Angelou makes her life into something that teaches the reader not just about her, but also about the South and the African American experience in general. Maya is both a young Angelou and "a symbolic character for every black girl growing up in America" ( source). In this case, Angelou molded her story so that it was not just about her, but all African Americans. Lit fic (we just came up with that) is a work of fiction that's more concerned with the big picture than with the specifics of plot.
And she has the help of a little friend we like to call literary fiction. But what about the specifics? Did Elder Thomas' teeth really land right at Maya's feet? Really?Īngelou bends the rules of autobiography when she writes Caged Bird. Angelou was raised by her grandmother in Stamps, she was raped at eight years old, and she had have a baby at sixteen. And the outline of Caged Bird is definitely true to Angelou's life.
One other thing about autobiographies: they're supposed to be true. In 1969, Random House published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical work of literature which instantly catapulted its author, Maya Angelou. Pretty standard coming-of-age right there. It tells the story of young Maya growing up as she struggles to find her identity. Ta-da! Oh, and like many autobiographies, this one is also a coming-of-age story. The novel follows all the rules of autobiography: it's a story about Angelou's life, organized chronologically, and written in the first person. Well, she took that bet, and two years later I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was born. He said it would be impossible to write an autobiography that was also literature. Angelou wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings on a dare from her editor, Robert Loomis. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Heart of a Woman, she wrote numerous volumes. Whilst accepting these were as she remembered them but in certain chapters she inserts clearly researched events (eg Louis v Carnera) and uses them for her own ends (Louis was not World Champ at that point) The last third of the book rushes through teenage years and is somewhat ridiculous at times, particularly the pages of her driving a car for the first time for 50 miles of winding road only to subsequently have an accident when the car is parked in relatively safe surroundings.Autobiography, Coming-of-Age, Literary FictionĪutobiography and fiction? What's up with that?įirst, some background. Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. The rape scene is excellently crafted though is sadly the only part of such high quality I was particularly unsettled by memories of the very young Angelou as to how such detail could be recalled.
For such a respected author I felt it was quite badly written with an overly florid style I’m not a great reader of memoirs but this seemed be more a collection of dreams or short stories some of which were interesting and others were tedious and dull.
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