I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Time Period

1930s-1950s.

The event on the radio that gets people into the store is ___?

A JOE LOUIS FIGHT.

What does Maya wear to the church's Easter Sunday celebration?

A LAVENDER TAFFETA DRESS.

Tommy Valdon

A boy who sends Maya valentines, much to her dismay.

Reverend Thomas

A fat old pastor who makes visits to the Hendersons several times a year; Maya and Bailey hate him because he eats everything, is unpleasant, and never remembers their names.

Grandmother Baxter

A quadroon or octoroon, Grandmother Baxter, raised by Germans in Cairo, Illinois, was working as a nurse at Homer G. Phillips Hospital when she met Grandfather Baxter. A doughty, pragmatic precinct leader who conducts shady dealings in a thick German dialect with gracious, ladylike manners, Grandmother operates so smoothly that she glides over the matter of Mr. Freeman's murder and on to her granddaughter's health as if a gangland-style execution were business as usual. When Maya next encounters her, Grandmother Baxter, ramrod straight and adorned with pince-nez glasses, suffers chronic bronchitis and continues to smoke heavily while sharing her granddaughter's bed.

Joyce

A sexually precocious fourteen year old who seduces ten-year-old Bailey, instigating his petty thievery of sardines, Polish sausage, cheese, and canned salmon from the store, then runs away to Dallas, Texas, to marry a railroad porter, one of a group of Elks that she met in Momma's store.

Bootsie

A tall boy who serves as spokesman for the rules of the junkyard commune where Maya lives. He maintains group finances by keeping everyone's earnings and doling them out equitably.

Sister Monroe

A zealous woman who often loses control of herself in church, beating up the pastor and going crazy.

Where is Maya's favorite place to be?

AT THE STORE.

Red Leg

Along with Just Black, Stonewall Jimmy, Cool Clyde, and Tight Coat, Red Leg, a quick-witted underworld friend of Daddy Clidell, entertains Maya with a long-winded story of how he conned a Tulsa cracker.

Genre

Autobiographical Literature; Bildungsroman.

Uncle Willy can never be described as ___?

CRUEL AND HARSH.

Back in Stamps, people regard them with ___?

CURIOSITY, SINCE THEY HAVE BEEN TO THE CITY.

What saves Maya's disastrous graduation ceremony?

EVERYONE SINGING THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM.

Why are Maya and Bailey hurt after their father takes them from Stamps?

HE TELLS THEM HE IS TAKING THEM TO THEIR MOTHER.

What is the center of Momma's life?

HER FAITH.

Plot

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings tells the story of Maya Angelou's childhood in Stamps, Arkansas. She and her brother Bailey are sent away from their parents on a train to live with their grandmother ("Momma") and Uncle Willie when they are just three and four years old. Their grandmother owns a store, and the children enjoy a certain measure of security. Yet life is difficult for all black people in the segregated American south, and the children encounter various forms of discrimination, degradation, and racial violence. One day, Marguerite's father, Big Bailey, arrives and announces he is taking her and her brother to stay with their mother, Vivien. They leave Stamps for St Louis, and Marguerite feels a longing for home but isn't sure where home is. In St. Louis, Marguerite is just beginning to adjust when she is repeatedly assaulted and raped by Vivien's live-in boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. Following Mr. Freeman's conviction (shortly after which he is murdered) Marguerite returns to Stamps and becomes withdrawn, and she believes her mother sent her and Bailey away because she was too sullen. Back in Stamps, Marguerite struggles to cope with her assault. She is rescued in a sense by the mentorship of Mrs. Flowers, a woman who teaches Marguerite how to read, recite, appreciate, and memorize poetry. Literature and language will remain in Maya's life as a source of strength and comfort. After Bailey is threatened by a white man, Momma decides it is time for the children to be with their mother, who has moved to California. The children move to San Francisco, and live with Vivien and eventually Vivien's new husband, Daddy Clidell, a con artist whom Maya loves as if he were her own father. Maya and Bailey love their mother dearly, and Maya continues to perform well in school. One day Maya goes to southern California to stay with her father and gets in a fight with his live-in girlfriend Dolores Stockland, which results in Maya needing stitches. She doesn't want to humiliate her father, so she runs away and lives in a junkyard until her wound is healed, then goes back to her mother. Shortly thereafter Bailey moves out, and Maya gets a job as San Francisco's first black streetcar employee. Things are going well for Maya until she becomes concerned about her sexuality. She fears she is turning into a lesbian (though she doesn't understand what "lesbian" really means) and believes if she has sex with a boy she will be cured. She does, and the experience is unremarkable until she realizes she is pregnant. She hides her pregnancy for eight months and one week months before finally telling Mother and Daddy Clidell—they are exceedingly understanding and capable and help her through the rest of her pregnancy and her labor. Maya gives birth to a beautiful baby boy, and she is so afraid to hurt him she can barely touch him. The book ends with Maya overcoming this fear, with Vivien's help, and napping with her baby in her bed.

