I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings(102-152)

Summary
Reading this book just get better and better each time. Mrs. Viola Cullinan was a plump woman who lived in a three-bedroom house behind a post office. She was unattractive until she smiled and she actually looked decent . Maya ends up taking a job at Mrs. Cullinan house at the age of ten. Miss Glory was once owned by the Cullinans, and the sad thing about it is that Mrs. Cullinan couldn't have children of her own. As Maya is there at her house Mrs. Cullinan calls her Mary because her name is to long, but when she calls her that she gets really mad. She gets mad because she would rather be called by her real name or Maya not "Mary". She can't quit because her mother wouldn't let her and plus she needs the money. So instead of her trying to quit she is trying to find a way to get fired, so she starts to slack in her work and then listens to her brother and starts to break her china glasses on purpose. When Maya did that Mrs. Cullinan drops her insults on Maya. One night Bailey decides to stay out after dark and Momma took Maya with her to go search for him. They end up finding him and he doesn't even explain his lateness for coming home, so when they got home he got a severe whipping . As days go on Maya notices that Bailey is changing. She felt like that he had no soul/love because of his actions. Then finally Bailey tells Maya why he was late and he said he was watching a movie and it starred this white actress that look just like Vivian and he stayed to watch it again. During this time there was the annual revival meetings that interrupts the harsh daily in Stamps. People from the black chruches attended. That is about them coming together and finding a way to do good, like this time is to give to the poor and help them. Many whites back then thought that black people was weak,so there was this match between a black man Joe Louis and he was going against this white man. Everybody was watching it. Comes to find out he won and it proves that black people are powerful and not week. Maya meets a girl her age name Louise Kendricks. They become best friends and they spend long hours getting to know eachother. When she is in 7th grade she got a note from a boy name Tommy Valdon to be his valentine. She shows it to Louise and she explains that it means love. For some reason Baliey started to get sexual. He started playing sexual games with girls. After six months Baliey loses his virginity to a well developed girl name Joyce. Then his actions gets worse. He started stealing from the store for her then after a few months she disappears. Later they find out that she ran away with this guy who she met from the store and Baliey is really heartbroken. Then she started to come around again noone really said nothing to her anymore and plus Maya hated that she left her brother in the first place.


Quote
An important quote that i decided to pick was "My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was an other lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambused and raped.A black boy whipped and maimed(Angelou 135)." The words in the quote is really deep. By reading this quote it makes me feel like if I was born back in the day it was horrible. Being lynched, whipped, slapped, raped, and even ambused is cruelity. Baxk then there was actually nothing that color folks can do about it because of their skin color and the segregation that was going on back there. Now in my time there is still people getting raped, ambused, and whip. But now you can actually get introuble. To hear about people getting treated like that is really unfair, but that is what many people went through.


Reaction
So far as I'm reading this book it is kind of sad and it is kind of what i was expecting. Maya Angelou shows that life wasn't always easy and you couldn't have it your way unless u wasn't colored. Her work demonstates and connects to her life, historical background, and provides information. I say that because when you read her work you learn so much and it feels as if you can relate to it. Her style is very unique and it is her own. That is one of the reasons why reading her work is so exciting and anxious to read it and that is what I love about her work and her as an author/poet.