I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Prologue

Summary:

Maya, the protagonist in Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is standing in front of her church congregation on Easter morning attempting to recite a poem. She wears an altered taffeta dress that she refers to as a secondhand dress from a white woman. Maya daydreams of evolving from a large unappealing African American girl into a blond white girl. She couldn’t proceed with the poem after the words “What you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay…”  Embarrassed after not being able to completely deliver the poem and getting tripped by a peer Maya asks to be excused to go to the restroom and ends up running out crying, peeing, and laughing because of the “sweet release”.

Response:

The repetition of the first few lines of the poem Maya is reciting “What are you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay . . .” makes me believe there is an underlying meaning to those words. Maya feels out of place and insecure in her community, throughout the time she is isolated in front of the church she is worried about the audience staring at her skinny legs and also being an African American girl. Also, the fact that she wants to change skin tones and hair color portrays Maya’s extreme insecurity. Maya lives in a time of racism and struggles with feeling like she belongs, is wanted, beautiful, and safe. I expect these struggles to be emphasized throughout the book.