TOW #8 IRB

Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a reflection on her upbringing in the segregated town of Stamps Arkansas. Somehow through her childhood of being made a fool by both her race and others, Angelou rose to success and became one of the most influential and well-known writers of all time. Throughout her book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou juxtaposes her pandemic and educated language with the colloquial language of the people that she grew up with to contrast her past from her present and show how far she has come from her past of pain. Throughout her story, this contrast of diction is evident, but when Angelou describes her years helping at “the Store”. In this specific example, Angelou is helping a customer fill her sac with flour, “When I was absolutely accurate our appreciative costumers used to admire: ‘Sister Henderson’s sure got some smart grandchildrens.’ If I was off in the Store’s favor, the eagle-eyed women would say, “Put some more in that sac, child. Don’t you try to make your profit offa me.’ Then I would quietly but persistently punish myself.” (Angelou 15) While there are many more examples of this throughout the book, this demonstrated Angelou’s juxtaposition well. When she uses words like, “appreciative” or “persistently” and the people around her aren’t even using proper grammar it puts a distance between her and those other people. This distance shows how far removed Angelou is from that society and how she is above these people in a way. It also gives the reader an idea about how hard Angelou had to work to come from her uneducated and impoverished society to becoming one of the greatest writers of out time. This story is not only just a retelling of Maya Angelou’s childhood, but a success story that informs the reader of just how many hurdles she had to jump over to get to where she is today.