The American Dream Revisited: Ethnic Identity and the
Bildungsroman
BA Thesis English Language and Culture, Utrecht University
Irene Keet, 3121402
Supervisors: Paul Franssen
Derek Rubin
July 2013
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Table of Contents
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1:
Introduction to The Chosen
Themes
Autobiographical Elements
Chapter 2:
Introduction to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Themes
Autobiographical Elements
Conclusion
Works Cited
Works Consulted
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Introduction
Since the earliest beginnings of American literature, writers have attempted to define what
makes up the American identity – a task that can prove more than a little difficult in a
relatively young and ethnically diverse nation. American authors from an immigrant
background can often be found to struggle with conflicting impulses: do they stay true to their
own ethnic identity, or do they attempt to assimilate into American culture? This balance
between maintaining a cultural identity, yet also being considered an American, was thrown
into especially sharp relief during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. During this hectic
period, two notable literary works were released: The Chosen (1967) by New York-born rabbi
Chaim Potok, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Missouri native and AfricanAmerican activist Maya Angelou. Both books were nominated for the National Book Award
and were on the New York Times best-seller list for weeks (Sternlicht 8).
Despite their apparently superficial dissimilarities in origin, genre and structure, a
comparison can be made if these books are looked into more closely. Angelou’s debut novel
is often classified as autobiographical fiction (Lupton 29-30) – or according to some critics
merely autobiography - while Potok’s first venture into literature falls under the heading of
fiction with autobiographical elements. Naturally, it can be said that there is a difference in
genre between the two works: after all, the current consensus among literary critics is that
Maya Angelou’s body of work which started with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
classifies more as autobiography than fiction. However, Angelou and critics of her work do
concede that the protagonist, Maya, functions as a “symbolic character for every black girl
growing up in America” (Tate 150). Moreover, Angelou has stated that when “speaking in the
first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, [I am] always saying I meaning
'we'” (“Maya Angelou”), drawing on the traditional slave narrative genre. Thus, despite its
autobiographical character, the story can be extrapolated to pertain to a larger group of
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African Americans. Furthermore, I will show that although Potok’s novel is a work of fiction,
it contains many autobiographical elements.
Both authors write from the perspective of a young person from a minority
background, and the stories center around the coming of age of these respective protagonists
and their struggle to come to terms with their identity in the period following World War II. A
significant difference, admittedly, is the social and economic status of the main characters.
This accurately reflects reality for these two different immigrant groups in the United States.
As Martin Japtok highlights: “African Americans and Jewish Americans found themselves in
divergent social situations. Members of one group had a number of options open to them […]
while members of the other found themselves more limited by external factors” (Japtok 5-6).
Not only did many Jews already occupy historically more middle-class professions such as
merchants in Europe – positions they naturally tried to resume upon arriving in the U.S. –
they also had the advantage of skin color. Whereas the more European-looking Jewish
American might choose to assimilate completely into American society, however painfully,
by giving up his culturally inherited style of dress and religious practices, most African
Americans had no such choice because they would inevitably be recognized as black (6).
Thus, certain key differences between the protagonists of these ethnically centered coming-ofage stories are inevitable. Where Angelou’s Maya character has to deal with the issue of
passing or fitting into a dominantly white society, Potok’s Reuven Malter is witness to and
participant in a more internal struggle for identity within the Jewish community.
These two works do fit into a longer tradition of ethnically centered coming-of-age
stories. Specifically, there exists a multitude of works by minority authors in the subgenre of
the Bildungsroman – coming-of-age stories geared particularly to showing the moral or
psychological growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (Batkin 2, Lynch). Other
notable examples in Jewish-American and African-American literature include but are not
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limited to James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, Samuel
Ornitz’s Haunch, Paunch and Jowl, Anzia Yezierka’s Bread Givers, Audre Lorde’s Zami: A
New Spelling of My Name and many others. This body of similar work is not limited to only
African-American and Jewish-American authors; Asian-American, Chicano and Caribbean
writers have all contributed to their respective literary traditions in this much-used format. Yet
the genre-specific similarity of all these works may just be a “sociohistorically contingent
condition rather than a logical telos” – in other words, a coincidental result of a similar history
rather than a deliberately created likeness (Bolaki 19). Certainly, Jews and Africans have a
very different earlier history, but share some fundamental experiences in integrating into
American society.
However, Jewish-American and African-American authors and indeed communities
seem to share more than simply a superficial bond, proven and perhaps even called into
existence by the enormous amount of academic research done on the subject. Besides sharing
this perceived background, the thematic similarities between the two selected works provide
for a functional foundation for a comparative close reading. Some shared themes that can be
found include the American Dream, silence, faith, the importance of literacy, facing
discrimination and the struggle to find one’s own identity.
In this thesis, I will explore the thematic common ground shared by these two literary
works, by examining and discussing the themes in Potok’s The Chosen in the first chapter,
and those in Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in the second chapter. In both
sections I will also briefly touch on the autobiographical nature of both novels. In the
conclusion, I shall attempt to shed some light on the profundity and origin of the likeness
between the novels.
