<P> Scholar Joanne M. Braxton sees Caged Bird as "the fully developed black female autobiographical form that began to emerge in the 1940s and 1950s". The book presents themes that are common in autobiography by Black American women: a celebration of Black motherhood; a criticism of racism; the importance of family; and the quest for independence, personal dignity, and self - definition . Angelou introduces a unique point of view in American autobiography by revealing her life story through a narrator who is a Black female from the South, at some points a child, and other points a mother . Writer Hilton Als calls Angelou one of the "pioneers of self - exposure", willing to focus honestly on the more negative aspects of her personality and choices . For example, Angelou was worried about her readers' reactions to her disclosure in her second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name, that she was a prostitute . She went through with it, anyway, after her husband Paul Du Feu advised her to be honest about it . </P> <P> Angelou has recognized that there are fictional aspects to her books, and that she tends to "diverge from the conventional notion of autobiography as truth". Angelou discussed her writing process with Plimpton, and when asked if she changed the truth to improve her story, she admitted that she had . She stated, "Sometimes I make a diameter from a composite of three or four people, because the essence in only one person is not sufficiently strong to be written about ." Although Angelou has never admitted to changing the facts in her stories, she has used these facts to make an impact with the reader . As Hagen states, "One can assume that' the essence of the data' is present in Angelou's work". Hagen also states that Angelou "fictionalizes, to enhance interest". For example, Angelou uses the first - person narrative voice customary with autobiographies, told from the perspective of a child that is "artfully recreated by an adult narrator". </P> <P> Angelou uses two distinct voices, the adult writer and the child who is the focus of the book, whom Angelou calls "the Maya character". Angelou reports that maintaining the distinction between herself and the Maya character is "damned difficult", but "very necessary". Scholar Liliane Arensberg suggests that Angelou "retaliates for the tongue - tied child's helpless pain" by using her adult self's irony and wit . As such, Caged Bird has been called a Bildungsroman or coming - of - age story; critic Mary Jane Lupton compares it to other Bildungsromans like George Eliot's novel The Mill on the Floss . According to Lupton, the two books share the following similarities: a focus on young strong - willed heroines who have solid relationships with their brothers, an examination of the role of literature in life, and an emphasis on the importance of family and community life . </P> <P>--Marcia Ann Gillespie, 2008 </P>

Who is telling the story in i know why the caged bird sings
find me the text answering this question