses the
in the category of "poets" anyone who
includes
the apostrophe
and blues singers" (156).
power of the word?"include
preachers, musicians
uses
to
describe
who
Thus, anyone
pain and suffering and their
language
to
causes (i. e., blues singers) belongs
in the category of poets. According
the author of / Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a blues
this definition,
singer, and therefore a poet, too, since telling why the caged bird sings is an
instance of describing pain and suffering and their causes, an instance of the
blues. Loosely defined, poetry is also an act of imagination, and thus the ital
in the dentist chapter is poetic,
since it is an act of
icized fantasy passage
a
In
it
is
instance
the
first
of
fact,
poet, and thus the
Maya being
imagination.
act of writing
/ Know Why the
first step towards the far more monumental
can
an
in
act
all
its
be
of resistance.
Bird
itself.
forms,
Sings
Poetry,
Caged
that clear, but the dentist chapter
The graduation
chapter has already made
can herself become
a poet
it clear that the victim of racial oppression
makes
and use her poetry as a form of resistance. Maya had begun to learn the pos
in the Mrs. Flowers chapter. Now she
itive power of poetry and of words
to positive
the power of words
the process of harnessing
effect, a
begins
almost thirty years later of the
that concludes with the composition
process
very book in hand.
resistance
is the scam Red Leg
The final instance of not-quite-outright
is
of pulling on a white con man. This episode
tells (in chapter twenty-nine)
not
the
active
open,
protest
of Maya's
integration
of
the
street-cars,
it
since
does not involve a direct confrontation with the white
racist, but it is closer
to it than any of the previous examples of resistance because
the white per
son ends up knowing
that he has been had at his own game. The inclusion
is at first glance irrelevant to the heroine's personal develop
of the episode
comments
at the end of the chapter make clear how the
ment, but Angelou's
rest
For one, Angelou
the
the
of
book.
fits
with
remarks that, "Itwas
passage
as criminals or be
n't possible
for me to regard [Red Leg and his accomplice]
reason
of
their
achievements"
The
but
for her pride is
(190).
anything
proud
that these black con artists are achieving
incurred against
revenge for wrongs
the
entire
race:
'"We
are
the
victims
of
the world's
most
comprehensive
rob
a balance.
It's all right if we do a little robbing now'"
bery. Life demands
(190-91). The scam is, therefore, another example of fighting back against
an example
white domination
and racist oppression,
that, like the others,
meets
Pierre
with
the
author's
approval.
A Walker
103
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The
scam
artist
chapter
ends,
so many
like
other
with
chapters,
a para
It tells of how
graph that appears to have little to do with what precedes.
use
to
her
learned
Standard
and
black
schoolmates
Maya
English and dialect
in their appropriate
to the
This
short
settings.
paragraph
certainly belongs
on
the
the
book
commentary
running throughout
appreciating
significance
and power of words:
"We were alert to the gap separating the written word
from the colloquial" (191). It also serves to emphasize
the superior ability of
blacks to adapt to and get the best of circumstances
and situations: "My edu
cation and that of my Black associates were quite different from the educa
In the classroom we all learned past partici
tion of our white
schoolmates.
our
in
in
but
the
streets
and
homes the Blacks learned to drop s's from
ples,
verbs" (191). Angelou
and
suffixes
from
shows here the
past-tense
plurals
of
her
schoolmates
that
black
(and
superior adaptability
Maya has come a
use
scorn
from
her
her
of
of
the blacks
dialect):
way
long
grandmother's
to the
learn all the whites
do and more. This lesson is entirely appropriate
con artist chapter, since what the stories about pulling scams demonstrate
is
is to make
the most of what
little one
the black version of heroism, which
has?in
other words,
"[I]n the Black American ghettos the hero
adaptability:
is that man who
is offered only the crumbs from his country's table but by
is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast" (190).
ingenuity and courage
is the essence
of the
such an ability
Within
strictly legal confines,
at
least part of the appeal of
American myth of success, and undoubtedly,
both to this definition of black heroism and
Caged Bird is that it corresponds
to the outline of a typical success story.16 The product of a broken family,
raped at age eight, Angelou was offered at first "only the crumbs" from her
table."
