There is difficulty in critically reading African American literature as apolitical text; all create a political impact whether this is the initial and conscious motive or not. Maya Angelou's autobiography is one such case. Though written in response to an aesthetic challenge - that an autobiography cannot be written as literature (from the Formalist/New Critics point of view) - Angelou's organic unity became a vehicle for her political protest. A critical reading shows how she was able to achieve this.