Why does the cage bird sing? Why does it sing? Reading this book I clearly believe Maya Angelou is the narrator of this book. Being that the book is a memoir but it is also an autobiography so it is obvious I felt that she wrote the story. But the real narrator is Margaret because she gives an innocence in the story that brings you into the story. But it gives us an inside of her adult life and gives an answer to why things happen through our life. In this book Maya Angelou tells the story through Margarets eyes about her identity, rape, and facing racism. The story starts with Maya and her older brother being sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother. At the ends of the story Maya becomes a mother at the age of 16. Maya shows that through all the racism and prejudices she faced it transformed her life which made her a smart young woman who could face any racial situation.
When I read Sophia blog I came to realize that Maya was targeting people who have faced different adversities in life. When I read the story I also felt her pain, her pain of wanting to be someone else.
“Wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blond, would take the place of the kinky mass that Momma wouldn’t let me straighten?” (2)
I find that the Multileveled communication is shown in the reading when it says
“The contrast between the actual reader’s values and those of the narrator and implied author effect our judgments, which in turn effect our feelings.”
Which leads to how Maya made me relive when I was a young girl I faced many adversities starting with that I was the fat girl in the group, even through high school all my friends had boyfriends and I was always alone. This is what Maya brought out of me to see the long way I have come. Because of these adversities I am the woman I am today strong, self confident and overall love myself.
Maya goal in this book is to show that we can come out strong throw the adversities we face in life, that we cannot let it destroy us, because at the end we are the losers not them.
Enrico in his blog mentions how
“It was clear that with this scene Angelou was using her grandmother, Annie, to symbolize a caged bird singing.”
Which open my eyes to see the significant of the title Why does the cage bird sings. The cage birds are the people who have faced adversities and are now using their songs to tell everyone who care to hear what they have faced. Maya Angelou writes in her dedication to,
“All the strong Black birds of promise that defy the odds and Gods and sing their songs.”
This is why many people blacks, white, etc are singing their stories of what they have faced in their life experiences. Thanks to Maya we are able to overcome all of the adversities that have been face through a life time.
“I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, When he beats his bars and would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings – I know why the caged bird sings.” Paul Laurence Dunbar
Group Four 
Hi Lizedly,
Although you distinguish Marguerite, the narrator, from Maya Angelou, you still identify Maya Angelou as a narrator. In the text, there are multiple layers of narration. I’m going to focus on the first chapter because it provides a good glimpse into the narration of the text. The first paragraph, which begins with first person personal pronouns states that “we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson Jr.” Therefore, the first narrator is Marguerite Johnson. The text presents events in Marguerite’s life. However, they are told in past tense. Therefore, they must be from the perspective of an older Marguerite looking back. This voice, along with narrating the events of Marguerite’s voice, also ties in greater meaning. This narrator presents Margeurite’s life with not only reflection, but also expands it to a bigger meaning. For example, she states “Years later I discovered that the United States had been crossed thousands of times by frightened Black children traveling alone to their newly affluent parents in Northern cities, or back to grandmothers in Southern towns when the urban North reneged on its economic promises.” I think that it would be really interesting if your blog explored this relationship between Marguerite, the girl experiencing things, and the adult narrator that gives those things meanings.
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Hey Lizedly,
You did a great job on trying to decipher Maya Angelou’s overall message. The whole purpose of the narrative seems to be explaining why the caged bird sings. Why when bad things happen do oppressed people keep moving forward? The story is told through the point of view of young Maya Angelou, Marguerite. But like Rachel mentioned even though Marguerite is our main character, the story is being told from the point of view of an older, wiser Maya Angelou. The whole story is a memoir, Angelou reflecting on her past events, piecing them together, forming an understanding of why she is the women she is today. But for some reason I have come to believe Angelou’s role as a narrator to be unreliable. Memories are never as reliable as we believe. We remember what we want to remember. Essentially memories can be contorted into projections. We became who we became and we alter the meaning of our past, convincing ourselves that there the reason for our accomplishments or mistakes. So what if Angelou’s past is misinterpreted? What if she only remembered only what she wanted to remember? What if she is missing valuable information of her own past? Were not getting the whole story. Angelou is also taking us on her narrative journey that we are blindly following. We don’t question her intentions, or memories, because we have come to believe memoir’s mean fact. But the past is a foggy forgettable place. We can project onto them what we want to.
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I think you gave this blog a good shot, but you didn’t put enough work into in. Sorry, I recognize that the semester can get pretty hectic but there are at least some grammar problems in the first paragraph that should be easy to notice and fix.
I’m pretty confused on if when you refer to “Margaret” do you mean young Maya Angelou. I really think you should clear up what is being said in the beginning and let the sentences flow better. I don’t mean to sound like a critic but this just concerns me. I believe the last statement you say in the first paragraph though is very strong and on point.
Continuing with your blog, I too believe that Angelou wrote this story for people who have experienced adversities in their life. The way you talk about your life and come back to this earlier statement is great. Once you mention the title on the novel and everything after, I believe you got back on the ball. Just to expand on your claimand voice my own opinion though, I believe she is trying to speak to an audience that believes their life to be a prison, “cage,” or use to be a prison. For this is the story of a African American woman who had a difficult past, struggled with it, reflected on it, and strived to be better and change the world around her because of how the world made her feel; like she and other African Americans were trapped, “caged,” by society and people’s opinions (projections/interpretations). I hope you’re catching everything I’m saying; I know I’m saying a lot in one sentence. There are many examples of people who could be dealing with this struggle: heartbroken people, people dealing with racism or bullying, war veterans who can’t readjust to their country, people who are unemployed, or people that just aren’t getting what they want in life. That’s a big audience too. James Phelan’s “Living to Tell about It: A Rhetoric and Ethics of Character Narration” make a comment about how narrators writer stories for certain reasons. “ . . . the narrator tells her story to her narratee for her purposes, while the author communicates to her audience for her own purposes both that story and the narrator’s telling of it” (18).
Phelan claims that he, or rather we as readers, should be concerned with “the multilayered communications that authors of narrative offer their audiences, communications that invite or even require their audiences to engage with their cognitively, psychically, emotionally, and ethically” (5). Knowing this, I am certain that Angelou is obviously trying to engage with us and people who feel like their life is a prison. She’s giving one example and trying to show that you can break free and live on. Let’s also take in this quote from Phelan: “formal logic of character near ration has consequences for our emotional responses to character narrators, and these emotional responses, in turn, have consequences for the ethical dimension of our engagement with them and with the narrative in which they appear” (5). Angelou reveals a lot of tragic, emotional moments in her life and that in turn effects us readers emotionally and allows us to enage with the conversation Angelou is creating.
Furthermore, I believe that stating that the “Multilayered Communication” is shown in Angelou’s work is great, but it feels like you just threw that quote in and didn’t create a good “quote sandwich” as they say; stating something, quoting it, then explaining the quote, your opinion on it, and wrapping it up in a nice bow. Phelan’s quote about Multilayered Communication is, “The trajectory of our feelings is itself linked to the psychological, thematic, and . . . ethical dimensions of the narrative” (19). This leads to more or less what you quoted about how the contrast between the values of all three of those people, (the reader, narrator, and implied author), effects our judgements and feelings. That’s great thinking and link back to what I said above about the author’s purpose, but I feel like you could have explained more of your thought process. All and all, only the beginning and the quote from Phelan was rough. If you git the chance to read through this long comment don’t let it get you down.
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