Forgot your password?  

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Summary
Maya Angelou

Everything you need to understand or teach I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Summary & Study Guide
  • 10 Student Essay
  • 2 Encyclopedia Article
  • 9 Literature Criticism
  • 1 Book Note
  • ...and more
  • 30 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Lessons
  • 20 Activities
  • 180 Multiple Choice Questions
  • 60 Short Essay Questions
  • 20 Essay Questions
  • Pre-Made Tests and Quizzes
  • ...and more

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Summary

Part I

The first of five autobiographical works, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, focuses on the recollections and adult understanding of Maya Angelou's growing up female and black in the America of the 1930s and 1940s. The author begins this volume with a description of her young self standing in front of the church to deliver a short poem on Easter. Although she describes herself as very dark and ugly with "steel wool" for hair, here she imagines that someday her true self will emerge. She'll be blonde, blue-eyed, and white.

The first chapter proper, however, shows us three-year-old Marguente (Maya) and her four-year-old brother Bailey arriving by train to live with their father's mother, Mrs. Annie Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. The children's parents have ended their marriage and sent the young children off by train with notes instructing "To Whom It May Concern" of their names, origin, and... View more of the I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Summary

Study Pack

The I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Study Pack contains about 448 pages of study material in 27 products, including:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Study Guide

Lesson Plan

All teaching products sold separately.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Lesson Plans contain 132 pages of teaching material, including:

Need Homework Help?
Characters Left: 200
-- http://www.bookrags.com/notes/ikwc/ read more
-- The novel itself it set in the 1930's, but it was published in the '70's which was a time of alot of... read more
-- Ms. Bertha Flowers is a well off African American woman in the black community whom everyone respect... read more
-- Maya returns exuberantly to the Store with the books and a bag of cookies for Bailey. Maya announces... read more
-- I'm not exactly sure what you are asking, here, but this is the chapter where Calpurnia takes the ch... read more
Follow Us on Facebook