"country's
She
an
from
suffers
inferiority
an
complex,
identity
crisis,
of racist insults. By the end of the book, however,
she
and the humiliation
no longer feels inferior, knows who she is, and knows that she can respond
to racism in ways
that preserve her dignity and her life, liberty, and proper
in addition through the very existence
knows?and
demonstrates
and
she
ty,
Itmay
she can respond by using the power of words.
of the book itself?that
to convince a poststructuralist
that there is something unique
be impossible
but certainly part of what
this
autobiography,
ly literary about Angelou's
own
its
is
and
of
and
is
literature
the
about
gen
power
utility
autobiography
as a protest against racism. One serves Angelou
and Caged
esis and existence
how form and political content work
Bird better by emphasizing
together.
As Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
says in respect to the general tradition of auto
women:
biographies
by African-American
The theoretical challenge
of
a politically
to
inescapably
could
somehow
reading
104
suspect.
informed
read
be
lies in bringing
of
reading
politically,
distinguished
but
texts.
to
from
sophisticated
To
read
foreground
the reading
well,
skills to the service
to
read
the
politics,
is to
itself,
as
is
fully,
if these
render
the
(67)
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
its points about
To neglect many of the formal ways Caged Bird expresses
success
and race is to ignore the extent to which Angelou
identity, words,
an important aspect of her artistic accomplish
fully met Loomis's challenge,
and the potential
ment,
utility of this text in literary classrooms,
especially
formal and ideologically-based
those that emphasize
combining
approaches
to analyzing
literature.
NOTES
1Angelou
in several
Sings
the
tells
of
story
interviews
how
came
she
to write
M.
collected
/ Know
Elliot
(80,
Bird
the Caged
She admits
Why
211).
151-52,
by Jeffrey
a challenge"
in her 1983
interview
with
80)
("Westways"
T?te
in at least two
and
she discusses
151-52),
interviews,
("Maya Angelou"
use her attraction
as
to a challenge
in helping
Loomis
role
Baldwin's
possible
an autobiography
to write
to get her to agree
("Westways"80,
"Maya Angelou,"
an
having
Claudia
James
a ploy
to "resist
inability
with T?te 151).
in
search
2A
with
Angelou,
Know
Why
the
interviews,
are
that
different
itmay
hand,
Bird
Sings.
nine
only
rise
and
of
Twenty-eight
before
appeared
years
these
after
items
forty-four
the publication
on
of
/
items
have
forty-four
two are
1980
(and of these,
is a portion
of a dissertation).
status
that
poststructuralism's
to appreciate
ble
reveals
bank
three
one
information,
it may
for interpreting
these
facts: on the one
hand,
to "catch up" to Angelou,
to treat her
been
slow
slow
on the other
it?as
literature
of their attention;
worthy
to recognize
the scholarly
be
data
1973,
and
possibilities
critics
have
scholarly
thus
work?and
computerized
to
back
dating
and
1985,
is bibliographic
one
There
the MLA
oldest
Caged
since
appeared
be
the
has
of Angelou's
work
has
so because
poststructuralism
in new ways.
work
Angelou's
risen
done
in concert
with
it possi
has made
3For the significance of identity in Caged Bird, see Butterfield (203), Schmidt (25
27), McPherson (16, 18, 121), and Arensberg (275, 278-80, 288-90). On displacement,
see
Neubauer
vs.
sonal
On
stresses
who
of
and
the
on Maya
rape
the
see
graduation,
For the visit
(14).
Cudjoe
(118-19). For the month
4See
In an
288-89).
a
mentions
unconsciously?from
"narrative
Angelou's
and that her books
a consideration
of
the per
(10), O'Neale
(26), McMurry
Cudjoe
of community
in Caged
Bird
(123
importance
Butterfield
McPherson
and
(210-12),
(31-33),
(45-46),
the
of
the
rape,
see
Froula
For
(634-36).
see Lionnet
Mrs.
with
Flowers,
relationship
Butterfield
(207),
(109-10),
McMurry
Arensberg
see Braxton
to the dentist,
and Neubauer
(302-04)
her
in the junkyard, see Gilbert (41) and Lionnet (156-57).
interviews
Angelou's
("Interview"
and
For
(296-97).
see
scene,
"powhitetrash"
For an extensive
consideration
(108).
For
(147-52).
Angelou
Bloom
the
McMurry
the effect
(283),
and
see McPherson
and Kinnamon,
(109),
33).
126-27)
(117-19,
the universal,
number
with
interview
of
T?te
152) and with
("Maya Angelou"
in McPherson's
included
Order
Out
incidents
she
omitted?some
Neubauer
of Chaos,
some
consciously,
who
writes
O'Neale,
Bird
157-58).
