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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

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Maya Angelou Biography

Introduction
Childhood and Adolescence
Young Womanhood
Career
Angelou in Print
Again in the South
Honors

About I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Critical Assessment
Movie Version

Summary and Analysis by Chapter

Introduction
Chapters 1–3
Chapters 4–5
Chapters 6–7
Chapters 8–9
Chapters 10–11
Chapters 12–13
Chapters 14–15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapters 18–19
Chapters 20–23
Chapters 24–25
Chapters 26–29
Chapters 30–32
Chapters 33–36

Character List

Critical Essays

Form in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Settings in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Style in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Women in the Maya Character's Life
A Note on Southern Fundamentalism

Study and Homework Help

Full Glossary for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Quiz
Essay Questions

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Study and Homework Help

Quiz

1:  Maya, on vacation in southern California, envisions visiting Daddy Bailey at a

a. manor house with liveried staff

b. cozy home with red shutters and a picket fence

c. retreat replete with orange trees

d. beach bungalow facing the Pacific
2:  The title of this autobiography is derived from a poem named “Sympathy,” written by

a. Ryan Joseph

b. Paul Laurence Dunbar

c. James Joyce

d. Langston Hughes
3:  Which of the following items was not among Maya’s eighth-grade graduation gifts?

a. Mickey Mouse watch

b. Handkerchiefs

c. A book of Edgar Allan Poe’s works

d. Gloves for church
4:  The kind of woman whom Angelou epitomizes in her poem Now Sheba Sings the Song is

a. sycophantic

b. synthetic

c. sybaritic

d. sympathetic
5:  Maya is initiated "into the brotherhood of man" by which experience?

a. The "coming of age" ceremony at church

b. Staying with a gang of teenage runaways

c. The move away from racially divided Arkansas to culturally diverse San Francisco

d. Pricking her finger and exchanging blood with her two best friends
6:  Maya's sole regret in departing from Stamps, Arkansas, is

a. not getting to finish the quilt she began with Mrs. Flowers

b. never saying "I'm sorry" to Miss Pattypan

c. leaving her kind teacher, Miss Kirwin

d. the loss of Louise's friendship
7:  Fundamentalism is a twentieth-century religious movement

a. whose believers manifest the Holy Spirit by speaking in tongues

b. that adheres to scripture from only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible

c. that interprets scripture literally and applies it to daily life

d. that celebrates Nature, the foundation of life
8:  In literature, the word used to describe anticlimactic sentimentality is

a. pathos

b. bathos

c. poignancy

d. hyperbole
9:  Who said the following: "I will not allow anybody to minimize my life, not anybody, not a living soul -- nobody, no lover, no mother, no son, no boss, no President, nobody."

a. Martin Luther King

b. Maya Angelou

c. Oprah Winfrey

d. Rosa Parks
10:  Who said the following: "This testimony from a black sister marks the beginning of an era in the minds and hearts and lives of all black men and women . . ."

a. Thurgood Marshall

b. Angela Davis

c. James Baldwin

d. Malcolm X
11:  Who said the following: "[I] wouldn't bust suds for anybody nor be anyone's kitchen bitch."

a. Maya

b. Dolores

c. Viola

d. Vivian
12:  Who said the following: "He tole that snippity nurse of his'n."

a. Annie

b. Baily

c. Daddy Clidell

d. Mr. Liddell



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