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Chapter 1
1.1 Introduction to The Chosen
Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen tells the story of Reuven (Bobby) Malter, a 15-yearold Modern Orthodox Jewish boy living in Williamsburg, an immigrant neighborhood in New
York, in 1944. He lives with his father and attends the local yeshiva1. An inter-school softball
tournament is held, and Reuven’s team must play against a team from the much stricter
Hasidic yeshiva. The match turns unpleasant very quickly, and ends with Reuven being
injured in the eye by a player from the opposite team, called Danny. When a remorseful
Danny visits Reuven in the hospital, Reuven learns that Danny is the son of the leader of a
local Hasidic sect. Reuven wants nothing to do with Danny initially, but when the boys get
better acquainted the two become friends. The main body of the novel describes the two very
different boys growing up in a period spanning six years, and the effects of their maturing, the
circumstances of World War II and the rise of Zionism on their friendship.
The Chosen enjoyed great commercial success around its time of release and the
succeeding two decades. It was a finalist for the 1968 National Book Award, as previously
mentioned spent 39 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won the Edward Lewis
Wallant Award ("1968 National Book Awards Winners and Finalists, The National Book
Foundation"). A well-received film adaptation, with a screenplay written by the author
himself, was released in 1981 (Sternlicht 11; “The Chosen (1981)”), winning three awards at
the Montreal World Film Festival (“Awards for The Chosen (1981)”). A reason put forward
by critics for its popularity among the general public, is its adherence to the mainstream genre
of the American novel at the time: the realistic psychological novel (Buning 47). This and the
universally recognizable themes make the story easily accessible even to outsiders to the
community described in the novel (Buning 48-49). At the time the novel came out, writer and
1
Jewish parochial school.
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reviewer Philip Toynbee attributed the attraction of The Chosen to such a large audience to
the following factors: “[f]ew Jewish writers have emerged from so deep in the heart of
orthodoxy; fewer still have been able to write about their emergence with such an unforced
sympathy for both sides and every participant” (Toynbee 21). Although the novel is a work of
fiction, it nonetheless contains several elements based on the life of the author. These
autobiographical features will be discussed in the second part of this chapter.
1.2 Themes
The American Dream
A recognizable literary theme in the novel is the American Dream. The American
Dream can be described as a national ethos in the United States, and was coined by James
Truslow Adams as the notion that “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone,
with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” (Truslow 404; “What Is The
American Dream?”), origin or social class notwithstanding. It is a recurring theme in the
literature of the United States, and understandably so considering the country’s history.
Although it is naturally contestable whether Potok intended to write about the American
Dream, critics, especially those from the United States, do often consider this a theme in the
novel (Buning 47). The American Dream can be found throughout the story, in the sense that
in particular David and Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders embody the American Dream.
They are successful in their respective fields of study or career. Reuven’s father is a
successful scholar and teacher. Reuven attends prestigious schools, and even Danny, whose
parents lead restricted, enclosed lives in their Hasidic sect, eventually manages to follow his
dream of learning to be a psychologist at a renowned university. In spite of their immigrant
background, neither of the boys ever considers the daunting prospect of being discriminated
against in their occupational choice. Thereby, the Malters and Danny embody the idea that
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anyone can be successful in the United States, regardless of background or religious
conviction. An important difference between Danny’s and Reuven’s academic career is that
Reuven is able to achieve his goals within his own community, while Danny has to defy his
father’s will and sever some of the ties to his Hasidic sect to achieve his. Thus, they both fit
into a different version of the American Dream.
Silence
Another major theme in The Chosen is silence, and in particular the effect of silence
between two people on their ability to communicate. It is interesting to note that the working
title for The Chosen was originally A Time for Silence or A Space for Silence (Buning 62;
Allen). The novel is divided into three books: Book Two and Book Three start with proverbs
about silence: “Silence is good everywhere, except in connection with Torah” (Potok 93), a
quote from the Zohar2, opens Book Two, and “A word is worth one coin, silence is worth
two” (205) from the Talmud. Two particular examples of silence stand out in the story. The
first is the silence between Reb [rabbi] Isaac Saunders and his son. Saunders does not
communicate verbally with Danny unless they are studying the Talmud together (Potok 79).
Reuven does not understand this silent treatment, and Danny explains:
My father believes in silence. When I was ten or eleven years old, I complained to him
about something, and he told me to close my mouth and look into my soul. He told me
to stop running to him every time I had a problem. I should look into my own soul for
the answer, he said. (168)
Saunders has imposed this silent upbringing on his son to teach him to be more aware of the
pain and suffering in the world; after all, in Hasidism, one of the main tasks of the spiritual
and religious leader, the tzaddik, is to bear the suffering of his followers on his shoulders.
2
The works that form the foundation of the Kabbalah, Jewish mystical thought.
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However, Danny and his father do communicate with each other indirectly, sometimes using
Reuven as a conduit. When Reb Saunders asks Reuven rather than his son about the reading
Danny does under the tutelage of David Malter, Reuven is confused as to why they do not
communicate directly. His father explains: “Reuven, he has already talked to Danny about it.
He has talked to Danny through you” (169). He adds: “Being a buffer is never pleasant”
(170).
