88 pages • 2 hours read
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
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Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
In this chapter, Angelou describes the preparations for adulthood, which all Black girls have to undertake. Although they are different from those for white girls, they are just "as extensive and irrelevant" (104). For instance, in Black communities, girls have to learn embroidering and crocheting, but the only place where they can master more refined skills such as setting a table with real silverware are white people's houses. When Maya is ten, she takes a job at Mrs. Viola Cullinan's house, and the Cullinan kitchen becomes Maya's "finishing school" (104).
Mrs. Cullinan is originally from Virginia, where she grew up in a wealthy family. She keeps a rigid schedule around the house and expects her maids to serve the meals at exactly the same time every day. In late afternoons, Mrs. Cullinan invites her lady friends for drinks on the porch, which are served by Miss Glory, the cook. Maya feels bad for Mrs. Cullinan because she finds her "singularly unattractive" (105) and because, as Miss Glory informed Maya, she can't have children.
Mrs. Cullinan develops a habit of calling Maya “Margaret” instead of her real name, “Marguerite,” and then she goes even further and shortens it to “Mary” (107). She does it at the suggestion of one of her white lady friends, and although Miss Glory corrects her, she insists on calling Maya “Mary.” This infuriates the girl, but Miss Glory tries to calm her by saying that her real name is “Hallelujah,” but Mrs. Cullinan had shortened it to “Glory” a long time ago, and now she is used to it.
After a week of being called Mary, Maya decides that she can longer bear the insult and has to quit the job. However, she realizes that Momma won't let her, so she does everything to make Mrs. Cullinan fire her first: She is negligent in her duties, comes to work late, and leaves early. Despite this, Miss Glory doesn't complain about Maya's behavior to Mrs. Cullinan and protects the girl. Then at Bailey's suggestion, Maya intentionally breaks Mrs. Cullinan's family china, which enrages the woman so much she immediately fires Maya.
Chapter 17 Summary
For Maya and Bailey, the weekdays are filled with schoolwork and chores. But when the weekend comes, Momma gives them a modest allowance of ten cents, and they have some free time to do what they like. Bailey usually uses the money to go to the movies, and Maya spends hers on cowboy books.
One Saturday, Bailey goes to a movie theater as usual but doesn't come back on time. It is getting late and dark, so Momma and Uncle Willie begin to worry, although they act in front of Maya as if everything is okay. Finally, Momma decides to go look for Bailey and takes Maya with her. They eventually encounter Bailey, who is walking home, but he is so withdrawn and despondent that he doesn't even come with an explanation or excuse for why he is so late. When they get home, and Uncle Willie gives him a whipping, he neither cries nor complains. Before they go to bed, Maya expects him to tell her what happened, but instead, he recites "the baby prayer" (117) instead of "Our Father" and falls asleep.
For days afterward, Bailey is taciturn, with eyes "so vacant, it seemed his soul had flown away" (117). Finally, he confesses to Maya that the actress he had seen in the movie, a white woman named Kay Francis, looked like their mother, so he decided to stay for the second showing. The siblings wait for two months for the movie to play in the theater again and go watch it together. Maya is happy to realize that "the big movie star looked just like [her] mother" (118), but Bailey becomes upset once again. On their way home, he runs across the tracks just as a freight train is coming, scaring Maya, who is left alone on the other side. At home, they don't tell Momma and Uncle Willie about the actress resembling their mother because they feel that Vivian belongs only to them and they "simply didn't have enough of her to share" (118).
Chapter 18 Summary
As Maya watches the cotton pickers stop by the Store at the end of a workday, she finds them "hateful to have allowed themselves to be worked like oxen, and even more shameful to try to pretend that things were not as bad as they were" (121). It bewilders her that although they are exhausted, instead of going home and resting, they clean up and go to a revival meeting. Maya doesn't voice these thoughts to Momma because she's sure that she will get a whipping for them.
Maya, Bailey, Momma, and Uncle Willie go to the annual revival meeting for members of all Christian churches in the community. It is held in a cloth tent, erected in a field, and Maya wonders if God approves such a setting. After the worship, a preacher delivers a sermon on Mathew 25:30-46 titled "The least of these," in which he assures the church members that even though they suffer from constant humiliation on Earth, a great reward awaits for them in eternity for their patience and faith. When Maya looks around, she sees that people's faces shine "with the hope of revenge and the promise of justice" (127).
After the sermon, the preacher encourages those who want to turn to Christ and be saved to talk to church representatives. Many people line up, and the meeting ends with more worship. When people leave, they feel refreshed and hopeful, for "even if they are society's pariahs, they were going to be angels in a white marble heaven and sit on the right hand of Jesus, the Son of God" (129). However, as time passes, and they once again have to face the reality of their lives, their elation fades. They again see themselves as "needy and hungry and despised and dispossessed" (132), with no respite in sight.
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
As Maya grows older, her search for self-definition continues, and she becomes more aware of her boundaries. Her decision to get a job as a maid testifies to her growing sense of independence, as well as to her willingness to acquire skills deemed essential in the Black community. Maya proves to be a diligent and hard-working person but only for as long as she feels respected. When Mrs. Cullinan starts calling her Mary, Maya feels humiliated and rebels against such disregard for her sense of identity. This mirrors another situation in Chapter 5 when white teenage girls come to the Store and address Momma by her first name even though she is much older than them. Mrs. Henderson reacts to their disrespect with dignity and stoicism, refusing to respond to their provocation, but Maya cannot force herself to accept the humiliation. In her eyes, "letting some white woman rename [her] for her convenience" (109) would mean losing her own sense of dignity.
It is Bailey who helps Maya come up with a plan that serves not only as a revenge but also as way of being fired. Bailey once again proves to be a reliable friend and confidante. For this reason, when he grows withdrawn after his trip to the movies, Maya is disturbed. It is also at this time that Maya begins to understand the origins of deep-rooted conservatism, which is so common in the American South. When Bailey is not home on time, Momma's first guess, although she doesn't voice it, is that he became a victim of a white supremacist group, like Ku Klux Klan. Thus, at a very young age, Maya senses that her grandmother, as well as her Black community, resist any kind of change because "any break from routine may herald for them unbearable news" (114).
Considering the precarious situation of the Black community, the church becomes a refuge and a source of strength for them. When Maya sees exhausted cotton pickers at the end of a workday, she cannot fathom why they would use the little strength they still have left to go to a church revival meeting. Yet during the sermon, Maya sees how people's faces light up and become hopeful, she realizes that their faith in God is what gives them strength to withstand the oppression. Thus, the meeting is aptly named because it does revive the community members' spirits. Although Maya regularly goes to church and practices all religious rituals, she doesn't have a sense of belonging in the church community and observes the meeting as an outsider, analyzing people's reaction to the preacher's words. This suggests that religion doesn't determine her self-identity, and she feels like a misfit among the devout.
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