145-47,
(138-40,
Caged
was
held
of artistic
fiction"
by controlled
together
techniques
are "arranged
in loosely
are
structured
which
sequences
plot
that
(26)
skill
not discuss
or arrangements
these
in any detail.
(32), does
fully controlled"
techniques
5
creates
about
confusion
her protagonist's
Angelou
enough
potential
identity
by
names
her
called
different
having
by different
people?Ritie,
Maya,
Marguerite,
Sister.
For the sake of consistency,
I use
the name
Margaret,
Mary,
"Maya" to refer to
the protagonist
Pierre
of Caged
Bird
and
the name
"Angelou"
to refer
to
A. Walker
its author.
105
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
book
6Michaels's
Historicism:
Cultural
Studies
Work
Politics
of
literary
7Schmidt
Bird.
Schmidt
Fiction,
in
Greenblatt's
Stephen
and Tompkins'
book,
1790-1860,
"Sentimental
chapter,
and Michaels'
chapter
Tompkins'
Literary
close
cence
of American
context.
historical
is published
in Cultural
Poetics,"
History,"
"The
series,
whose
Cabin
me
strike
and
(25)
McPherson
is the one
a unit"
(25).
it have
from
taunts.
She
as
It is because,
children
Kinnamon,
ual in black
An
on
comment
(26)
on
commentator
Bird
Caged
of how
the episodic
to mention
indication
lent
as brilliant
not only
in spite of her
triumphs
a Black
maintain
she must
woman,
that
she
discovers
readi
another
vehicle
but
restrictions,
the
role
for
the
because
in the
front
as Momma
of
the chil
of
them.
of
toward
the
respect
true emotions"
(108).
as a bonding
rit
is to portray
cleanliness
purpose
in the "powhitetrash"
the importance
of washing
Richard Wright
tells of his grandmother's
Boy where
that
arguing
culture"
how
themselves
"Angelou's
contrasts
(127),
in Black
with
the scene
chapter
him.
washing
9See Bloom,
who
points
is central
Sexual
(293).
identity
concerns
of Maya's
its
the
of Caged
quality
that "each reminis
is is
Bird
episodic
Caged
to being
anthologized.
that Maya
"is using
the design
[she rakes
argues
8McMurry
insightfully
or
to
not
otherwise
she
could
order
express,
yard]
organize
just
feelings
to organize
the range
has used
the song
her thoughts
and feelings
beyond
forms
white
and
analysis.
ly selections
dren's
in
literature
emphasizes
reading
Power:
Tom's
Uncle
on McTeague
New
is The
subtitle
about
her
to Mrs.
as
Flowers
sexual
"a perceptive
and
identity
in which
chapters,
the birth of her
of these last two chapters, see Smith (373-74), Buss
McPherson
(290-91), Butterfield
(53-55), Arensberg
(198-99),
Demetrakopoulos
and MacKethan
mother-substitute"
last two
to the book's
tells
Angelou
For discussions
son.
(103-04), Schmidt (26-27),
(213), Lionnet (135-36),
(60).
Mrs.
of her
racial background,
Flowers
made
herself,
Maya
10By being
proud
to be Negro,"
to learn is double:
but the real lesson Maya
needs
her
by being
"proud
can be
to
to
be
herself
be
and
self, Maya
Negro,"
Negro,"
by being
"proud
"proud
can be herself.
the link between
Thus
the language
of the phrase
Maya
being
implies
to be Negro"
"proud
11See MacKethan,
Bird.
Caged
Cudjoe,
in Afro-American
ation
theme
and
oneself.
being
who
emphasizes
arguing
that
thought,"
as a survival
in
humor
strategy"
instruments
of liber
became
language
in the context
of this important
Bird
"verbal
and
"speech
reads Caged
(10-11).
to kiss his ass,
occur when
tells his grandmother
of this abuse
Wright
12Examples
answers
the time of day, or when
he nonchalantly
his uncle's
about
question
man
to say "sir" (40-44,
a drunken
in the face for forgetting
him
bashes
white
149-53,
when
173-74).
13Thanks
Eisenstein's
and
for
to my
Potemkin
15See,
has
spoken
Interviews
Mark
out
in Sergei
that
dishes
by smashing
be a literary
rebellion
may
trope.
in
of protest
interviews
of the importance
Character"
198).
