An Interpretation Of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings From The Perspective Of Initiation Story

African-American female writer Maya Angelo is famous for her autobiographical novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Because of the upsurge of civil rights movement, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings becomes the voice of time. The novel describes the growing experiences of a black girl Margaret from 3 years old to 16. Angelo makes a deep description on the confusion, obfuscation and epiphany experienced by the heroine on race and gender during her growth course. The black heroine in the novel breaks the tradition that American black literature only pays attention to the growth of black men.In American literature history, initiation story on teenagers always occupies a prominent position and the description on the growth process is necessary for their growth. The hero must have a completely new understanding on life after experiencing a series of tribulations and obtain the growth. On their road to initiation, the hero will meet a series of guides, who make good or bad impact on them and finally help the heroes obtain more profound comprehending.This paper discusses the growing process of Margaret from the perspective of initiation story. After the young and na?ve Margaret is forced to leave home and experience the tribulations and confusion and finally completes the identity cognition of herself. Meanwhile, this paper also analyzes the different people Margaret met during her growth course, these people played positive or negative roles on her growth. Lastly, this paper sets epiphany, an important element of initiation story as the theoretical basis to analyze the growth of heroine after experiencing shocking and spontaneous comprehending and completed the self-identity on the black racial identity and social identity. The growth courses of black women under the double pressures of racial and sexist discrimination are full of hardship and confusion, while Margaret is not beaten by the pressure and finally becomes an outstanding new black woman, which highlight the image of black women in the new time and their desire for equity and freedom and the new understandings on themselves and race.