Gather Together in My Name

Gather Together in My Name is an autobiography by Maya Angelou. It is the second book in Angelou's series of six autobiographies, and takes place immediately following the events described in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Written three years after Caged Bird, the book "depicts a single mother's slide down the social ladder into poverty and crime." As Angelou's biographer, Mary Jane Lupton, states, "She was able to survive through trial and error, while at the same time defining herself in terms of being a black woman." Angelou states that she wrote the book, in spite of potentially harming the reputation she gained after writing Caged Bird, because she wanted to show how she was able to survive in a world where "every door is not only locked, but there are no doorknobs...The children need to know you can stumble and fumble and fall, see where you are and get up, forgive yourself, and go on about the business of living your life". In spite of great difficulty Angelou, as the main character of the book, experiences, she remains focused on the book's themes of "survival with style, finding her true self, and admiration of literacy".