Download I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Study Guide
What Do I Read Next?
(Nonfiction Classics for Students)
Other autobiographical volumes by Maya Angelou include Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986).
Alice Walker's The Color Purple (1982) tells of the spiritual and personal awakening of a young black woman oppressed by racism and sexual abuse.
The Bluest Eye (1969) by Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison relates a similar story of a young black girl trying to grow up in a racist world, but with a different ending.
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), in which a country lawyer in a deep-South town in the 1930s represents a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.
Light in August (1932) by William Faulkner tells of the pursuit and eventual torture and murder of a black man suspected of sleeping with a white woman.