The other notable silence is again imposed by Isaac Saunders. When David Malter
makes a speech at a pro-Israel rally, Saunders forbids his son from speaking to Reuven again
or ever even mentioning his name. David Malter is a Zionist, a Jewish nationalist who
supports the formation of a Jewish nation state in Israel. To Reb Saunders, this political
conviction is fundamentally incompatible with his own beliefs and by extension his son’s.
This silence has a great impact on both boys, and lasts for two years.
A multitude of other, less significant silences appears throughout the novel. Potok
often uses these pauses in dialogue either to emphasize non-verbal communication between
characters, or to let the narrator explain certain important details of the scene that is described.
Faith and Religion
Perhaps the most prominent theme in The Chosen is faith and religion. Most characters
are observant Jews, adhering to different religious movements within Judaism. Reuven and
his father are Modern Orthodox Jews, while Danny and his family are members of a Hasidic
sect: a much stricter, exclusionary form of Judaism. Danny’s father, Reb Isaac Saunders, is
the hereditary spiritual leader of their sect and by extension community, and it is his intention
that Danny be his successor in leading their congregation.
The importance of the Jewish faith to the major characters in the novel is apparent on
several occasions. Naturally, because Danny and Reuven both attend a Jewish parochial
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school, the study of their religion takes up the main part of their time. However, both boys
also draw strength from their faith and the Jewish community, and appear very serious in their
faith. When Reuven is in the hospital, he dutifully prays with his tefillin3 on his head, despite
having a sizeable bump on his head. A fellow patient seems impressed by his devoutness:
“You’re a real religious kid, there, Bobby boy” (Potok 56). A little further on, when Reuven
has been angry with Danny, his father scolds him: “You did a foolish thing, Reuven. […] You
remember what the Talmud says. If a person comes to apologize for having hurt you, you
must listen and forgive him” (63). The Jewish values are clearly important to him, and
Reuven admits that he reacted wrongly to Danny. Furthermore, Reuven wants to study to be a
rabbi, although his father prefers him to pursue an academic career. When Danny asks him
why, he says: “I sort of feel I could be more useful to people as a rabbi. To our own people, I
mean. You know, not everyone is religious, like you or me. I could teach them, and help them
when they are in trouble. I think I would get a lot of pleasure out of that” (70). He wants to
pass on the aforementioned values to secular Jews.
David Malter’s faith is severely tested when he learns of the atrocities committed
against the Jews of Europe during World War II. When the war ends and Reuven and his
father learn of the atrocities committed in the concentration camps, David breaks down and
cries (190). Afterwards, he and Reuven have a conversation about the role of God in the
matters at hand:
“Reb Saunders said it was God’s will. We have to accept God’s will, he said.”
My father blinked his eyes. “Reb Saunders said it was God’s will,” he echoed softly.
I nodded.
“You are satisfied with that answer, Reuven?”
“No.”
3
Small leather boxes containing Torah verses, to be worn on forehead and arm by Jewish men during Morning
Prayer (see Arnhel).
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He blinked his eyes again […]. “I am not satisfied with it, either, Reuven. We cannot
wait for God. If there is an answer, we must make it ourselves.” (191)
Reb Saunders, by contrast, retains his faith in God even in the light of these atrocities. To
him, the events must be God’s will, however unfathomable it may be (190). He is also
perhaps the most fervent in his faith. Danny illustrates this when Reuben has struck a nerve
about the possible founding of a Jewish state: “My father takes God and Torah very seriously,
Reuven. He would die for them both quite gladly” (199).
Danny has a different kind of religious crisis, namely trying to reconcile his faith in
God with the ideas put forward by Freud:
[…] It had become increasingly obvious to him that Freud had possessed an almost
uncanny insight into the nature of man. And that was what Danny found upsetting.
Freud’s picture of man’s nature was anything but complimentary, anything but
religious. It tore man from God, as Danny put it, and married him off to Satan. (195)
The Importance of Literacy and Reading
Literacy and reading are ubiquitous in The Chosen. This is unsurprising given the
focus on the study of holy works in Judaism in general, the chosen career paths of the adults
in the story, and the fact that both young protagonists are in school. David Malter is a
professor at a university (87) and writes academic articles on the Talmud.
When Reuven learns that he might lose sight in one of his eyes, and is not allowed to
read while his eye is healing from an operation to remove a shard of glass from it, he feels
upset that he cannot read for his studies or even from his prayer book.
Reading functions as one of Danny’s few escapes to the world outside his close-knit
Hasidic sect. He is intellectually gifted and devours 7 or 8 books per week, and is able to
recall texts verbatim. Danny does, however, struggle to grasp the difference between reading
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and studying at first: he uses his eidetic memory to memorize even complicated academic
tomes, but gets immensely frustrated when simple memorization does not suffice to
understand for instance the writings of Sigmund Freud, and discovers that complex texts need
to be studied in their context and with the help of secondary sources in order to be truly
valuable to the reader (180). Potok seems to draw a remarkable parallel here between Danny’s
studies and his father’s world views; like his son’s book reading, Isaac Saunders’ religious
views sometimes fall short in dealing with complex problems because he stays confined to his
Hasidic sect. For instance, in his zealous disdain of Zionism, founded on his religious beliefs,
he fails to empathize with and understand the genuine, real-life need of a part of the Jewish
people for a state of their own.
