88 pages 2 hours read

Maya Angelou

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1969

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Introduction-Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction Summary

The memoir opens with a young Maya reciting a poem during the Easter service at the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. She can't remember more than the first few lines, and instead of conjuring up the rest of the poem, she thinks of the dress she is wearing. As her grandmother was sewing it for her, Maya had hoped that it would transform her and make her look like “one of the sweet little white girls who were everybody’s dream of what was right with the world” (2). But when Easter morning came, Maya realized that the dress was merely “a plain ugly cut-down from a white woman's once-was-purple throwaway” (2). Wearing it, Maya feels deeply self-conscious and has an impression that everyone's gaze is fixed on her skinny legs. Nevertheless, she believes that one day she will wake up from this “Black ugly dream” (2) and appear as her true self, beautiful and blond. Then Maya thinks that this sudden transformation will make everyone understand why she avoided acquiring a Southern accent and using the common slang. In Maya’s eyes, she was “really white” (2), and it was her cruel fairy stepmother who turned her into a big Black girl.

Related Titles

By Maya Angelou

SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Maya Angelou
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Maya Angelou
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Maya Angelou
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Maya Angelou
Guide cover image