Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis to Mr. Bailey and Mrs. Vivian Baxter Johnson. Sadly, at the age of three, her parents divorced and Marguerite and her brother, Bailey Jr., who nicknamed her Maya, were sent to live with their father’s mother. Thus began the roller coaster of Marguerite’s life. She went back and forth from her mother to her grandmother on a couple of occasions. And finally, when she was seven, she returned to live with her mother. These living conditions however, were soon terminated when her mother’s live-in boyfriend raped her. When Marguerite finally came up with the courage to confess to her mother what had happened, the man who had raped her was mysteriously murdered. After that tramatizing expierence, she returned to live with her grandmother and was a voluntary mute for five years. (Showalter, 3)

When asked questions reguarding this portion of her past, Angelou only said, "The mature woman looks back on her bittersweet childhood, yet her authorial voice retains the

The African-American traditions that Angelou uses so well can be traced from Africa to America through cultural traditions, music, and religion. Dr. Beverly Hill at Metro State University in St. Paul, discusses how “ writers from different cultures often have distinct rhetorical traditions on which they base their writing (Bloom 154). Tradition gives an added emphasis to the rhythm of the cultural literary piece, with short phrases and repetition used to make the story easier to comprehend and remember. The final characteristic, which also enhances Maya’s work is her ability to convey emotions. Leaving the reader with the powerful emotional impression. Angelou was introduced to the tradition of story telling through the most obvious and important place: the black church. Growing up in the segregated South with her extremely religious grandmother, Angelou went to church daily and learned to love the language of the church, a language that transferred over into her writing to this day. Angelou states in an interview "Religion is an important theme through out the Caged Bird, which represents the sustaining force in life. It's a spiritual sustenance and fortitude from 'the Bread of Heaven'"(Showalter 2).

It is the inspirational actions such as these that gave Maya hope and made being a young black girl in the 1940’s just a little bit easier, when being black was not the easiest thing to be. At that time, there were two kinds of people who were believed to be of little or no importance; blacks and women. Throughout the book Maya never really accepted the fact that she was not going to get anywhere because of her status." I am always thinking about the human condition- about what we can endure, dream, fail at, and still survive"(Showalter 2). She always tried to be the best in whatever she did, and always felt that she was just as good as or even better than many of the white people. It was not until she went to live with her mother that she really put action behind her feelings.

“Angelou has received many awards and honorary degrees, including Grammy Awards (1994 and 1996) for her recordings of her poetry on the albums On the Pulse of Morning (1993) and Phenomenal Woman (1995)”(Schick 27) .

Much to Maya's disappointment, life only got harder, and she soon turned to writing to ease the pain."Much of my work has hepled me to shooth the pain of the past"Maya said "And occasions like these convinced me that I had to take the pain and move on" (Bloom 19).

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