Analysis: Chapters 27–31
San Francisco represents an entirely different world from
the rural South. Maya attends an unsegregated school. Her education becomes
more varied with the addition of drama and dance to her studies.
As opposed to the monotony of life in the South, San Francisco undergoes
constant change, especially due to the upheaval of the war. Similar
to the Great Migration in the East, the defense industry’s factories
went into full swing in California during the war, and they employed
willing blacks and whites alike, especially since the Japanese population
had been moved unjustly to internment camps. This harrowing scene
of constant displacement becomes, somewhat ironically,
the first place where Maya feels a sense of belonging, giving her
a new boldness and an awareness of herself. Maya has never felt
that she belongs anywhere before, and the constant scene of changing
faces in wartime San Francisco—the cyclical wave of newcomers—wards
off her own sense of alienation and isolation.
Maya’s descriptions of a multiracial apartment building
and an unsegregated school might lead one to think that racial relations were
not as tense as they were in the South, but she takes care to explain
that this was not the case. The outer face of San Francisco did
not show the tumult within. Rural whites brought their prejudices
with them to the city. Rural blacks came to the city with their distrust
of white people, cultivated through years of negative experiences.
In the South, blacks and poor whites lived and worked on unequal,
opposite sides of the racial divide. In San Francisco, they worked
side by side in the war industry.
In San Francisco, Maya encounters a more brash form of
resistance to racial inequality. Whereas Momma thought it sinful
yet necessary to insist that Dr. Lincoln pay ten dollars in interest
when she had not asked for it initially, Daddy Clidell’s friends
lie and cheat to make $40,000 off
white men. Momma’s quiet rebellions were replaced by the financially
rewarding methods of Daddy Clidell’s friends, who catered to racial
stereotypes in order to lure racist whites into their con games.
They learned to turn white prejudice into a liability for whites.
Despite the difference between Momma and the con-men’s methods,
Maya shows that in both cases the ethical standard is based on necessity
and justifies the means used to produce change. The standard of
ethics differs for the black community because if people cannot
compete equally in society, they must find ways to advance by manipulating
the system. Fair play ceased to have moral value when the rules
of the game proved unfair. For the most part, the cotton-field laborers
in Stamps accepted their difficult existence with resignation. Their
resistance came in the form of personal empowerment and psychological
stamina. The wartime generation, however, gained a sense of entitlement
and wielded its creative powers to act upon it.
Nearly every scene in these chapters illustrates Maya’s
blossoming awareness of, and her love and respect for, herself.
Maya’s emboldened sense of self shines forth in her impulsive decision
to drive the car back to the U.S. from Mexico. Even though she has
an accident, she says that she felt better than at any other time
in her life. Maya is so confident in herself and proud of her achievement that
she declares that she did not even need her father’s praise at first,
even though she becomes angry when he continues to ignore her accomplishment.
When Big Bailey asks Maya about her opinion of Dolores, Maya remarks
upon Dolores’s pettiness and says that Dolores does not like her
based upon her physical appearance. After overhearing the argument
between Big Bailey and Dolores, Maya feels heroic and merciful when
she tries to console Dolores. Maya has changed from a self-conscious
and nervous girl to a defiant young woman, perhaps remaking herself
in the image of the strong women who have influenced her. Indeed,
besides the obvious parallels to Momma’s dignified nature, Maya
acts very much like Vivian, particularly when she warns Dolores
before slapping her in the same way that Vivian warned her partner
before shooting him.
In these chapters, Maya compares Big Bailey’s lack of
paternal graces with Daddy Clidell’s strength as a father figure.
Maya’s description of Big Bailey’s reaction to the confrontation
and the injury hints at sarcasm and shows that she considers Big
Bailey to be utterly selfish, even if he comes across as a likable
character. He chooses to take Maya to a friend for treatment of
her wound instead of a doctor because he wants to avoid personal
embarrassment. He does not directly ask Maya to keep quiet about
the incident, but he implies that she should do so, explaining how
a scandal could damage his reputation. As if speaking for Big Bailey
but with a melodramatic flare, Maya asks the reader rhetorically,
“Could I imagine the scandal if people found out that his, Bailey
Johnson’s, daughter had been cut by his lady friend?” She ironically
exaggerates the response to her question by saying that
all black people in the city would hang their heads in shame if
Big Bailey’s troubles became known publicly. Daddy Clidell, on the
other hand, shows his pride when people think that Maya is his biological
daughter. He has no insecurities to hide and no superiority to flaunt.
As a result, he gives Maya affection and respect, and she considers
him the first real father figure in her life.
