Getting to know the caged bird
Getting to know the caged bird“I will not allow anybody to minimize my life, not anybody, not a living soul- nobody, no lover, no mother, no son, no boss, no president, no body.” (Maya Angelou) In Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, she, Maya, tells the reader about the challenges and praises throughout her life. She gets across to the reader that the number of things that have occurred to her in her life will never add up to make her feel unworthy. Because Angelou is a “spirited journalist”, (pg.5) she was inspired to begin writing I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by a meeting with novelist James Baldwin, Random House Editor Robert Loomis, and cartoonist Jules Feiffer and his wife, Judy, in 1970. After the inspiration arose, Angelou began her “rigid work on yellow legal pads” (pg. 9) where she let her ideas flow. The content of those legal pads resulted in a bestseller, of which contained Maya Angelou’s flowing style, the use of dialect, settings, and characterization.
Dialect is very influential to the tone of Angelou’s autobiography, as it was to the tone of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd. It was only through the dialect that the reader was able to understand Billy’s character. As in Billy Budd, Angelou uses dialect in her writings to enhance the tone of the book. “That’s right. You know, the children was readin’ me something th’ other day, Say folks dream about whatever was on their mind when they went to sleep.”(Pg. 158) Angelou quoted her “momma” [paternal grandmother], and allows the reader to feel a sense as if momma was really saying something to them; she brings momma to life.
J. Moreno Pg. 2
As for the quote stated, Angelou uses what we consider to be African American slang, more formally known as “ebonics”, to personalize “momma”. In everyday English we use subject and verb agreement, however, Angelou does not by writing “the children was reading”, this type of dialect in Angelou’s autobiography personalizes many of the characters. The use of dialect also enhances the characterization of personalities of which are greatly noted in this autobiography.
Characterization, also another influential factor to Angelou’s writing, gives the reader a visualization of what the personalities are like. “…when she was called upon to sing, [momma] seemed to pull out plugs from behind her jaws and the huge, almost rough sound would pour over the listeners and throb into the air.” (pg. 196) Angelou...
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