In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography, by Maya Angelou, is about Ritie, an African-American female raised in the tradition-ridden south, and later in the fast-paced, advancing cities of the western coast. The theme that “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” is conveyed in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by numerous times where Ritie had a defeat but did not let it defeat her and she pushed on; by the end of the novel Ritie had many defeats in her life but she did not let them control her life, and she learned from them and moved on to the next thing in her life, while trying to remain somewhat positive. The theme “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” is shown throughout I
