In "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", Maya Angelou's explains her mad childhood and how she survived it. For her to sit in silence for years because of certain experiences that have affected you shows character but it takes a lot of heart to tell the truth about what really happened in a situation. Her unique approach to writing has made her one of the most recognized black women writers in history.
             Marguerite Johnson, now know as Maya Angelou, was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri to Bailey and Vivian Johnson. Her father was a naval dietician, and her mother was a housewife. She had one sibling, a brother named Bailey. When she was three, her parents divorced and the children were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Growing up in Stamps, Angelou learned what it was like to be a black girl in a world for white people, and how it felt to wear old hand-me-down clothes from wealthy white women. In an interview Angelou states that, "As a child she always dreamed of waking to find her 'nappy black hair' metamorphosed to a long blond bob because she felt life was better for a white girl than for a black girl."(Burt).
             After five years of being away from each other, Angelou was sent back to St. Louis to live with her mother and her mother's boyfriend. The situation turned for the worse when her mother's boyfriend started raped Angelou repeatedly. The act of violence committed against Angelou silenced her for nearly five years. She was sent back to live with her grandmother because nobody could handle the grim state she was in (Burt). With the constant help of a lady named Mrs. Flowers, Angelou began to evolve into a young girl who possessed the pride and confidence she deserved (Burt). In 1940, she and her brother were sent to San Francisco to live with their biological mother once again. Life with their mother was constant chaos. It soon became ...