167; "The Maya
Richardson,
for
against
act of
their
rebelled
as an
smashing
in at least two
pointing
officers
Maya
Angelou"
also
for example,
Neubauer
(118). Mary
Jane Lupton
and humiliated,
"the grandmother
has been
defeated
tist episode
mere
ten dollars
106
that dish
implying
l4Angelou
her work
{"Zelo
colleague,
the sailors
in interest
for a loan
she
had
made
that
feels
her
to the dentist"
reward
(261).
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
only
in the den
Literature
a
Birds
Caged
on the New
after
l6On May
years
29, 1994,
twenty-four
was
in
its
week
edition
sixty-seventh
paperback
sellers.
list of paperback
best
the
publication,
Times Book Review
initial
York
WORKS CITED
"An
Maya.
Angelou,
Massachusetts
Interview
with
Maya
A Quarterly
Review:
With
Angelou."
E. Neubauer.
Carol
the Arts,
of Literature,
and
Public
The
28
Affairs
(1987): 286-92.
I Know
Why
"Maya Angelou."
New
York:
Bantam,
Sings.
T?te.
Elliot
146-56.
Bird
the Caged
With
Claudia
1971.
With
205-13.
Greg Hitt. Elliot
"Maya Angelou."
With
Elliot
Character."
"The Maya
194-200.
Jackie
Kay.
"
Rich.
Women:
Life is for Living." With
Elliot
77-85.
Judith
Westways
Harris.
With
Elliot
Russell
"Zelo Interviews
165-72.
Maya
Angelou."
K.
Liliane
Arensberg,
as Metaphor
"Death
Z.
Bloom,
Lynn
Women's
Autobiographies."
Ed. Cathy N. Davidson
Literature.
of Mother-Daughter
Tradition:
Mothers
Lost
The
the Caged
Why
Bird
Sings."
20 (1976): 273-91.
Dimensions
"Heritages:
in I Know
of Self
College Language Association Journal
E. M.
and
in
Relationships
and
Daughters
in
Broner.
New
The
in
Mother
Figure
the Whirlwind:
Afra
M.
Renaissance.
Ed. Joanne
York:
1980.
Ungar,
291
303.
Braxton,
M.
Joanne
Presence:
"Ancestral
Wild
Afra-American
Contemporary
American
Culture
Braxton
Writing."
the Contemporary
Nicola
McLaughlin.
and
and Andr?e
Outraged
Women
in
Literary
New
Brunswick:
1990.
UP,
Rutgers
299
315.
of Structure."
1948; rev. 1951.
"Irony as a Principle
the Status, Methods,
and Problems
Essays
Illustrating
in the Twentieth
States
Ed.
Morton
Dauwen
Century.
Cleanth.
Brooks,
in America:
the United
New
York:
Helen
Buss,
1951. 729-41.
Harper,
M.
for
the
"Reading
Butterfield,
P,
Black
Stephen.
Discourse
Doubled
of
Rev.
Zabel.
American
ed.
Women's
Studies 6 (1991): 95-108.
A/B: Auto/Biography
Autobiography."
Literary
Opinion
in
of Criticism
in America.
Autobiography
Amherst:
U
of Massachusetts
1974.
R.
Selwyn
Cudjoe,
Women
Writers
"Maya
and
Angelou
1984. 6-24.
Doubleday-Anchor,
"Yet Do
IMarvel."
Countee.
Cullen,
Demetrakopoulos,
/ Know
Angelou's
Warrior."
The Black
"The
Poets.
Ed. Dudley
the
Indiana
Caged
1980.
UP,
Theory:
An
of
Metaphysics
Mead's
Autobiography:
Literary
Terry.
of
Why
Women's
Bloomington:
Eagleton,
A.
Stephanie
Studies
Autobiography:
Autobiographical
Ed. Mari
Evaluation.
Statement."
Evans.
Black
Garden
Randall.
New
City:
York:
100.
1971.
Bantam,
the
A Critical
(1950-1980):
Essays
in Women's
Matrilinearism
Winter,
Blackberry
Bird
and
Sings,
in Criticism.
Hellman's
Pentimento,
The Woman
Kingston's
C. Jelinek.
Ed. Estelle
180-205.
Introduction.
Minneapolis:
U
of Minnesota
P,
1983.
Elliot,
Jeffrey
ed.
