TOW #21- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Following a childhood plagued by her parents’ divorce, the multiple times the family moved, and sexual abuse, Maya Angelou wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography about her life up until the age of 17. Primarily, Oprah Winfrey wrote the foreword in the version of the book that I am currently reading. In this introduction, Winfrey used metaphors to connect to the readers, and to intrigue them. For example, she compares the book to “an old friend” (ix). This metaphor shows the audience how much Winfrey cherishes the story, and how it truly makes her feel. Friends are people who spread safety and happiness to each other, which is what this book did for Oprah Winfrey; it was there for her when she felt like no one else would understand, just as friends are. Furthermore, this appeals to the pathos, or emotions, of the readers by comparing the pages to a friend, someone almost everyone can relate their love of. Then, in the first chapter, Angelou utilizes similes in order to add more description to her story, helping the readers visualize exactly what was going on, and to feel what the author was feeling. The author describes how nervous she was in church, and how “each time I breathed it rustled, and now that I was sucking in air to breathe out shame it sounded like crepe paper on the back of hearses”, and how her skin looked “dirty like mud” (2). These similes made it simpler for the audience to imagine what was happening to Angelou in the church, and how she felt about it. Before leaving her house, Angelou thought that she was wearing the most beautiful dress in the world; however, upon arriving to mass, she realized that it actually looked horrendous, especially since she could not remember the prayer she was supposed to read. This is the reason that the comparison is to hearses, which are funeral cars. By relating the way the dress sounded to the way cars that hold coffins sound, Angelou was able to depict to the audience how the outfit truly made her feel. Additionally, comparing her skin to mud, and imagining her life as a white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, gives readers insight into what the author is thinking and what she may be thinking throughout the book. Angelou thinks that her life would be easier if she were white, as made obvious with her various similes and metaphors.