In Maya Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, many major themes are implemented to describe the harsh reality of growing-up in the south and being black. She uses the universal themes of racism, cruelty, education, abandonment, and many others to show the reader what she has persevered over throughout her life to become the strong, independent woman that she is today. One such theme in her autobiography, prevalent throughout the duration of …showed first 75 words of 918 total…

…showed last 75 words of 918 total…real degree of racism and how his young mind can not stretch around why he and his people are hated so much. Racism is a major theme in Maya Angelou's autobiography. She uses it to describe what it was like to grow-up as a minority in the south. From her eighth-grade graduation, to her first white employer, to her brother witnessing a lynching, she shows that they are not safe from the grasps of racism.