SOURCE: McPherson, Dolly A. “Initiation and Self Discovery.” In Order Out of Chaos: The Autobiographical Works of Maya Angelou, pp. 21–55. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.

In the following essay, McPherson discusses I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as a record of Angelou's discovery of her own interior world and identity.

“… We are a tongued folk. A race of singers. Our lips shape words and rhythms which elevate our spirits and quicken our blood. … I have spent over fifty years listening to my people.”

—Maya Angelou

“… I think of my life and the lives of everyone who has ever lived, or will ever live, as not just journeys through time but as sacred journeys.”

—Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey

“The longest journey is the journey inwards.”

—Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

Until Maya Angelou published the first volume of her autobiography, no one could have predicted that she would achieve...