Momma suggests that if it was not a dream, maybe Mrs.
Taylor wants him to work with the children in the church. The atmosphere of
eerie gloom passes when the conversation returns to mundane, everyday
things. Maya climbs into bed with Momma, secure in the knowledge
that she could drive away scary spirits.
Analysis: Chapters 20–22
Louise’s friendship provides Maya with her first opportunity
to enjoy her youth and, to a certain extent, her independence. Maya’s experiences
prior to their friendship have matured her beyond her years, and
Louise is her first childhood friend. Before, Maya moved and interacted
largely in a world of adults, with the exception of Bailey. With
Louise, Maya begins to experience being a young girl for the first
time, playing games, inventing languages, discussing boys and young
love. It is also Maya’s first relationship that occurs outside her
family and apart from her family’s influence. Whereas Momma may
have arranged for Mrs. Flowers to show Maya attention, here Maya
meets her friend while trying to find a private place to relieve
herself in the forest. As they spin each other around and look up
at the sky, their meeting takes on a magical quality, suggesting
its importance in Maya’s development as an individual.
Although Tommy Valdon and the valentine’s crush never
leads to romance, it restores some of the innocence in Maya that
Mr. Freeman stole from her. In part, Maya feels threatened by the
valentine because she has no experience with adolescent crushes.
Mainly, however, the rape and its aftermath have led her to distrust
anything having to do with both sexual and romantic love.
Maya clearly announces that she will not let another man or boy
treat her as Mr. Freeman did. Tommy’s second letter, however, states
that his affection will not change even if Maya chooses not to respond.
Hearing this, Maya feels more secure because Tommy obviously feels
genuine affection for Maya and her personality.
Unlike Mr. Freeman, the valentine does not represent any physical
expectation from Maya, and, sensing his good intentions, she begins
to flirt shyly and innocently with him.
Although less malicious, Joyce’s power over Bailey parallels
Mr. Freeman’s power over Maya. Joyce takes advantage of Bailey’s
frustrated love for his mother in the same way that Mr. Freeman’s advances
prey on Maya’s frustrated need for physical affection. Looking back
on the relationship, Maya remarks that Joyce—who is four years older
than Bailey—represents for Bailey the mother who let him get close
to her and the sister who was never withdrawn. To a certain extent,
moreover, Joyce takes advantage of Bailey as well. As long as Bailey
provides her with stolen spoils from the Store, Joyce gives him
the affection he craves. She turns Bailey’s innocent, curious games
into sexual intercourse, taking his virginity, and then leaves him
in the dust. Maya notes that Joyce has a positive effect on Bailey
while she is around, but when Joyce skips town, Bailey reveals not
just his displeasure at the fact that she has left but also his
sense that the situation was not ideal in the first place. When Maya
asks him about Joyce, Bailey feigns disinterest at first, but then
he says that Joyce has chosen someone who will give her sex all the
time, perhaps indicating his understanding that he and Joyce used
their relationship for different purposes.
In light of Mr. Taylor’s ghost story, it is important
to note that storytelling and imagination, accounts of spirits,
the conjuring of images and beings from the past, and even superstition
all played vital roles in the African-American tradition. Just as
the Christian church provided slaves, former slaves, and their descendants
with a sense of salvation and hope, storytelling and folklore provided
them with a form of not just entertainment but empowerment. Because white
colonists and Americans drastically altered the lives of slaves and
essentially erased their connection with their homeland and their
past, slaves began writing their own history through storytelling.
(For more information, see Suggestions for Further Reading.) In this
case, Mr. Taylor’s ghost story reveals the pervasive nature of tense
race relations and conjures up the frightening baby angel as being
blond-haired and blue-eyed. Momma’s dialogue with Mr. Taylor steers
the conversation to everyday things and dispels the eerie gloom
that the ghost story cast over the room. Momma has, in her way,
cast out the specters of malevolent spirits with her quiet determined
attention to the details of everyday living.
