I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings underscores meaning through the stylistic details that illuminate its themes and action. Angelou utilizes literary devices to emphasize scenes and conversations which reveal the foibles of her characters. For example:
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Characterization
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. . . when she was called upon to sing, [Momma] seemed to pull out plugs from behind her jaws and the huge, almost rough sound would pour over the listeners and throb in the air.
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Hence the janitor who lives in one room but sports a robin's-egg-blue Cadillac is not laughed at but admired, and the domestic who buys forty-dollar shoes is not criticized but is appreciated.
Hyperbole
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Sympathy is next to shit in the dictionary, and I can't even read.
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She had the grace of control to appear warm in the coldest weather, and on the Arkansas summer days it seemed she had a private breeze which swirled around, cooling her.
Symbol
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Just my breath, carrying my words out, might poison people and they'd curl up and die like the black fat slugs that only pretended. I had to stop talking.
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[Bailey] said I was quite brave, and that was my cue to reveal our confrontation with the peckerwood dentist and Momma's incredible powers.
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