M.,
Conversations
with
a Text
Class?
Maya
Angelou.
Jackson:
UP
of Mississippi,
1989.
Fish,
Stanley.
Cambridge:
Pierre
Is There
Harvard
UP,
in This
The Authority
of Interpretive
Communities.
1980.
A Walker
107
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Elizabeth.
Fox-Genovese,
American
Autobiographical
1988.
Shari
"The Daughter's
E.
George
and Unknown
1971.
Bantam,
"Call
and
the Caged
1 (1975):
H.
Lucinda
MacKethan,
Studies
Autobiography."
K.
Myra
Voices:
Wit:
"Mother
in American
as
"Role-Playing
Atlantic Bulletin
Race,
Bird
Art
and
Black
Autobiographical
Chester
J.
in Black
Fontenot.
in
Ithaca:
Self-Portraiture.
and
Autobiographical
251-16.
Women's
Afro-American
A (1985):
in Maya
the Turn
of the Century.
E. "Maya Angelou:
Carol
Self
Neubauer,
Women
Writers:
Tradition."
Southern
U
Tuscaloosa:
and
Sings
51-61.
Angelou's
Bird.'"
'Caged
South
41 (1976): 106-11.
Out
A. Order
Dolly
of Chaos:
New
Peter
York:
1990.
Lang,
Angelou.
Benn.
Walter
The Gold
Standard
Michaels,
at
Ed. Dudley
vs. Theory
Belief
Gender,
Humor
Humor
The
McPherson,
Literature
History."
72-78.
the Black Mother:
Jane.
Maya
"Singing
Angelou
24 (1990):
American
Literature
Forum
Black
Mary
Poets.
in Two
Weixlmann
Joe
Fran?oise.
Autobiographical
Cornell
1989.
UP,
Continuity."
Literary
121-34.
1986.
Penkevill,
and
The Black
Intertextuality
Ed.
Lionnet,
McMurry,
Bards."
and Maya Angelou."
Criticism.
Literary
Greenwood:
Violence
42-43.
Response:
by Richard Wright
American
Sexual
/ Know
"Maya Angelou's
Why
Kansas
Tradition."
Quarterly
Autobiographical
Keneth.
Kinnamon,
Works
Seduction:
"O Black
James Weldon.
Johnson,
New
Randall.
York:
Lupton,
Self: Autobiographical
of Afro
Writings
and
Practice
Self
Theory
of Women's
Hill: U North
Benstock.
Carolina
P,
Chapel
in Culture and Society 11 (1986): 621-44.
of Women
Signs: fournal
Kent,
Ed.
Writings.
My
63-89.
Christine.
Froula,
Statue,
Private
"My
The
Women."
of Alabama
P,
Works
Autobiographical
of Maya
American
the Logic
of Naturalism:
U of California
P, 1987.
and
Berkeley:
a Song
and
of Freedom
Generation.
The New
in
Ed.
the
Southern
Tonette
Bond
114-42.
1990.
Inge.
of Black
"Reconstruction
of
the Composite
Self: New
Sondra.
O'Neale,
Images
Writers
Women
in Maya
Black
Women
Continuing
Autobiography."
Angelou's
Evans.
A Critical
Ed. Mari
Garden
Evaluation.
(1950-1980):
City: Doubleday
1984.
Anchor,
Schmidt,
Jan
25-36.
Zlotnik.
Women's
"The Other:
Autobiographies."
A
Study
of
the
Persona
in Several
Contemporary
The CEA Critic 43:1 (1980): 24-31.
Four
Criticism:
Russian
Formalist
"Art as Technique."
Essays.
U of Nebraska
Lincoln:
and Marion
P, 1965. 3-24.
J. Reis.
after
of a Caged
Bird: Maya
Ann.
"The Song
Quest
Angelou's
Review
Humanities
Southern
1 (1973):
365-75.
Ed.
Victor.
Shklovsky,
Lee T. Lemon
Smith,
Sidonie
Acceptance."
Tompkins,
Jane
P. Sensational
Designs:
The Cultural
1860. New York: Oxford UP, 1985.
Wright, Richard. Black Boy (American Hunger).
Hunger);
108
The
Outsider.
New
York:
Library
Work
of American
Fiction,
Self
1790
Later Works: Black Boy (American
of America,
1991.
College
This content downloaded from 150.216.68.200 on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:33:32 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature