I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (The End)

Summary:
In this last section Maya and Bailey do a lot of growing up. Maya along with her brother and grandmother move in with Vivian had her new partner Daddy Clidell after the World War II. They all live together in San Francisco, and she goes to school there. She immediately was promoted to the next grade,when she transferred to an all white school, she was one of the few African American students in her class. There was only one teacher she recognized as the one that did not treat her differently because of her race. She Maya receives a scholarship to the California Labor School. There she studies Dance and Drama. Furthermore Maya sees Daddy Clidell as a good father figure. She gets to see the difference when she goes to spend the summer with her real father and step mother Dolores. Her father continues to procrastinate his marriage;he hasn't married Dolores yet, but said he will. Dolores seems to be a very jealous person especially since Big Bailey sometimes takes business trips to Mexico and leaves her in the mobile home. This time when Maya is there, Big Bailey takes Maya with him to Mexico. They seem to be bonding, and Maya starts enjoying the trip when she uses her knowledge of Spanish. Unfortunately one day Big Bailey was no where to be found and Maya waited for him in the car. Later on he came out of a bar, drunk. because he passed out, Maya had to drive for the first time. She had a little accident, that did not get him mad, instead it brought his consciousness back. He then drove them back. To add insult to injury, upon arriving at her fathers mobile home, Dolores begins arguing with Big Bailey. Maya head her mention how she felt that he had been neglecting her, and choosing his daughter over her. Maya then confronts Dolores and apologizes for making her feel that way; Maya did it in a kind way. However Dolores took it the completely wrong way and began insulting Maya's mother by using derogatory terms. Maya then slaps her, as she said she would. Dolores retaliated by stabbing her. After her father makes her stay at a friends house, Maya chose to run away. She wanted to go back home and tell Vivian, but she knew that that would cause more problems between her parents. She stayed in a junkyard where she gained somewhat of a family. Her temporary/ newly found family was made up of a group of black, Mexican, and white homeless teenagers. After staying there for a month she calls for Vivian to pay the air fair back to San Francisco. 

When she goes back home she realizes that Bailey has begun to go against his mother. Its in a weird way, because he starts dating white prostitutes, and dressing different in order to resemble the men that his mother dates; he wanted to catch her attention. When this did not work, he moved out, saying he needed to leave the nest.

Maya became the first black woman to work on the San Francisco streetcars, when she decided to take a semester off of school . Furthermore she was confused about her sexuality when she realized that her voice was deeper, she had no hips and undeveloped breasts. She was confused about being either a lesbian or a hermaphrodite. Finally she asks her mother about this and  her mother tries to clears her confusion by saying that these changes were completely normal. However, while still trying to figure this out, she decides to find a boyfriend. Instead of finding one she ends up pregnant, and announces her 8th month pregnancy when graduating. Her mother and step father simply tell her that she has to accept her new responsibilities. She gave birth to a baby boy.

Quote:
"Mother came to my bed one night bringing my three-week-old baby. She pulled the cover back and told me to get up and hold him while she put rubber sheets on my bed" (Angelou 288). 

Reaction:
I chose this quote because I noticed the change in Maya's attitude towards her mother. Before she was sort of iffy about the relationship between her and her other. Before she would refer to her mother as Vivian, and by the end of the story she writes Mother. It shows that over time Vivian gained her daughters trust, respect, and love.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (200)

Summary:
 In this section Maya graduates from the eighth grade, and the author demonstrates to the reader different aspects of racism through the graduation ceremony. That is, Maya stated that for black people in Stamps an eight grade graduation is a great event. Also a white speaker by the name of Mr. Edward Donleavy, who came to speak about different improvements in local schools, mentioned that the white schools received new lab equipment for their science classes. However he simply said that there were a lot of black college athletes that had graduated from that school. Maya took this as an insult, because she felt that it was a way of saying that Black students only achieve greatness through sports, not their intelligence. Her mood during the graduation was very low until Henry Reed the valedictorian of their graduating class begins to lead his class in the song :"Lift Ev'ry Voice and Song". This song was considered the Negro National Anthem. As she joined them her pride and mood increases immediately.
 On the other Maya had a horrible tooth ache because of two rotten teeth and had gone to a white dentice with Momma. The reason why she didn't go to a black dentice was because the nearest one was in fact very far, and there was a white dentice that Momma knew. Momma had lent Dr. Lincoln money during the great depression. However when she asked him to treat Maya, he refused to treat a black patient. She reminded him that she had loaned him money years ago, and still he insisted that he was not going to treat Maya, and he reminded Momma that he had paid her back already. Momma then told him that he owed her interest, and he in return gave er ten dollars. In the end Momma had to take Maya to a black dentice.

 By the end of this section, Momma planned to send Maya and Bailey back to California to live with their mother. Before this Bailey had experienced the shock of his life. He saw a dead black man being pulled out of a pond, and was told by a white man, who was laughing, to help him load the black man's body into a wagon. On top of that, the white man pretended that he was going to put Bailey along with the other black men hat were there, in the wagon and lock him in there. Bailey went him shaking and pale.

Quote: 

"Annie, my policy is I'd rather stick my hand in a dog's mouth than in a nigger's" (Angelou 189).

Reaction:

This quote is when Dr. Lincoln did not want to treat Maya. When I read this I was confused, because I wasn't sure what to think about him. I didn't know where to think he was rood and a racist because he didn't want to treat a little girl just because she was black, or to think he was nice because of the way he spoke to Momma since she had entered his space. Also I wasn't sure if I should categorize him as a hypocrite; he did accept her money during the Great Depression, but doesn't accept her now. I wonder if he had this great epiphany that made him now think that if it wrong to associate with a black person, or if he even thinks that it is wrong to associate with a black person. Sadly, I am still not pleased with this character, and do not know how to characterize him. Is he rood? A hypocrite? A racist? An opportunist? Selfish? All the above?

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings(152)

Summary
In this section Maya and Momma go out looking for Bailey when he is out late. After finding him moping his way back home, Momma beats him. Bailey later on tells Maya that he was out late watching a movie that stared a white actress that looked like their mother Victoria. After watching it once he decided to watch it again. Eventually Maya saw the movie also and found it funny that a white woman looked just like her black mother Victoria. While this made her laugh, it saddened Bailey. He obviously missed his mother and when he watched that movie he felt calmer than usual. Maya noticed that before he was as tho he had no soul. Furthermore in church, the preacher spoke about charity, and bout those who practiced false charity. It was an attack against white christian hypocrisy. That is because white Christians would help the poor blacks and expect them to belittle them selves in return. When the preacher spoke of this, he assured that there would be divine revenge and justice. Honky tonk parties, were considered a sin among the black folk. However, according to Maya it was, just as the church was to the other black people, an escape from the harsh reality.

Moreover Maya and Bailey seem to be growing up in this section. While Maya is able to understand more, Bailey is thinking less as a kid and more as a teen. Maya, along with other black people in their community were rooting for Joe Louis to win a heavyweight championship boxing match . If he lost, according to Maya, everything racist whites say about black people would end up being justified. that is because his loss would be a representation of other failures against the white man, that is Lynching, black women being raped, and black boys being beating.  When he won, he proved that the blacks are the most powerful people in the world, according to Maya. On the other hand, Bailey began playing sexual games with girls in the yard, inside a tent. He would tell Maya that she was the baby that had to stand guard, while he was the father, and the girl was the father. Eventually Bailey looses his virginity to Joyce, who is older than him and developed. When she runs away with another man, Bailey goes back to being depressed/ down. Maya shows this to the reader when she mentions that before Joyce had left Bailey was not using sarcasm, just as he was earlier in the story when he was not around his mother.

Quote:
 "My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped. A Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps.It was a white woman slapping her maid for being forgetful"(Angelou 135).

Reaction:
After reading this quote I remembered how in To Kill a Mockingbird, when the trial was going on, all the blacks were there to support Tom Robinson, and when Atticus spoke in behalf/ in defence of Tom Robinson it was though he was speaking in behalf/ in defence of ALL black people. Just as here in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Joe Louis's match was the battle of the black in that town. if he lost it was though the blacks had lost yet again another battle against whites. When he won, the Battle did not necessarily end but it gave the blacks a push towards success. This then made me come down to the conclusion that southern literature not only included the trials, tribulations, and life of black people, but also the overall mentality of blacks and progress.