Struggle for Identity
Another important theme in the story is the struggle to find an identity. This struggle is
particularly visible in Danny Saunders, who is torn between pleasing his strict and religiously
zealous family and pursuing his own academic goals. These two aims appear completely
incompatible at first, but by the end of the story Danny reaches an agreement with his father.
Danny has concluded that the greatest problem with him pursuing a secular academic career is
that it would leave his Hasidic sect without a leader in the event of his father’s death. The
loophole he has come up with is letting his younger brother succeed his father as tzaddik
instead: “It occurred to me recently that if I didn’t take my father’s place I wouldn’t be
breaking the dynasty after all. My brother could take over” (201). This solution allows Danny
to continue to form his own identity as a scholar, while not disrupting his family’s life or the
welfare of his sect.
Reuven Malter has much milder issues with his identity. Although his father wants
him to be a teacher like himself, he does not protest when Reuven chooses to be a rabbi
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instead. Furthermore, while David Malter does bring up his son as a strongly religious Jew, he
has a far more tolerant attitude to other schools of thought than Isaac Saunders. This allows
Reuven to explore his identity in a much broader and more relaxed manner than Danny.
Remarkably, the struggle to find a Jewish identity as an ethnic minority in American
culture as a whole is barely mentioned in the novel. It can be inferred from this absence of
references that either the characters are unaware of any such struggle or that in the reality of
the novel this struggle does not occur or is not important: after all, the story is set in an
immigrant neighborhood, and the characters deal almost exclusively with other Jewish
Americans. The reference at one point by Reuven to Jews as “our own people” is telling of
the separation, self-imposed or otherwise, between Jewish Americans and the rest of the
population (70). Another possibility is that Potok refrains from mentioning this struggle for a
place in the melting pot of the U.S., because it would distract readers from the actual story of
the novel. While all of these hypotheses may have a certain validity to them, it is worthwhile
to mention - as done previously in the introduction – that the Jewish American population as a
group had far less problems adapting to U.S. society than some other ethnic minorities,
because of their skin color and having generally been trained in better-earning professions
(Japtok 5-6).
Facing Discrimination
A similar but far less prominent theme in The Chosen is facing discrimination. The
characters themselves do not appear to suffer from any direct form of discrimination;
however, they do experience the suffering of the European Jewry during World War II
indirectly. All characters follow the developments in Europe closely in newspapers and on the
radio. Learning of the horrors of the Holocaust has a profound impact on the Saunders and
Malter families. Reb Saunders, who believes that as a tzaddik he has to take the suffering of
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his people on his own shoulders, is affected severely. Reuven describes his appearance and
behavior as follows:
He walked bent forward, as though there were some kind of enormous burden on his
shoulders. Dark circles had formed around his eyes, and sometimes at the kitchen table
I would see him begin to cry suddenly, and he would get up and walk out of the room,
then return a few minutes later and resume eating. (193)
As previously mentioned, David Malter also feels traumatized by the difficulties faced by the
European Jewry, to such an extent that his health is affected by it.
The novel also refers to the discrimination and persecution the Jews have suffered in
the past on several occasions. For instance, when David Malter tells his son about the history
of Hasidism, he explains about the pogroms in Russia and Poland in the 19th century. After
learning about the Holocaust, Reb Saunders laments this part of Jewish history too: “Ah, how
the world kills us” (190).
1.3 Autobiographical elements
The Chosen contains several elements based on the life of its author. Chaim Potok has
had similar experiences to Danny Saunders and David and Reuven Malter. He has stated in an
interview that he experienced a cultural confrontation when first encountering secular
literature, similar to Danny (Cusick). Potok had several occupations throughout his life; most
notably, he was a rabbi, as his character Reuven aspires to be, and a teacher at a university,
comparable to David Malter (Sternlicht 4-5). Potok also grew up in an immigrant
neighborhood in New York, similar to the setting of the novel (2). His family was not
Hasidic, but held extremely Orthodox Jewish beliefs. Similar to many of the characters in The
Chosen, Potok continually attempted to give his Jewish faith a proper place in his life and
work. While brought up in an Orthodox Jewish environment, he was ordained as a
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Conservative rabbi – a far more moderate and worldly movement within Judaism (4).
Although as mentioned above, he was trained to be a rabbi, Potok first served in the U.S.
Army as a chaplain during the Korean War, before eventually choosing a career in education
and simultaneously directing a camp. Both jobs centered on his Jewish identity: his teaching
position was at the University of Judaism, where he taught Jewish Studies, and the camp he
directed was a religious retreat for Conservative Jews (5). Potok himself has stated that his
books have always been partly autobiographical, because he uses writing as a way to come to
terms with experiences from his own life (Allen).
