Abstract:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical novel based on the writer Maya Angelo’s own experience, records Maya’s tough growth experience. This article aims to explore the main protagonist’s growth and survival processes from the perspective of an initiation story, helping people understand the American women’s perplexity and puzzlement on their growth road at that age and trying to show their unyielding spirit to struggle with fate with hard work, family members’ help and other impacts. The article is made up of four parts. The first part introduces the American black men’s literature course, the main content of the novel and the origin of the novel. The second part depicts the main protagonist’s unlucky growth process. The third part is analyzing how Maya realizes herself. The last part is the conclusion.

Key words: autobiographical; growth novel; double oppressions

摘要：

玛雅.安吉罗根据自己的经历创作的自传体小说《我知道笼中鸟儿为何歌唱》记录了玛雅艰辛的成长历程。本文旨在运用“成长小说”的视角探索主人公成长的过程及其适应社会的生存过程，使人们了解在主人公生活的年代美国女性在成长道路上的迷惘与困惑,展示了她们通过自己的努力、家人的帮助、以及社会等各种因素的影响下与命运作斗争的不屈不挠的精神。本文由四个部分组成，第一部分介绍了美国黑人文学的历程，小说的主要内容以及作者创作小说的动因，第二部分着重关注主人公不幸的成长过程，第三部分分析主人公如何实现自我，最后本文进行了总结。

关键词：自传体、成长小说、双重压力

1. Introduction
Under the influence of Civil Rights movement and multi-culture, black women literature began to rise and rapidly created a boom period in the history of women literature. Lot of black women writers sprang up and made huge contributions for the America literature and world literature as well. Maya Angelou, the writer of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is one of the most famous black women writers at that time. Born in 1928, she is a well-known women writer, poet, playwright as well as a positive human rights activist. She wrote a lot of poems, authorities and plays. Yet the most influential one that she takes to the American literature is her autobiography.