The fate of a black woman is strongly influenced by two forces: being a woman and being born with black skin. She is subjected to oppression, slavery, and hostility because she is a black woman. In the mass media and literature, she suffers from false and negative depiction of being a tragic mulatto, strong black maid, and hot-blooded exotic one (Bloom, 13). Many black women tried to combat the negative depictions that lead to stereotyping of a black woman. Maya Angelou is one of these authors with powerful and realistic portrayal of a black woman. She does a powerful, unforgettable, and momentous memoir in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In this first attempt in writing non-fiction, Maya Angelou elevates her self-image and all the black women in her life. Her narration paints a picture that justifies her personality. In turn, her reality becomes a reality for many black women (Bloom, 14). Accordingly, the black woman is the central symbol that is used in this autobiographical novel.
A black woman’s body is a major symbol in many literary works tackling gender and racial injustices. Caged Bird is just one of the many stories that show somatophobia or the fear of the black female body. Maya Angelou writes about her own experiences and sufferings of having been raped as a child. She does not simply make this experience public; rather, she provides extensive analysis of the conflicts between her body versus what the society suggests a woman’s integral self should have, such as sexual reputation, soul, desire, will, etc. The black woman’s body is subject to sexual harassment and oppression, so it is a challenge for Maya Angelou to speak of her body without reinforcing the racist view of a black woman as a mere body. Like Harriet Jacobs in Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl, Maya Angelou challenges the patriarchal society’s view of black woman’s body in terms of sexuality and sensuality (Braxton, 14).
Rather, Maya transforms the black woman body as a formal political entity. Maya Angelou recalls her rape is very dramatic, which surely informs and describes to the readers the great impact of this memory to an innocent young victim. There is a court hearing, but justice for the rape of a black girl is not so much of a concern to the judicial system during that time. The offender served short jail time, but Maya Angelou’s “mean and ugly” uncles put justice in their hands and kill him. Maya takes this with great remorse because she does not want this kind of vengeance. She blames herself for this lawless retribution. Hence, she decides to limit her speech, to be silent so that she could no longer cause harm to others (Hagen, 62).
Moreover, just like many black women’s story, the concept of a home is temporary and migratory. The home may be joyful, but oftentimes, a hostile place that she must leave in order to seek for a greater sense of belonging, acceptance, and growth. In the home, “silence” is the expected speech for a young black woman. For a black woman, home is oftentimes a place of exile, the same as the community and nation (Davies, 22). In the story, Maya leaves his father’s home in San Francisco and lives with homeless teenagers in a scrapyard. After a month, she returns to their home feeling strong and self-assured. She has been an activist since then.
In sum, the black woman that Maya Angelou portrays in her autobiography is one who does not only suffer because of her gender and skin color, but one who also emerges triumphantly amidst all. There is transformation and self-acceptance, which eventually ends with self-actualization as she founds her purpose: advocate of justice for black people and motherhood.
Works Cited:
Braxton, Joanne.Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Davies, Carole. Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject. London: Routledge, 1994.
Hagen, Lyman. Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and a Soul of a Poet. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, Inc.