<P> A turning point in the book occurs when Maya and Bailey's father unexpectedly appears in Stamps . He takes the two children with him when he departs, but leaves them with their mother in St. Louis, Missouri . Eight - year - old Maya is sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman . He is found guilty during the trial, but escapes jail time and is murdered, presumably by Maya's uncles . Maya feels guilty and withdraws from everyone but her brother . Even after returning to Stamps, Maya remains reclusive and nearly mute until she meets Mrs. Bertha Flowers, "the aristocrat of Black Stamps", who encourages her through books and communication to regain her voice and soul . This coaxes Maya out of her shell . </P> <P> Later, Momma decides to send her grandchildren to their mother in San Francisco, California, to protect them from the dangers of racism in Stamps . Maya attends George Washington High School and studies dance and drama on a scholarship at the California Labor School . Before graduating, she becomes the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco . While still in high school, Maya visits her father in southern California one summer and has some experiences pivotal to her development . She drives a car for the first time when she must transport her intoxicated father home from an excursion to Mexico . She experiences homelessness for a short time after a fight with her father's girlfriend . </P> <P> During Maya's final year of high school, she worries that she might be a lesbian (which she confuses due to her sexual inexperience with the belief that lesbians are also hermaphrodites). She ultimately initiates sexual intercourse with a teenage boy . She becomes pregnant, which on the advice of her brother, she hides from her family until her eighth month of pregnancy in order to graduate from high school . Maya gives birth at the end of the book . </P> <P> Angelou's prose works, while presenting a unique interpretation of the autobiographical form, can be placed in the long tradition of African - American autobiography . Her use of fiction - writing techniques such as dialogue, characterization, and thematic development, however, often lead reviewers to categorize her books, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, as autobiographical fiction . Other critics, like Lupton, insist that Angelou's books should be categorized as autobiographies because they conform to the genre's standard structure: they are written by a single author, they are chronological, and they contain elements of character, technique, and theme . In a 1983 interview with African - American literature critic Claudia Tate, Angelou calls her books autobiographies . </P>

Ending of i know why the caged bird sings
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