Maya Angelou tells her story through the eyes of a 10 year old Marguerite and later an early teenager. Her autobiography in seven volumes tells the story of a black woman who experienced poverty and discrimination. She also found joy and achievement. I read the first volume in which Marguerite and her brother Bailey were raised by their grandmother, Mrs. Henderson during the years of the Great Depression in 1930. Later they were shunted between their estranged parents and back to the grandmother.
Mrs Henderson ran a grocery store in the black township of Stamps in United States. Mrs. Henderson’s moral conduct and her Catholic religiosity placed high expectations from her grandchildren. Marguerite felt unseen most of the time in her grandmother‘s house and in the city. Miss Flowers pays attention to her. She takes her to her house to give her some life lessons. Margaret is in third heaven. Mrs. Flowers, sends some cookies for her brother. On coming home, she takes her brother to her room and says ‘Bailey, by the way, Mrs. Flowers sent you….’
Grandmother, listening in the store, flares up and brings a whip to the children. She makes them kneel down and pray to the Lord for forgiveness. The children are unable to comprehend her wrath. She finally explains “Jesus was the way, the truth and the light.” She adds that anyone saying ‘by the way’ is really saying by Jesus or by God. Therefore, the Lord‘s name would not be taken in vain in her house.
Her brother was her lifeline in her childhood. A year older than her he was the go to person for all that was beyond her comprehension. In her teens her mother, a smart and beautiful woman, becomes her support. Her inability to physically understand homosexuality and fear that she is a lesbian is a story beautifully told. Her mother comes to the rescue.
I look forward to reading the next volume and continuing her story, including during the civil rights movement in America. She is definitely one of America’s most impressive memoir writers.
Unni-Verse 