I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Genre 1 key example

Curiously, Angelou does not explicitly introduce I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as a memoir. One might reasonably begin the novel, with no foreknowledge or context, and presume it to be fictional rather than autobiographical. This stylistic choice is an unconventional one within the memoir genre: typically, an author will declare their memoir to be one on the book's front cover. The choice to initially present I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as fictional is perhaps a strategic one, intended to make the novel more broadly appealing and relatable to readers. Harper Lee makes a similar decision in her presentation of To Kill a Mockingbird, which happens to be semi-autobiographical.

As a coming-of-age novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings explores the unique childhood and adolescent experiences of young Black American girls. Toni Morrison's 1970 novel The Bluest Eye is also a part of this particular sub-genre of Bildungsroman-style literature. Both novels explore similar themes, meditating on White-centric female beauty standards, familial instability, and racial inequity, to name a few.