As a Jewish-American author Potok follows in the footsteps of a lengthy tradition of
Jewish autobiographical writing that can be traced back to the 16th century, as explored for
instance in Marcus Moseley’s study Being For Myself Alone: Origins of Jewish
Autobiography. Although The Chosen might perhaps not describe the life of the average
Jewish American, Potok does paint an interesting picture of the position of this particular
group of Jewish Americans in the first half of the 20th century; living reasonably well-adapted
albeit somewhat segregated lives in a generally middle-class environment, apparently
relatively unburdened by direct discrimination but all the while still struggling to maintain a
solid Jewish identity.
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Chapter 2
2.1 Introduction to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou’s debut novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings describes the life of
the protagonist, Marguerite Johnson (sometimes shortened to Maya) from the age of three to
17. At a very young age, Maya and her brother Bailey are sent to live with their grandmother,
a store owner, in Stamps, Arkansas. Despite having a happy early childhood, young Maya can
see the effects of racism and segregation in Stamps. Eventually, the kids’ father brings them
to live with their mother in St. Louis. After Maya is abused by her mother’s lover, Mr.
Freeman, who is in return murdered by Maya’s uncles, the children are moved back to
Stamps. Later on, Maya’s grandmother decides to relocate the children again to protect them
from the racism in Stamps, to San Francisco where their mother has moved. Maya
experiences a period of personal growth in San Francisco, but gets pregnant and hides it from
her family. This first part in Maya Angelou’s autobiography ends with the character Maya
giving birth and preparing herself to become a mother.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is Angelou’s most acclaimed work, became a
bestselling novel at its time of publication and was nominated for a National Book Award in
1970. It is used in many educational settings to enable discussions about racism and has also
been hailed by critics as a revolutionary autobiography in terms of style. Due to some
controversial issues such as rape, pornography, premarital cohabitation and violence
discussed in the novel, it has been subject to a significant amount of censorship as well; it was
in the top ten most banned or challenged books in the U.S. from 1990 until 2009 ("100 Most
Frequently Challenged Books: 1990–1999"). Angelou was said to be one of the first AfricanAmerican women who was able to write about her personal experiences without being
marginalized. Although the novel is an autobiography, Angelou has utilized many literary
techniques and stylistic devices that make it resemble a work of fiction, such as dialogue,
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characterization and thematic unity (Lupton 29-30). She has also stated on occasion that her
Maya character speaks for a more general African-American population, rather than reflecting
simply her own experience. Some critics have noted that the popularity of the novel might not
be solely due to its premise or style, but also to the context in which it was published. Writer
and critic Hilton Als claims that “[t]he success of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings like that
of many memoirs, had less to do with the originality of its writing than with its resonance in
the prevailing Zeitgeist,” but does concede that it may have paved the way for other female
writers. While it is certainly true that the book was published during the Civil Rights
Movement and may have therefore garnered more attention than it otherwise would have,
other critics have lauded it for its “rich, dazzling imagery” (Hagen 57).
2.2 Themes
Facing Discrimination
The most important theme in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is facing
discrimination. Maya lives in a heavily segregated small Southern town in Arkansas, and is
confronted with her otherness as an African American on a daily basis. On several occasions,
the deep pervasiveness of racism in the everyday life in Stamps is mentioned. Maya recalls:
“People in Stamps used to say that the whites in our town were so prejudiced that a Negro
couldn’t buy vanilla ice cream. Except on July Fourth. Other days he had to be satisfied with
chocolate” (Angelou 49). The titles used to address people are another indicator of racism.
Maya’s grandmother Annie Henderson, whom she calls Momma, is referred to by her
African-American customers as Sister. As Maya explains: “All adults had to be addressed as
Mister, Missus, Miss, Auntie […] and a thousand other appellations indicating familial
relationship and the lowliness of the addressor. Everyone I knew respected these customary
laws, except for the powhitetrash4 children” (Angelou 28). When some of these children call
4
Term Maya uses to describe the poor white population of Stamps.
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her grandmother by her first name, Maya is deeply offended (29). Another example of this is
a case against a fugitive, in which her grandmother has to give testimony:
The judge asked that Mrs. Henderson be subpoenaed, and when Momma arrived and
said she was Mrs. Henderson, the judge, the bailiff and other whites in the audience
laughed. The judge had really made a gaffe calling a Negro woman Mrs., but then he
was from Pine Bluff and couldn’t have been expected to know that a woman who
owned a store in that village would also turn out to be colored. (48)
The segregation in the town is so absolute that the young protagonist can hardly believe that
white people are even real (25).
When discussing her time in San Francisco during World War II, Maya also recounts a
circulating story that is very telling regarding the deeply rooted hate carried by some whites
towards African Americans:
A story went the rounds about a San Franciscan white matron who refused to sit
beside a Negro civilian on the streetcar, even after he had made room for her on the
seat. Her explanation was that she would not sit beside a draft dodger who was a
Negro as well. She added that the least he could do was fight for his country the way
her son was fighting on Iwo Jima. The story said that the man pulled his body away
from the window to show an armless sleeve. He said […]: “Then ask your son to
look around for my arm, which I left over there.” (213)
The title of the novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, comes from the poem
“Sympathy” by 19th century African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Angelou uses this
image, a bird fighting to escape its cage, as the poem’s author did: as a metaphor for the
struggles of an oppressed people trying to escape the grasp of racism (Lupton 38). Critic
Pierre Walker is of the opinion that racism is the most important theme of the first part of
Angelou’s autobiography (Walker 96).
