Angelou, M. (1970). I know why the caged bird sings. New York, NY: Random House.

Holly Dehner

Memoir/Biography

Family dynamics, Racial/ethnic identity, Relationships, Sexual abuse, Sexuality

Chapter by chapter, Angelou guides the reader through her childhood from her preschool years to the unexpected pregnancy at age sixteen that pushed her into the adult world of the 1940's. The narrative ranges from the cotton fields of the South to the gangster-style subculture of St. Louis, from the emotional juggling to balance the conflicting relationships between her mother, father, grandmothers, and various step-parents, and all the varieties of cultural expectations hidden within those relationships. Angelou concludes this candid journey with the emergence of her sexual identity and the consequences of her impulsive explorations.

 

Angelou's personal history offers many opportunities to reflect on a reader's own socio-cultural development. Finding her own identity among the multiple familial expectations, her reflections of coping with her black heritage, and surviving the trauma of sexual assault at age nine may evoke a transferred identification for those whose own lives have been marked by similar events, and enable a counselor to initiate therapeutic conversations into those areas. The overall sequence of life events highlights circumstances where decisions are made out of necessity, even when outcomes may be unpredictable. One cautionary note: Angelou's perceptions of lesbianism in the last two chapters may be problematic, but her words are a reflection of the misunderstandings of that era.