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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

by Maya Angelou

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Themes: Rape and Violence

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Angelou’s harrowing description of the rape which takes place in chapter 12 overshadows the whole book, as it does the life of the young Marguerite. While Mr. Freeman’s earlier fumbling assaults are described in confused and equivocal terms, evoking guilt and confusion rather than horror, there is no mistaking the pain and trauma of the rape itself. Angelou describes it as a “breaking and entering when even the senses are torn apart.” Afterward, she thought she had died.

When the law fails to punish Mr. Freeman, he soon meets with a violent death. The reader never learns who is responsible, but Marguerite has told various tales of her “mean” uncles, who have always been prepared to use whatever violence is necessary to defend the family honor. St. Louis is an overtly violent society, but Stamps is just as lawless in its way. Uncle Willie has to cower in a vegetable bin all night for fear of being lynched by the Ku Klux Klan, and it is too dangerous for people who live out of town to walk home on the night when Joe Louis wins a boxing match against a white man. Marguerite’s rape, therefore, takes place against a background in which the strong routinely prey upon the weak, and Mr. Freeman does not come close to being strong enough to prey on anyone with impunity.

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