Ensayos

University of Puerto Rico at Carolina

English Faculty

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Critique

Required for English 3103

Tany M. Valentín

November 17, 2009

I Know Why the CagedBird sings is an inspirational novel that I enjoy reading. The novel is inspirational because even though Maya went through a lot in her life, at the end she rise and found her happiness. Also, byreading the novel it inspires you to fight for what you believe and to not let anyone bring you down. Therefore, the novel not only tells you about Maya’s life, but, it inspires you to succeed in life.Even though, the novel is inspirational it also presents various themes.

One of the various themes was racism, which was the major problem that Maya and every black race had to face. Racism was amajor problem for the black race, but, especially for Maya because it determines who they were, and for the whites the black race was inferior. As a result, Maya always had low self esteem because ofher appearance that she even dreamt and wish she was white with blonde hair and blue eyes. Moreover, racism kept being a major problem to Maya, such as the time that Maya needed to go to the dentistbecause she was suffering from a tooth and Momma took her to Dr. Lincoln, and he denies to assist her because she was black. Also, racism is shown when Maya went to apply for a job at the streetcar as aconductor and she was denied the job because of her color. However, she did not let her race be a problem like other times, that she kept persevering for the job and at the end she got it.In addition, of the various themes of the novel, abandonment is another that was crucial for Maya’s and Bailey’s childhood. This theme is crucial because it was the highlight of their early lifechildhood at the beginning of the novel, and from this point both of their life changed. They were the raise by their Momma and Uncle Willie in Stamps, where they were totally comfortable, until one...