A Free Bird, A Free Soul

Summary

As the story continues, when Maya was in San Francisco, she received a scholarship for a Labor School and there, she learned to dance and to act. Later on, she agreed to stay with his father and her lady friend, Dolores, in southern California during the summer. One day, Maya’s father decided that they were going on a short trip to Mexico and there, they went to a party and had a minor car accident. When they returned home, Dolores said that Maya was coming between her relationship with Maya’s father and after a serious discussion, Dolores hurt Maya. Maya was sent to the house of one of his father’s friends but she escaped. She lived in a junkyard with other teenagers for around a month. Then she went back to live with her mother. After a period of time were Maya questioned herself about her life and who she was, she discovered she was pregnant. Three weeks before she was supposed to give birth, she told her parents about her pregnancy and luckily, everything went well.     


Quote 1

“In the Mexican bar, Dad had an air of relaxation which I had never seen visit him before. There was no need to pretend in front of those Mexican peasants. As he was, just being himself, he was sufficiently impressive to them. He was an American. He was Black.” (p. 233)


Unlike the White people in America, the Mexicans didn’t discriminate Black people and accepted them for who they were and not by their skin color. Maya liked to see his father’s sudden change and she noticed the difference of his personality when he wasn’t around White people. He was proud of who he was and the Mexican people respected him as he respected them.


Quote 2

“The idea of sleeping in the near open bolstered my sense of freedom. I was a loose kite in a gentle wind floating with only my will for an anchor.” (p. 251)


In this quote, Maya Angelou is using a metaphor to explain how she felt. How freedom felt for her. In her writing, Maya uses many literary devices such as similes, personifications, metaphors etc. I think that using literary devices is a good tool to make the reader better understand how an object, place or event looked and how the author felt.   


Conclusion

I have reached the end of the book and I think that it was very interesting and enjoyable. I could see, through the years, how Maya and Bailey changed as well as the places and people around them. Maya had many problems not only with the people around her but also with herself. She wanted to figure out who she was and where she belonged. But even though she had many conflicts, she dealt with them. I would recommend this book for people age 13 and up because even adults and older people could appreciate this book.

 

Arrivals and Departures

Summary

As the book continues, Maya Angelou talks about her new friend Louise and how close they were. One day at school, she got a love note from a boy that asked her if she wanted to be his Valentine. She didn't know what to do so she consulted Louise and they decided not to respond the letter. Maya wasn't the only one to make new friends, Bailey met a girl named Joyce with whom he played house with. He was very happy when they were together even thought she was older than him but one day, she suddenly disappeared. When graduation day came, Maya explains the event and how a white man came to the ceremony and began to talk about how he would better the education. One day, Momma decided that Marguerite and Bailey were going to live with their parents once again, so they were sent to San Francisco. Maya and Bailey, with their mother, then lived in Los Angeles when the Second World War began.


Quote 1

"She was around for a few months, and she had appeared, out of limbo, so she disappeared into nothingness. There was a gossip about her, no clue to her leaving or whereabouts. I noticed the change in Bailey before I discovered she was gone. He lost his interest in everything. He mulled around and it would be safe to say "he paled." (p. 150)


Bailey was affected after Joyce's disappearance as shown in this quote. I have noticed that the people he met were very important for him and that they had an impact in his life. He got upset when he was separated from the people he loved as demonstrated in this quote and also when he was separated from his mother.


Quote 2

"We were maids and farmers, handymen and washerwoman, and anything higher that we aspired to was farcical and presumptuous."(p. 180)


After the white man finished his speech and left the graduation ceremony, what is showed in the quote is what Maya thought. First of all, the white man made the colored people believe that they were only capable of being maids, handyman and anything else that served the white people. I think that it was disrespectful of the white man to say what he said in his speech and, even worse, in a place where there were children. Finally, this event showed discrimination against black people and everybody in the ceremony noticed it.    



Conclusion

I think that in the next chapters Maya is going to talk about how it was to live during the time of the Second World War and how she dealt with all the problems that came with it. When it comes to Momma and Uncle Willie, I think that they are going to stay in Arkansas and visit their relatives in Los Angeles. Another prediction I have for the next chapters is that Maya and her family are going to move to another place because of the war. It must have been hard for Bailey and Maya to leave their friends and family in Stamps and move to a new and strange place. This book has been very interesting so far and I'm glad to read the final part.

This is a picture of Los Angeles around the time when Maya and her family lived there.

Let's Go to the Movies!

Summary

A year later or so, Maya and Bailey's father came to Stamps and took them to live with their mother in St. Louis. There, they were introduced to their aunt, uncles, grandparents and their mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. Maya had a problem with Mr. Freeman and he was set on a trial. He was imprisoned but the same day, he was released and then found dead. Maya and Bailey were sent back to Stamps and Maya enjoyed returning to her home town with Momma and her uncle. One day, Maya was in the Store when a woman named Mrs. Flowers walked in and said that she wanted Maya to go with her to her house. They had a nice talk, read books and ate cookies there. One night, Bailey returned very late home and he told Maya that he had been on the movies and seen a woman in a movie that looked like their mother. Maya and Bailey went often to the movies since then, just to have an image of their mother.


Quote 1

"I was liked, and what a difference it made. I was respected not as Mrs. Henderson's grandchild or Bailey's sister but for Marguerite Johnson." (p. 101)

When I read this quote, I realized how important it was for Maya to be represented and appreciated by who she really was. She wanted people to like her and recognize her for her personality and not as Mrs. Henderson's grandchild as said in the book. Maybe she felt that she wasn't paid much attention to, but when she met Mrs. Flowers, everything seemed to change for her. Mrs. Flowers had a big impact on her life not only because she called her Marguerite, but also because she taught her what she was capable of.


Quote 2

"The movie star made me happy. It was extraordinary good fortune to be able to save up one's money and go see one's mother whenever one wanted to. I bounced out of the theater as if I'd been given an unexpected present. But Bailey was cast down again." (p. 119)

Bailey missed his mother very much when he returned to Stamps, as shown in this quote. He wanted to see her and would have done anything to remember her, for example, see movies that have a character that looks like her, as he did in the book. Even thought he was sent away from his mother, I think that he somehow forgave her and wanted to live with her.


Conclusion

I think it's surprising that Marguerite (Maya) and Bailey were sent back to Stamps again even though they liked it better there. Their parents sent them away when they were little and when they finally met years later, they were sent away once again. In the book, I have noticed that many white people treated black people unfairly as shown in the scene were Marguerite’s name is changed to Mary and she is being insulted by a white lady. I think that Maya will try to become an actress or a writer later on in the book. I also predict that Maya and Bailey are going to be reunited with their parents for some particular reason and taken with them to another town were Maya will find her talent.

                                    
                                          This is a picture of Maya around the age of 10.