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Faith and Religion
Virtually everyone in Maya’s community and family is deeply religious. The majority
of Stamps’ African American population attends service at one of several Methodist
Episcopal churches in town (Angelou 123). Rather than simply sitting in church, Christians in
Stamps practice their religion and faith very actively. On several occasions, people are shown
to experience a form of spiritual hysteria. An acquaintance of Maya’s grandmother, Sister
Monroe, lives out in the country and cannot visit the service every Sunday. Maya recalls an
incident involving her:
Once when she hadn’t been to church for a few months […] she got the spirit and
started shouting, throwing her arms around and jerking her body, so that the ushers
went over to hold her down, but she tore herself away from them and ran up to the
pulpit. […] She screamed at Reverend Taylor. “Preach it. I say, preach it.” (39)
Maya herself believes as well, and frequently asks herself questions about God. When a
revival meeting is held in a large tent in town, she wonders: “Would God the Father allow His
only Son to mix with this crowd of cotton pickers and maids, washerwomen and handymen?”
(123). By describing the proceedings at the revival meeting, the narrator explains to the
readers why the African-American population of Stamps holds on to their faith so tightly:
They basked in the righteousness of the poor and the exclusiveness of the
downtrodden. Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation […]
and mostly – mostly – let them have their whiteness. It was better to be meek and
lowly, spat upon and abused for this little time than to spend eternity burning in the
fires of hell. (131)
They hold on to their faith as a mark of superiority over the whites in their town. It also
provides one of the few escapes from their work week of hard, underpaid and often physical
labor. As one laborer puts it: “Got to feed the soul just like you got to feed the body” (121).
20
Maya’s deep-seated belief and fear of God are also the reason for her refusal to speak after
she has appeared in court and has told a small lie in her testimony against her abuser that
inculpates him further. Her uncles have subsequently kicked her assailant to death and Maya
blames herself: “[…] a man was dead because I lied. […] Obviously I had forfeited my place
in heaven forever. […] I had sold my soul to the Devil and there could be no escape” (86-87).
This leads her to decide not to speak again.
Silence
After Maya’s testimony in court leads her mother’s abusive boyfriend, Mr. Freeman,
to be beaten to death by her own family members, she becomes convinced that her words are
somehow innately harmful and decides not speak again; something her family attributes to
post-traumatic stress. Maya reasons: “The only thing I could do was to stop talking to people
other than Bailey. […] Just my breath, carrying my words out, might poison people […]”
(87). She stops speaking for a long time (93). Eventually, an African-American woman of
high standing in the town takes it upon herself to try and convince her to speak again by
appealing to Maya’s love of candy and books; Maya then starts talking to other people again
(100)
Another reoccurrence of silence in the novel has to do with the prevalent racism in the
town. Momma teaches her grandchildren not to speak to white people unless absolutely
necessary: “[Momma] didn’t cotton to the idea that whitefolks could be talked to at all
without risking one’s life. And certainly they couldn’t be spoken to insolently. In fact, even in
their absence they could not be spoken of too harshly […]” (47). On many occasions, Maya
and her brother Bailey are expected to stay quiet and out of sight in the presence of adults and
white people in general.
21
The Importance of Literacy and Reading
Maya enjoys reading books, papers and magazines from a young age. Early on in the
story, she describes her love for the works of Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Paul Lawrence
Dunbar and James Weldon Johnson (13-14). When she and her brother are moved to St.
Louis, they enjoy reading magazines full of crime and horror stories (71). Maya believes
reading these affected her and her brother: “Because of the lurid tales we read and our vivid
imaginations and, probably, memories of our brief but hectic lives, Bailey and I were afflicted
– he physically and I mentally. He stuttered and I sweated through horrifying nightmares”
(72). On the other hand, she recounts how literature served as escapism for her as well: “[…] I
spent most of my Saturdays at the library […]. The little princesses who were mistaken for
maids, and the long-lost children mistaken for waifs, became more real to me than our house,
our mother, our school or Mr. Freeman” (76). A breakthrough in Maya’s personal
development also comes from literature; Mrs. Bertha Flowers, an influential woman in the
black part of Stamps, introduces her to poetry. Maya is deeply moved and finds comfort in the
words and the attention, feeling appreciated as an individual for the first time (100-101). In
contrast to her previous negative experience with the power of words, leading Mr. Freeman to
be killed, the poetry and classic literature she is presented with shows her the other, positive
power of words (Walker 97).
Her older brother Bailey also gets engrossed in literature: “His heroes included
D’Artagnan and the Count of Monte Cristo and he affected what he thought were their
swashbuckling gallantries” (Angelou 195). At an older age, while attending secondary school,
Maya is very grateful to one of her teachers, “for she had given me her secret word which
called forth a djinn who was to serve me all my life: books” (200).
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Struggle for Identity
Throughout the novel, Maya tries to establish her identity as she grows up. This
process is complicated by the frequent changes of residency and the ubiquitous racism of the
period she grows up in. Several events that will prove formative for Maya are described in the
story. One of the first of these formative events is the arrival of Maya and Bailey’s father, Big
Bailey, who offers to move them out of Stamps to go live with their mother in St. Louis.