Where are Maya and Bailey traveling from when they arrive in Stamps?

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA.

Who is the anachronism of Stamps?

MR. MCELROY.

In stamps, Maya goes to work for who?

MRS. CULLINAN, AS A MAID.

Conflict

Maya Angelou's struggle to discover her identity and self-worth in the face of racism, white supremacy, and sexism.

Narrator/POV

Maya Angelou, First Person POV.

Author

Maya Angelou.

Protagonist

Maya Angelou.

Bailey Sr.

Maya and Bailey's father, he is largely absent during their upbringing. Maya tries to love him, but his negligence and self-centeredness means a relationship never develops between him and his children.

Momma Henderson

Maya and Bailey's grandmother, and their father Bailey Sr.'s mother. She owns a store in Stamps, Arkansas, and is a highly religious, very exacting woman. She molds Maya and Bailey into intelligent, polite, and religious children. She is strong and practical but embarrasses Maya in not standing up to prejudice.

Henry Reed

Maya's academic competitor at school; he gets to give the valedictorian speech at Maya's graduation from Lafayette County Training School in 1940, and saves the event by singing the "Negro National Anthem".

Bailey Johnson Jr.

Maya's brother, and her closest friend while they are growing up. He is very attached to his mother, although he is separated from her for most of his adult life. He is supportive of Maya while they are growing up, but when he decides to move out, they become more distant.

Significant Moments

Maya's parents got divorced, Maya and Bailey were sent to Stamps, Maya and Bailey moved in with their mother in St. Louis, Maya gets raped, Maya and Bailey returned to Stamps, Bailey witnesses a victim of a lynching, Maya and Bailey move to San Francisco to live with their mother, Maya spends a summer with her father, Maya runs away from her father (her first act of self-reliance and independence), Maya lives for a month in a junkyard with a group of homeless teens, Maya becomes the first black streetcar conductor, Maya becomes pregnant, Maya graduates highschool, Maya gives birth to her son (gains confidence).

Viola Cullinan

Maya's white acquisitive and tradition-bound employer and the barren wife of Mr. Cullinan, who fathered the Coleman girls, two attractive daughters of a Stamps black woman. Perceiving herself as Virginia-born elite, Mrs. Cullinan precipitates an early burst of rebellion in Maya by renaming her Mary, thereby denying her personhood. Shrieking for her mother's forgiveness, Mrs. Cullinan offers comic relief by wallowing among the fragments of her ruined dinnerware.

Uncle Willie

Momma Henderson's crippled son, he lives with her and helps run the store. He disciplines Bailey and Maya severely on rare occasions, and they are a bit wary of him because of his disability and temperament.

George and Florida Taylor

Neighbors of the Hendersons; Florida Taylor's funeral is the first funeral Maya attends, and George comes to their house for companionship after his wife's death.

Mrs. Kirwin

One of Maya's teachers in San Francisco; she is a good teacher, and entirely without prejudice or favoritism. She is the only school teacher Maya remembers.

Maya's desire to look like a "sweet little white girl" is rooted in which of the book's themes?

RACE AND APPEARANCE.

Momma makes her living from ___?

RUNNING A STORE.

What is Maya's reaction to the first valentine she receives in class?

SHE BECOMES UPSET OVER IT.

Maya is suddenly struck by the finality of death when ___?

SHE GOES TO FLORIDA TAYLOR'S FUNERAL.

Why does Maya leave the Easter Sunday service?

SHE HAS TO PEE.

Why does Maya get angry repeatedly at Momma?

SHE LETS WHITE PEOPLE MISTREAT HER.

What happens at the trial that makes Maya feel guilty?

SHE LIES TO THE LAWYER.

What is Maya's nickname at the Store?

SISTER.

