Maya Angelou Angelou Quotes With Page Numbers

After being given the tools she needs to find her identity, Marguerite is given the opportunity to use them. She goes to work helping out in the kitchen of a lady named Mrs. Cullinan alongside Miss Glory, a helper who already works for Mrs. Cullinan. It takes some time to learn the difference between the different types of plates and cups, but Marguerite accomplishes the feat. After Mrs. Cullinan wrongly pronounces her name as “Margaret” and eventually shortening it to “Mary,” Marguerite becomes enraged that her name is being neglected. She learns that Mrs. Glory’s names was once “Hallelujah” and decides that an old, White woman like Mrs. Cullinan should not have the authority to change her name. She retaliates by breaking Mrs. Cullinan’s favorite

She ends up in a junkyard sleeping in cars with other young men and women. At this time, she begins living like she never has before. She learns many new things like driving, cursing, and dancing. After living in the junkyard for a month, Angelou says that her thought process began to change. Marguerite did not have to do anything to gain their acceptance except be herself, and the acceptance “[dislodges] the familiar insecurity” she has known all of her life (254). She grows as an individual, gaining more control of her being, which helps her later in life (McPherson, 33). Angelou says that the lack of criticism she receives from her peers in the junkyard influenced her; this is the first time in Marguerite’s life that she does not feel weighed down by trying to be enough because she realizes that she is enough. Marguerite begins to find herself in the junkyard without having do anything special but be

Never having a boyfriend, she wants to be desired by men and worries that she is a lesbian since she does not look like a typical female. She tries to find a boyfriend since “[his] acceptance of [her] would guide [her] into...femininity,” but her plan to be accepted seems to backfire when she becomes pregnant by a guy she does not love (280). Marguerite hides her pregnancy until the baby is born because she is scared that others will not accept her since she is becoming a mother, something different that she has never been. Marguerite goes through her pregnancy alone, just like she feels like she has gone through most of her life (McPherson, 33). Once the baby is born, she is scared of hurting him but soon realizes that her motherly instincts will guide her. She accepts her new role as a mother because she knows that in the eyes of her baby, she has been