Maya hesitates at the prospect of leaving her relatively safe home environment: “Should I beg
Momma to let me stay with her? […] Did I have the nerve to try life without Bailey?” (56). It
is decided for her that the children be moved. Maya’s time in St. Louis results in both positive
and negative personal developments; although their mother can provide the children with
more freedom and luxury than Momma, Maya is sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend.
This will lead her to stop speaking to people for nearly a year and to harbor distrust towards
new people from then on.
Even at a young age, Maya is acutely aware of the injustice of racism and segregation
in her home town. When three young white girls come to visit the store Momma owns and
start harassing her, Maya feels anger at the inequality between the whites and blacks in the
town: “And if they were dirty, mean and impudent, why did Momma have to call them Miz?”
(32). Maya’s otherness as an African-American girl is thus painfully clear to her and her race
becomes an inseparable part of her identity – to the people in Stamps, she will always be
black firstly and Marguerite Johnson secondly.
A change comes when Maya is singled out by the affluent Mrs. Flowers for tea, gifts
and reading. The positive attention makes her feel special: “I was liked, and what a difference
it made. I was respected not as Mrs. Henderson’s grandchild or Bailey’s sister but for just
being Marguerite Johnson” (101).
23
Furthermore, Maya discovers that she has an aptitude for academic study. When the
children are moved to St. Louis, they are transferred to a school where it becomes clear that
she and Bailey are more advanced in certain fields of study than other children: “When we
enrolled in Toussaint L’Ouverture Grammar School, we were struck by the ignorance of our
schoolmates and the rudeness of our teachers. […] The students […] were shockingly
backward” (63). Maya takes great pride in her intelligence and works hard in school to be in
the top of her class; she also sees her school work as a way out of the oppressive environment
of Stamps: “I had outdistanced unpleasant sensations by miles. I was headed for the freedom
of open fields” (172).
When Maya is finally relocated to San Francisco, she at last feels as if she has found
her place in life:
In San Francisco, for the first time, I perceived myself as part of something. Not that I
identified with the newcomers, nor with the rare Black descendants of native San
Franciscans, nor with the whites or even the Asians, but rather with the times and the
city. […] The undertone of fear that San Francisco would be bombed which was
abetted by weekly air raid warnings […] heightened my sense of belonging. Hadn’t I,
always, but ever and ever, thought that life was just one great risk for the living? (211)
It appears that as she matures, Maya shrugs off some of her self-hatred and embraces her
racial identity (Arensberg 116).
The American Dream
The American Dream as a literary theme is embodied by several characters in the
book. Although Maya’s parents have sent them to live with their grandmother, it is made clear
at the start of the book that this is because the parents have separated rather than being too
poor to care for their children (5). In fact, during both their time in Stamps and in St. Louis it
24
is clear that both parents are well off, especially in comparison to the cotton pickers in
Stamps. They are both gainfully employed in non-physical labor and appear self-sufficient
and independent. Although they experience racism, they have attained these things despite
being part of an ethnical minority and coming from a poor background – thereby fulfilling
James Truslow Adam’s vision. Furthermore, Maya appears to have taken a similar approach
to her life as well – achieving one’s dreams by using one’s abilities. In her case, this ability
comes in the form of academic achievement. She is one of only three African-American girls
in her high school in San Francisco (214). Maya sees using one’s abilities to get ahead as
commendable, whatever form one’s exploits may take. When talking about her mother’s new
boyfriend, con man Daddy Clidell, after hearing him recount a successful scheme cheating an
oppressive white foreman out of his money, she comments: “By all accounts those
storytellers, born Black and male before the turn of the twentieth century, should have been
ground into useless dust. Instead they used their intelligence to pry open the door of rejection
and not only became wealthy but got some revenge in the bargain” (224).
2.3 Autobiographical elements
Originally a civil rights activist, Maya Angelou initially never intended to write a
book. Random House editor Robert Loomis was told by a friend that she told fascinating
stories from her childhood and he eventually tricked her into writing what would become I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: “Mr. Loomis tried another ploy, phoning Ms. Angelou and
saying, “‘It’s just as well, because to write an autobiography as literature is just about
impossible,’ ” she recounted. That did it. “I said, ‘I will try,’ ” Ms. Angelou remembered
[…]” (Smith). The challenge was therefore not just to write a plain autobiography, but one
that would read and could be seen as a piece of literature. As an autobiography, the novel
naturally contains Angelou’s life story. However, due to the fiction writing techniques
25
employed, Angelou successfully diverts the reader ever so slightly away from this fact.
Whenever something occurs in the story that she deems useful or interesting and that can be
extrapolated to the fate of the general African-American population, a definite change of
register occurs. For example, one can compare the following passages: “I was left on the other
side in hysteria. Maybe the giant wheels were grinding his bones into a bloody mush. Maybe
he tried to catch a boxcar and got flung into the pond and drowned” (119) and:
America’s historic bowers and scrapers shifted easily and happily in the makeshift
church. Reassured that although they might be the lowest of the low they were at least
not uncharitable, and “in that great Getting’ Up Morning”, Jesus was going to separate
the sheep (them) from the goats (whitefolks). (128)
Although both events described occur very close together chronologically speaking, the tone
of the first passage is more clearly that of a child, while the second betrays an adult narrator.
