I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings/April Raintree

Throughout each of these stories, the theme of displacement, a lack of identity (or a case of stolen identity), and shallow roots (if any at all) blankets the characters’ voices and actions.











April Raintree lives a life where she is never allowed to grow roots because she is constantly shipped around to different foster homes, never truly feeling like she belongs in any of them; similarly, Maya (Marguerite) is abandoned by her parents at an early age, and is bounced back and forth between them and her grandmother throughout her young life. Maya’s and April’s lives, made difficult already by the lack of trustworthy adult mentors (aside from Momma and Mrs. Dion, neither of whom are the girls’ real parents), are made more difficult and complex by other factors. They are each an oppressed minority in societies with zero respect for their heritage, each of their cultural identities wiped out by whites hundreds of years prior. They are both young and female as well, both qualities by which their societies deem whites to be second-class citizens. At different points in each story, each girl describes her own beauty ideal, both of which consist of whiteness. Yet each girl finds their own ways to rebel; as Maya indicates, ethics can only go as far as necessity will allow.











Each of these women comes into her own in the end, grasping greater understanding of herself and her situation, and amidst the pain and abuse from her young life, comes to actually have love for herself. In each of these cases, the life event that catapults each woman into choosing a stable adulthood is motherhood, Maya directly and April through Cheryl’s child. As Vivian tells Maya, “See, you don’t have to think about doing the right thing. If you’re for the right thing, then you do it without thinking.” It’s this mindset that seems to carry each woman into her new self, the one who will break the chain.

The Drowned Horse: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The drowned horse at Turtle Lake became notorious for its seeming invulnerability. Time and time again, it returned to its rightful place at the lake, as though it knew its place and wouldn't relent. Despite being drowned, moved to the other side of town, and burned, it persevered--turning the lake into an inferno. It brought a community to fear it so deeply that they, from then on, refused to harm or disturb it. The horse forces the community to deal with a concept that disturbs them, scares them, makes them uncomfortable: death. They tried to make a joke of it, they try to destroy it. Yet the horse refused to give in to their abuse. In the end, the community has no choice but to deal with the death as it slowly decays on the beach. It was, as Junior's father stated, "just about the scariest thing" they had ever seen. But they dealt with it.

Junior, at the beginning of the story, believes himself to be a person of pitiful weakness. He is mercilessly teased and beaten for his appearance of weakness (glasses, small body, etc.), his speech impediment doesn't allow him to communicate the way that other kids do, his lack of confidence just reinforces his natural position as a target, and even the name "Junior" conjures infantile references. Throughout the story, he encounters many situations that prove him to be anything but weak. Through his decision to go to the white school a town away, his courage to stand up to Roger, and even his willingness to be humbled by admitting his poverty to his white friends, he proves that he is anything but weak.

The concept of "Indian" is similar to the concept of the "dead" horse. Everyone around Junior is trying to deal with the concept of "Indian," Indians and whites alike. The Indians deal with it by getting angry and abusing themselves or others. The whites deal with it by telling racist jokes or ignoring it all together. At first, Junior leads his readers to believe that he's dealing with it by abandoning it. Yet through the story, we're shown that Junior embraces his heritage in a way that no other Indian in the story does. He embraces his heritage by not allowing it to define him. Even his sister, who foils his character by also leaving the reservation, allows herself to be defined--no, imprisoned--by the stereotypes associated with her heritage. Junior is the only one in his community with the courage to set himself free of his heritage, while still choosing to belong there.