Study Questions & Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. What is the significance of the opening
scene of
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?
2. What is the significance of Maya's
confrontation with Mrs. Cullinan?
3. What is the significance of the
sermon delivered at the annual revival?
4. How does friendship with Louise
change Maya?
5. How did Maya's relationships with
Big Bailey and Daddy Clidell differ? How does her relationship with Big
Bailey compare with her relationship with Vivian?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. What characters serve as positive
role models for Maya? Specifically, how does Maya come to her conclusions
about the strength of black women?
2. Does Maya's sense of displacement
make her susceptible to Mr. Freeman's sexual advances? How does
the rape and Mr. Freeman's death influence her throughout the rest
of
the book?
3. Trace Maya's relationship
with Bailey. Does it change significantly over the course of the
book? Why or why not?
4. What means of resistance against
racism does Angelou depict? How did the opportunities for resistance
for rural southern blacks differ from those available to the black
people in San Francisco? How might they be attributed to a generational difference?
5. Is Angelou a reliable narrator?
To what extent does her own memory seem to distort her narrative?
How would the significance of the work be different if it were fictional?
