Caged Bird Sings Reflection

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, is an autobiography that opens in 1931, Stamps, Arkansas, and follows Marguerite Johnson (Maya Angelou) throughout her years of growing up. Starting when she first arrived to live her grandma, to when she moved to San Fransisco to be reunited with her mother, She encounters many experiences, good and bad, that mold her into who she is in adulthood. This book is more than just the outward journey of her life, it involves what she instinctively knew about being human and details her inward journey of reflection on what is means to be human. Firstly, growing up in the era of segregation, she saw white people as mythical beings. She states “People are those who lived on my side of town. I didn’t like them all, any of them very much, but they were people. These others, the strange pale creatures that
She's says “The world was moving so fast (Angelou p. 265).” She matured very fast for a kid her age, she states “and after being a women for three years about to become a girl (Angelou p. 142).” First of all, she had a lot a responsibility as a young child. Her grandmother was very strict and tough on her. Second of all, after she stopped talking she didn’t make many friends, until Louise, so she worked at the store and did chores a lot. Throughout the book you can see she has a lot of knowledge and wisdom, even when she was a child. The quotes relate back to the point because her world pushed her to become so responsible at such a young age. She had to grow up fast even if she didn’t want to, it just happened. Growing up in not only segregation but also the depression most girls in her generation would have to become more responsible than girls that grew up in my generation. When she stopped talking she had more of a chance to look at herself, as well as others and see things in a different life which a natural by product of this reflection is becoming more adult