The final chapters of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings detail Maya’s rapid journey into adulthood. Maya experiences important intellectual growth while staying in the junkyard. After a month, she says, “ [M]y thinking processes had so changed that I was hardly recognizable to myself.”
In the case of Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, the social-cultural factors that impede the main character’s development are also the elements that contribute to her coming of age.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Summary: Chapter 16 Maya takes a job in Mrs. Viola Cullinan’s home at the age of ten. The cook, Miss Glory, a descendant of the slaves once owned by the Cullinans, informs Maya that Mrs. Cullinan could not have children and Maya feels pity for Mrs. Cullinan.
Marguerite, or Maya, is the central character in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Caged Bird is an autobiographical work that follows Angelou's life from her train ride from California at 3-years-old to Stamps, Arkansas, all the way to the birth of her first child when she was sixteen in San Francisco, California.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brutal insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can change the course of history. A modern American classic, Maya Angelou’s memoir is beloved around the world.
At the end of the book, Maya realizes that Bailey is caught in an "oedipal skein." When he is with Vivian, he constantly fights with her; but he cannot stay away. Vivian, however, finally kicks him out when he takes up with a white prostitute. In the end, she helps Bailey to get a job with the railroad.
The setting of the poem is contrasting. The free bird is shown as something which can roam freely in nature. The bright sky and golden sun and rivers are described as his roaming zones. On the other hand, a caged bird's setting is in desolation and wilderness.
For the first time in her autobiography, Maya realizes that she is just as important as everyone else. Maya realizes that she has special, undeniable love to give and love to receive in life.
She decides she needs to have sex with a man, and propositions a boy who lives down the street. He agrees, and they have awkward, unromantic intercourse. Maya doesn't feel different afterwards, and still questions her own sexuality. Three weeks later, however, things do change: Maya discovers she is pregnant.
These were the years of the Great Depression, which was a worldwide economic crisis that began with the stock market crash. Maya describes, ''The Depression must have hit the white section of Stamps with cyclonic impact, but it seeped into the Black area slowly, like a thief with misgivings.
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. Carey, Patrick. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Plot Summary." LitCharts.
Marguerite did not change her mind about leaving because the door to the trailer locked when she closed it.
Summary: Chapter 36 Maya accepts full responsibility for her pregnancy. She writes to Bailey for advice, and he tells her to keep it a secret. Vivian opposes abortions, and he fears she would make Maya quit school. Maya throws herself into school and confesses after graduating that she is eight months pregnant.
When she begins cutting classes, Vivian suggests that she simply quit school. The talk with her mother makes Maya realize that she is in control of her own destiny, and she does not want to be a drop-out. As a result, she quits cutting classes.
She is so embarrassed, and she can't go back to Vivian because she doesn't want to cause trouble between her and Daddy Bailey—she already feels she's caused enough trouble in her life. She decides that the best answer is to run away and be homeless.
When Maya becomes pregnant, Vivian supports and encourages her without condemnation, and she gives Maya her first and most important lesson about trusting her maternal instincts. Maya admires her unflinching honesty, her strength, and her caring nature, despite her frequent fumbling as a parent.
In Chapter 25, Maya and her brother are sent to live in California. She believes that one of the reasons for this move is because Bailey witnessed a dead body being pulled out of a pond. It was the body of a black man, and the white men who fished him out looked down and smiled.