Vivian Baxter, Maya's Mother

She is a strong, tough woman who is also beautiful and charming. Maya remembers seeing her sing and dance on several occasions. She and Maya become close, and she supports Maya during her pregnancy and when the baby is born. Bailey though is her favorite and leaves home because their relationship is almost too close.

Marguerite Johnson, or Maya

She is the author of this autobiography, which covers the early years of her life. Most of her early years are spent in the care of her grandmother, Momma Henderson, in the small town of Stamps, Arkansas. However, by the end of the volume, she is living in San Francisco with her mother and brother Bailey.

Grandfather Baxter

Speaking his choppy West Indian dialect, Grandfather Baxter, ever in the shadow of his politically astute wife, contrasts her "throaty German accent." An invalid from the mid-1930s, he continues receiving his grandchildren at his bedside and dies a few years after Maya's return to Stamps.

Settings

Stamps, Arkansas; St. Louis, Missouri; Oakland, California; San Francisco, California.

Their mother's family is called ___?

THE BAXTERS.

Who warns Momma about the Ku Klux Klan?

THE FORMER SHERIFF OF STAMPS.

To Maya, Bailey is ___?

THE GREATEST PERSON IN HER WORLD.

What reveals the harshness of Black Southern life?

THE REALITY OF LATE AFTERNOON.

What isn't true about the life of cotton pickers?

THEY ASPIRE TO HAVE THEIR OWN COTTON BUSINESS ONE DAY.

How old are Maya and Bailey when they go to live with Momma?

THREE AND FOUR YEARS OLD.

Mrs. Bertha Flowers

The "aristocrat" of black Stamps, she is a gracious woman who encourages Maya's love of literature and also helps Maya to break out of her muteness. Maya regards her as the pinnacle of humankind.

Mr. Freeman

The boyfriend of Maya's mother in St. Louis, he rapes Maya, is cleared of the charges, and then is found dead the next day.

Antagonist

The challenges of growing up in a society pervaded by racism and sexism.

Louise Kendricks

The daughter of a domestic worker, is a lonely girl and a fellow ten-year-old who shares Maya's dreamy romanticism as well as the Tut language, a secret child's language. The loss of Louise's friendship is Maya's sole regret in departing from Stamps.

Dolores Stockland

The girlfriend of Maya's father, who dislikes Maya and ends up stabbing her.

Lee Arthur

The only member of the junkyard commune who lives at home. Lee welcomes the gang to his house on Friday evenings for baths.

Daddy Clidell

The second husband of Maya's mother; he is a good, honest man, and Maya's first real father.

The Symbolism of Momma's Store

The store is at the center of Marguerite's life in Arkansas. It is a figure for Momma's prominence and strength—she is the only black store owner in town. But the store also serves as a reminder of racial inequality. Momma is well-off—the store gives her enough financial security that she is able to lend money to Dr. Lincoln, a white dentist who doesn't have enough funds to start his practice. However, when Momma asks Dr. Lincoln to pull some teeth for Marguerite, who is in a great deal of pain, he says he would rather put his hand in a dog's mouth. So while the store is a place where black members of the community congregate, and it is a source of security and strength for Momma, it can only do so much. It is therefore a symbol of Momma's strength in a world where that strength is necessary for survival.

Mrs. Cullinan

The terrible white woman whom Maya works for briefly; Maya hates her for calling her "Mary," though Mrs. Cullinan corrects this mistake on the day Maya is fired.

The Symbolism of The Train

The train is a symbol of displacement. Bailey and Marguerite ride the train by themselves, with their ticket pinned to Bailey's coat when they are sent away from their parents. They ride the train again to and from St. Louis, and finally again on the way to California after Bailey is threatened and Momma makes them move away. Angelou reflects on these train rides at length—they fill her with a sense of loss, of possibility, of fear, of longing. In many ways, these train rides serve to remind her that, as a young Black girl, she cannot have a home in America the same way that others can.

Edward Donleavy

The white, condescending speaker at the graduation ceremony, he manages to destroy the festivity of the ceremony.

Maya's Uncles

These three men are tough and brutal; they are probably the ones who kill Mr. Freeman after he is freed on charges of raping Maya.

Miz Ruth, Miz Helen, Miz Eloise

Young lower-class white girls who mock Annie Henderson by imitating her posture. The tallest one does a handstand in the dust, revealing her bare backside as an extra dollop of disrespect.