An Analysis Of The Neurotic Personality Of The Protagonist In I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Renowned contemporary African-American author Maya Angelou occupies a prominent place in the American literary landscape with her unique insights into black women’s literature.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is her first autobiographical novel,and the most widely recognized and accepted.Focusing on the awakening of women’s and national consciousness,she presents a protagonist who is positive and optimistic,indomitable and tenacious in desperate circumstances.Her autobiographical account of the history of black women in early twentieth-century America conveys the voice of a community,a gender and a generation.Published in 1969,the novel was nominated for a National Book Award the following year and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two years.Karen Horney is a famous German-American psychologist and a pioneer of social psychology.Her representative neurotic personality theory breaks through the Freudian view that human instincts are determinative of human behavior and focuses on the relationship between socio-cultural factors and human psychology.Based on neurotic personality theory,this paper explores the influence of socio-cultural factors on Marguerite’s mental journey from a psychological perspective.This paper consists of four chapters and a conclusion.The first chapter includes a brief introduction to Maya Angelou,I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,Karen Horney and neurotic personality theory,and a literature review.Chapters two,three,and four are the main parts of the paper,which elaborate on the production of the main character Marguerite’s basic anxiety,the different strategies formed to combat it,and the construction of her real self.The second part examines the causes of the main character Marguerite’s basic anxiety from the perspective of family and social factors.The third part analyzes Marguerite’s submissive,detached,and aggressive personalities that she developed during her early childhood,middle childhood,and youth to combat anxiety.The fourth section focuses on the construction of Marguerite’s real self and analyzes the process of her self-coordination,from the beginning of her awareness of her real self,the formation of a sound personality,to the final redemption of herself.The last part is the conclusion,which points out that only through courageous struggle and self-reliance can black women emerge from the silent world of double oppression and sing the hymn of their own lives.At the same time,through a detailed discussion of Marguerite’s active struggle against mental anxiety and the realization of her self-worth,it is revealed that in the contemporary society where mental anxiety is multiplying,only by facing oneself bravely can one form a sound personality and achieve a harmonious unity of self.