The standard struggle of an eight-year-old girl is choosing which doll to play with, not choosing to hide her rape. Maya Angelou was cruelly molested and raped by her mother’s live-in boyfriend; he told her that if she told anyone what he did to her, he would kill her brother. Maya retreated into a withdrawn shell of herself. Eight years later and two thousand miles away, Angelou became pregnant with the child of a stranger (Angelou 77, 279). Parents object to the book “raising sexual issues without giving them a moral resolution” (Sova 212). The explicit scenes led to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings landing third of the top one hundred banned books on the American Library Association’s 1990-2000 list; it has been challenged publicly 39 times
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In Bremerton, Washington, a school board attributed the banning of Caged Bird to their need to adhere to a higher morality than the book displayed (Sova 212). The flawed argument of those who banned the book in Bremerton is that putting the novel in the schoolroom would ultimately lower the school’s scruples. Angelou’s book has been unsuccessfully challenged a number of times, including by schools in Volusia County, Florida, Des Moines, Iowa, and Hendersonville, Tennessee (Baldassarro). These schools’ decisions not to ban the novel showed more circumspection than what was commonplace, but did not set a precedent for similar situations. Alternatively, Westwood High School in Austin, Texas, responded to parents’ accusation that the book “encourages premarital sex and homosexuality” by requiring students to receive their parents’ written permission before students could learn about the novel (Sova 212-213). Although it should have, Westwood High School’s reaction did not serve as a model for other schools. Altogether, the many taboo topics in Angelou’s novel have ignited parents all over …show more content…
Maya Angelou’s recount of her rape and premarital sex is the chief reason many have for challenging Caged Bird (Sova 211). Understandably, countless parents have taken offense to such mature subjects being taught to their children. One school challenged Angelou’s novel because they believed it “preaches bitterness and hatred against whites” (Sova 212). This interpretation is drawn from her several brutal encounters with racist whites. Caged Bird has also been challenged by parents who alleged it promotes lesbianism (Baldassarro). This accusation finds some ground in that the book delves in depth into the possibility of Maya being a lesbian. Ultimately, critics find a wealth of topics to object to in I Know Why the Caged Bird
In Bremerton, Washington, a school board attributed the banning of Caged Bird to their need to adhere to a higher morality than the book displayed (Sova 212). The flawed argument of those who banned the book in Bremerton is that putting the novel in the schoolroom would ultimately lower the school’s scruples. Angelou’s book has been unsuccessfully challenged a number of times, including by schools in Volusia County, Florida, Des Moines, Iowa, and Hendersonville, Tennessee (Baldassarro). These schools’ decisions not to ban the novel showed more circumspection than what was commonplace, but did not set a precedent for similar situations. Alternatively, Westwood High School in Austin, Texas, responded to parents’ accusation that the book “encourages premarital sex and homosexuality” by requiring students to receive their parents’ written permission before students could learn about the novel (Sova 212-213). Although it should have, Westwood High School’s reaction did not serve as a model for other schools. Altogether, the many taboo topics in Angelou’s novel have ignited parents all over …show more content…
Maya Angelou’s recount of her rape and premarital sex is the chief reason many have for challenging Caged Bird (Sova 211). Understandably, countless parents have taken offense to such mature subjects being taught to their children. One school challenged Angelou’s novel because they believed it “preaches bitterness and hatred against whites” (Sova 212). This interpretation is drawn from her several brutal encounters with racist whites. Caged Bird has also been challenged by parents who alleged it promotes lesbianism (Baldassarro). This accusation finds some ground in that the book delves in depth into the possibility of Maya being a lesbian. Ultimately, critics find a wealth of topics to object to in I Know Why the Caged Bird