Before delving into a discussion of celebrated writer Maya Angelou, a fuller understanding of the worldview that shapes her work can be gleaned from a brief review of a few lines from the 1962 Nobel Prize winning speech of another celebrated writer, John Steinbeck:
The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit--for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectability of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.
In Angelou’s first novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she examines how a bird (soul) that is caged (unfree) would still sing. I was curious about this and my main question after reading the story is how Angelou came to such a hopeful worldview despite her many horrific life experiences (poverty, racism, assassinations, divorce, etc.).
The roller-coaster life of Maya Angelou has included many ups and downs that have become the stuff out of which she has written a six volume autobiography, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and ending recently with the last installment, A Song Flung up to Heaven. Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri (Weaver G-10). Angelou’s life has been filled with chaos and despair as well as success and love. She was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of 8 and at various times in her life she toiled in a variety of occupations including Creole cook, calypso dancer, actress, madam, civil-rights activist, filmmaker and presidential poet. Angelou also experienced some horrific events in her lifetime, such as the assassinations of two of her good friends, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Despite the negative events in her life, Angelou’s works are filled with hop...