Whereas in some parts of the story the voice of Maya as a protagonist stands out through the
use of first person singular and free indirect speech, in others, such as the depiction of the
revival congregation, the more adult voice of the author can be heard. There Angelou uses a
great deal of descriptive, more complicated language than one would expect from the young
protagonist. It seems that the author has, by using this technique, tried to distinguish the
uniquely personal and idiosyncratic parts of her life story from the more generalizable parts,
presumably to attract the attention of the reader to the latter. As various critics have stated,
Angelou has tried to tell the story of the collective rather than just herself (Gilbert 104-105;
Cudjoe 10-11).
Like Potok, Angelou follows in the footsteps of a literary tradition, namely AfricanAmerican autobiographical writing and to some extent the slave narrative. Although modern
African-American autobiographical writing is by no means identical to the 19th century slave
narrative, Angelou certainly seems to have taken on some of its aspects and motifs, such as
26
the quest for literacy and the story of an individual that is intended to speak for the collective
(Campbell). Moreover, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings even seems to carry out the
function of the slave narrative, which is “resistance to oppression by speaking the truth” and
to be “a direct assault on stereotypes of African Americans” (Sartwell 21). The
aforementioned function appears especially significant considering the context in which the
novel was written: in the midst of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. In the face of the
prevailing racist attitudes of the early 20th century, Angelou sketches a portrait of an
intelligent young woman developing her own identity in the face of oppression and
discrimination and integrating into American society.
27
Conclusion
Although The Chosen and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings were published within
two years of each other and have both garnered a great deal of public and scholarly attention,
to my knowledge little to no academic study has been done linking the two. For whatever
reason this may be, it is certainly not because there are no grounds for comparison; in my
research, some strong resemblances and differences stood out.
Firstly, both authors have used many elements from their own experience to write their
coming-of-age stories, which focus on the psychological, moral and spiritual growth of their
respective protagonists and can thus be categorized as Bildungsromans. Perhaps considering
the autobiographical origin of both stories, this format is simply the most logical; moreover
the Bildungsroman format is used by many writers belonging to ethnic minorities, whether
purposefully or coincidentally. Potok has stated in interviews that his work serves as an outlet
for his personal feelings; not unlike Angelou, who claims she found relief in recounting her
past. However, Angelou and Potok have used a different approach to the genre: Potok has
written a work of fiction containing much of his own life, while Angelou has written an
autobiography that can be read as a work of fiction.
Nevertheless, the author’s intent appears dissimilar; while Potok appears to have had
no political goals in his writing, Angelou comes from an activist background and has tailored
her story in such a way that it can speak for the collective and directly to the audience about
the fate of African Americans.
Furthermore, as I have shown in my close examination of the novels, both authors
have covered many of the same themes; yet not all of these issues are approached from the
same angle. Both stories contain an undertone of the American Dream, but by contrast show
vastly different experiences in facing discrimination and racism: while Reuven does indirectly
experience the persecution of his people in the Holocaust, he does not have to deal with any
28
of the overt racism and oppression that Maya faces on a daily basis. As previously mentioned,
this is an accurate reflection of American society at the time both novels are set. Potok and
Angelou also both use silence as a leitmotif; however, the major form of silence affecting
Reuven is imposed by others, while the most prominent silence in I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings is a conscious choice by Maya. Both novels also prominently feature faith and
religion, mainly as a support system in the face of personal or societal crisis. Maya, Reuven
and Danny also have their fondness of reading in common; particularly Danny and Maya use
reading and literacy as an escape from an oppressive environment. Another important
connecting theme between the two novels is the struggle for identity; this is hardly surprising
as both stories deal with young people from ethnic minorities trying to find their place in
American society.
In my opinion, the likeness between The Chosen and I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings stems from several factors. The use of the genre of Bildungsroman, as said before, is
commonplace among ethnic authors. The fact that both these popular works are
Bildungsromans also poses a causality problem: are they popular because they are
Bildungsromans and that format is highly suitable to describe ethnic experiences, or do they
just happen to be Bildungsromans that have become popular? After all, the books were
published in the same period of racial turmoil, possibly increasing the impact upon the
audience.
I can only partially agree with Stella Bolaki’s statement about similarities between
ethnic authors’ works being a sociohistorically contingent condition – after all, Jewish
Americans and African Americans have had very different experiences in integrating into
American society, as can be seen very clearly in the two novels that have been discussed in
this thesis. However, the difference of specifics in experience does not exclude the possibility
of substantial similarities existing between the groups either. The experience of these groups
29
has at the very least been conceptualized in similar ways – at least by the two authors
discussed here and as Martin Japtok shows many others – indicating that some of their
specifically ethnic experiences must have been alike.
In conclusion, while both books paint a different picture of the immigrant experience
in the U.S., they have metaphorically speaking used the same frame.
30
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