Maya angelou caged bird quotes
It’s upsetting to think that those without power are always the first to be targeted for exploitation and oppression, as predators are prone to take advantage of the powerless’ fear and lack of confidence. In the #MeToo era, more women in the first world are now able to speak out against sexual victimisation, but this – to a large extent – remains a privilege that’s only open to those who have the socio-economic upper hand.Īnd for a Southern Black girl living in early 20th century America, this sort of privilege is a distant pipe dream. Its difficulty lies not in the complexity of its language or the inaccessibility of its ideas, but in the rawness of its human presentation, delivered through the honesty of a voice which straddles childhood and adolescence.Īs an autobiographical novel, it’s about Angelou’s own childhood (among many other things), but it’s arguably not a ‘children’s book’, as the protagonist Maya recalls growing up with the trauma of abandonment and rape. What’s interesting, then, is that I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings isn’t an easy book to read, much less teach. (By the way, in my post on the poetry of oppression, I analyse Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Still I Rise’ alongside the British Guyanese poet John Agard’s ‘Checking Out Me History’ – another GCSE favourite.) From the GCSE and A-Levels to the IB and AP curricula, this book is a regular on ‘recommended books’ lists. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical novel published in 1969, is one example of these ‘sensitive, but widely taught’ texts. Introducing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Puritanical censorship, for all its good intentions, has no place in authentic learning. There is, of course, a strong case to be made for ‘sensitive books’ to be taught in classrooms, if only because engaging with literature is all about understanding humanity in its entirety. I’m not sure how prudish schools are these days (and this could differ vastly across countries and cultures), but while most teachers would cringe at the idea of discussing sex and rape with teenage students, they’re often asked to teach literary works that contain these same sensitive, adult topics.ĭoes the veneer of figurative language, then, make the thematically ‘inappropriate’ more palatable?
One of the trickiest things about teaching literature is the ‘appropriateness’ of text selection. Note: This post contains sensitive content!