Plot

 

Plot Summary
 ===//I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings// is an autobiography of Maya Angelou's life from age 3 to 16. As a young black girl growing up in the 30's and 40's she has a rough life. When she was three years old her parents divorced and sent her and her brother Bailey to Stamps, Arkansas. Here they lived with their grandmother Annie Henderson and her crippled son Willie. Annie, or Momma as they call her, runs the only store in the black section of Stamps and is a very important figure in the black community. As Maya grows up she is faced by racism from white people and is constantly told she is ugly. She is beginning to notice the unfair treatment of her race and is deeply upset by it. Yet another problem facing Maya and Bailey is their real parents. They are tormented by their rejection and even destroy the presents their parents sent them for Christmas one year. When Maya is eight years old her father (who is also named Bailey) takes her and her brother to live with their mother, Vivian. She is described as exceptionally beautiful and Bailey has a deep connection to her. One day when no one else is home Mr. Freeman, Vivian's boyfriend, severely rapes Maya and he goes to court. After the hearing he is found beaten to death, most likely by organized crime members that Maya's mother knows. The traumatic event scars her for life and afterward she is silent for a long time in which she only speaks to Bailey. She also feels responsible for Mr. Freeman's death because she didn't say in court that there were previous events where he molested her. After this Maya and Bailey return to Stamps and she meets Mrs. Bertha Flowers. Bertha is the most sophisticated member of the black community and she has Maya read great works of literature and poetry. This gives Maya confidence and she starts to speak again. When Maya is ten years old, she goes to work in a white woman's kitchen with the black cook. The white woman calls her Mary instead of Marguerite simply because it's shorter, which infuriates Maya so she breaks some fine china to get fired. At her eighth-grade graduation, a white man makes a speech where he insinuates that black people can only accomplish things in sports and not academically. When Maya gets a toothache Momma takes her to the white dentist in town, who refuses to treat Maya despite owing Momma a favor. Also, Bailey sees a dead black man in town, which a white man takes pleasure in seeing. Momma worries about the children experiencing even more racism in Stamps and sends them to live with their mother in California. Shortly after arriving Vivian marries Daddy Clidell, the first real father-figure Maya actually has. One summer Maya lives with her father and his girlfriend Dolores. After Maya and Bailey Sr. return from a trip in Mexico, Dolores is upset and cuts Maya. Maya runs away and spends a month living in a junkyard with other homeless teenagers. She returns to her mother and gets a job as the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco. When she's sixteen she becomes pregnant and hides it from her parents for eight months. She gives birth to a baby boy and the book ends with her falling alseep with the baby. ===