"Into this cocoon I crept" (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou)

Member Name: saucy_molecule

Product:	I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
Date:	16/04/04 (1279 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: interesting read

Disadvantages: emotionally difficult in some places, some inconsistencies

Growing up in 1930s America isn?t easy when you?re a young Black girl. Marguerite Johnson lives with her grandparents and older brother Bailey in the town of Stamps, a heavily Black-White segregated place where everybody knows their place. A brief stay with her mother results in Marguerite being raped by her Mother?s boyfriend. Returning to Stamps, her way of coping is retreat into a world of muteness. The book follows the next few years of Marguerite?s life as she comes to terms with what happened to her and the person that she becomes.

The book is an autobiographical account of Maya Angelou?s childhood so the impact it makes is stronger as you know that every word is true. It is a short book as it only covers Marguerite?s life between the ages of three and sixteen but what struck me was that within this relatively short space of time, this girl experiences more than most people do in a lifetime. And considerably more than anybody would want to experience.

It is obvious from the start (and the back cover blurb) that Marguerite will suffer some kind of sexual abuse. What I wasn?t expecting was the abuse leading up to and the rape scene itself to be quite so graphic. It?s not something that anyone would find easy to read and that is perhaps why it is made clear on the back cover that to allow people to subconsciously prepare for it, because it is truly harrowing to read. The court room scenes are almost as bad and I imagine that this in itself was nearly as painful for Marguerite to bear:

?The lie lumped in my throat and I couldn?t get air. How I despised the man for making me lie. Old, mean, nasty thing. Old, black, nasty thing. The tears didn?t soothe my heart as they usually did.?

The author?s voice is strong throughout and there is a careful combination writer?s prose and slight edges of Angelou?s natural accent that show through occasionally, most noticeably when she is relating what someone else has said:

?Momma said
, ?Now Brother Taylor, could be you was dreaming. You know, they say whatever you goes to bed with on your mind???

?I had reached the no man?s ocean of darkness. No great decision was called for. I knew it would be torturous to go through the thick blackness of Uncle Willie?s bedroom, but it would be easier that staying around to hear the ghoulish story.?

You gain quite a good picture of what most of the people within her life are like: Bailey is a strong, protective older brother who goes astray as they get older; her mother is an attractive, almost barely-there caricature of what a mother should be like; Momma and Uncle Willie are the solid, fiercely protective guardians of the pair and other characters come in and out and seem clearly defined. All that is, apart from Marguerite herself. I found that by the end of the book I still didn?t have a clear picture of what Marguerite was like and considering the book is sold on blurb that proclaims she becomes ?a champion of her own identity? this was quite a major criticism.

There just seemed to be too many inconsistencies within Marguerite?s character for me to be able to understand what she was truly like. I realise that in real life, people aren?t consistent, but I kind of felt that there should have been some constancy between young Marguerite and teenage Marguerite. There was also the question of her muteness. We are told that she refuses to speak after her ordeal, but later on she is clearly speaking again and there is no definitive moment when this changes. Other things are equally less explained ? her relationship with Mrs. Flowers for one example. We are told this was a turning point in her life and then that is it. No more mention of the lady who was so important.

Also, apart from a few sentences here and there, ? For a while I was punished for being so uppity that I wouldn?t speak; and then came the thrashings, given by any relative who felt himself offended? you would thin
k that Marguerite had merely retreated into her world of silence and was pretty much left to herself. This sentence indicates that she was beaten for it and quite regularly, but again this is barely mentioned afterwards.

I think this is a good book to read in some respects; it gives you yet another perspective on a human being to consider ? not just the microcosm of Marguerite?s world but the macrocosm of the world around her and I did realise part way through that her encounter probably wasn?t all that unusual and neither was the way the community had with dealing with it.

On the other hand, there are flaws and inconsistencies that make it slightly frustrating to read. The ending was incredibly unsatisfactory ? I have never heard of the author before and obviously I could find out what happened to her via the Internet and other means, but I wanted a stronger finish to the book. I was left with curiosity about what her life afterwards and I wasn?t quite sure how she felt she?d changed since her childhood other than that it had come to an end.

I bought my copy from a charity shop for £1.25. At the moment, Ebay has a few copies for about £1 and it?s available from Amazon for £6.99.

Maya Angelou has written 12 best-selling books including ?A song flung to heaven? and a number of children?s books, plays and screenplays. She is also an actress, producer and director.

http://www.mayaangelou.com/

The title of the review comes from p. 77.

Summary: