The Caged Bird Controversy Essay, Research Paper
The Caged Bird Controversy
The novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the life narrative of Maya Angelou as she struggles through life in the South. Published in 1969, the novel has received critical acclamation since 1970 and spent three old ages as a figure one best marketer on the New York Times Best Seller List. ( Caged Bird Essay ) Although this book has a best marketer, it was the 9th most often challenged book in American high schools ( Caged Bird Essay ) and has been a censoring mark for old ages. Many school libraries have banned I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, because legion parents believe that the book is coarse, hapless literature and that it is inappropriate for usage in public schools for immature people of any age. Others believe that I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings might make what rear fright most? raise of import issues while go forthing the immature reader no avenue to detect his or her relationship to those thoughts.
What do people intend by? vulgar? ? The narrative consists of Angelou? s experiences when she was turning up which includes in writing scenarios. For illustration, when she described her colza by her female parents boyfriend at the age of eight. In Southlake Texas high schools, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was banned because of the? adult description? of her colza. ( Caged Bird Essay ) Other schools have chosen non to censor the book by merely canceling the colza chapters. The usage of linguistic communication in the scene of Angelou? s colza is barely expressed, yet it does cover with a sensitive issue and evoke a strong emotional response.
Angelou? s ideas of homosexualism became another issue and in any instance, a book that discusses homosexualism is presumed controversial. As she begins pubescence, confusion sets in, and the possibility of homosexualism scares her. ( Caged Bird Essay ) Angelou was non precisely certain what a tribade was, but she felt that her low voice, masculine pace convinced her that she was one and subsequently on in life she dealt with this? confusion. ? To calculate out if she was a sapphic or non, she asked a fellow schoolmate if he wanted to hold? sexual intercourse? with her to guarantee herself that she was heterosexual. This action of hers resulted in her gestation, which brings up another issue: Prenuptial sex. As a pregnant sixteen-year-old, Angelou saw nil really incorrect with her actions.
I Why the Caged Bird Sings besides encourages societal jobs that our society battles. In the undermentioned citation, Angelou negotiations about joy derived from a gestation as an unwed 16 twelvemonth old. ? For the following two hebdomads, I whirled around the metropolis, taking vitamin shootings and pills, purchasing apparels for the babe, and except for the rare minutes entirely, basking the imminent blessed event. ? The last message we want to set across to sexually funny adolescents is that a Te
enage gestation can convey felicity! ? Author Unknown
The adult content and prenuptial sex do non compare to the racism which is the figure one issue of the book and is the chief ground why this book has been so controversial. There is no ground to believe that the novel is in its affecting portraiture of race dealingss. ( Learning to Live ) This explains why the narrative has been most
controversial in the South, where racial tenseness was historically the worst and where the novel is particularity set. The obvious and elusive effects of racism on a immature Angelou aid explicate the controversial factor of the book. In the book described her mixture feelings towards subjugation as a kid. She felt atrocious when she hear the Whites stating derogative remarks towards inkinesss, like when a physician said, ? My policy is that I? vitamin D instead stick my manus down a Canis familiaris? s oral cavity than a niggers. ? ( I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ) Remarks like these made her feel choler towards her community, and frequently Angelou frequently wondered about how it would hold been like if she woke up in the white universe, with blond hair and blues eyes and shiver the incubus of being black:
Angelou paints a image of some of the negative pick? s: white America choosing to suppress groups of people ; taking lynch jurisprudence over justness ; taking bullying over award. She offers a deep? talk? on the possibility of positive picks: taking life over decease ; taking bravery over safety ; taking subject over pandemonium ; taking voice over silence ; taking compassion over commiseration, over hatred, over wont ; taking work and planning and hope over useless recrimination and slovenly desperation. ? Opal Moore: Learning to Populate: When the Bird Breaks from the Cage
The word picture of hatred between the races can non be comfy for southern Whites that the novel implicitly criticizes. Majorie Jones, caput of the American Civil Liberties Union Arts Censorship undertaking had this to state:
? ( Angelou ) portrays white people as being atrocious, awful stupid people. . .and I don? t appreciate being portrayed in that way. ? ? Marjorie Heins, The Washington Post 1/11/98
On the other manus the book? s guardians say:
? Angelou uses her poet? s gifts to give pupils an redolent portrayal of life under ssegregation, a first manus history of a dark period in history that has the same immediateness as Anne Frank? s did. ? – Annie Gowen, The Washington Post 1/11/98
Overall many believe that I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings is one of the greatest books that Angelou has written so far. Still this book is destined to be controversial for a long clip. Possibly one twenty-four hours, parents will understand the of import issues and feelings towards of import issues like the 1s described in the narrative and understand them through the eyes of Maya Angelou.
