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Nadia Keating

Mrs. Wines

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21 October 2020

Mom Me and Mom

The author, Maya Angelou digs deep into her personal life and the relationship she had with her

mother Vivian Braxter in her seventh and final publication of autobiographies, Mom Me and Mom.

Throughout this novel, it goes through her mother’s behaviors, the relationship Maya had with her

mother, and specifically when she abandoned Maya and Maya’s older brother. This book was separated

into sections. The name of her first section was Mom and Me. The meaning behind that section title was

to represent Angelou’s early life. Where it was her against her mom fighting for her love and support and

Maya recouping from her mom’s lack of love, supportiveness. Angelou towards the end of that section

has a child and her mother, Vivian springs into supporting her and helping her daughter with her child.

Maya soon accepts her mother for being so supportive to make up for the years lost in the past. In the

second section, Me and Mom, Angelou takes in all the love, and “assistance” she was receiving from her

mom, while her mother, Vivian was sharing the same love and support to help Maya with single

parenthood, a marriage that failed, and many career difficulties. Maya also had another novel, I Know

Why The Caged Bird Sings, that focused mainly on her early childhood when she and her older brother

had to live with her grandparents. It’s important to focus on how having a strong personality can help

overcome the trauma, and racism that Maya had to go through personally.

Mom Me and Mom take place in only a few places. St. Louis Missouri was the first location

brought up in the book. This was where Maya’s mother, Vivian was born. Her siblings Leah, Tootie

Cladwell, Tommy, and Billy followed behind her. Throughout Vivans life, her father made violence part

of their inheritance. He would always mention, “If you get in jail for theft or burglary, I will let you rot” (

Angelou 4) That was how Vivan grew up. Soon after that Vivan met a soldier by the name Bailey
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Johnston which then leads to the next location in California where Maya and her older brother were born.

During the time of them living in Stockton, Calfornia, Maya saw how her mother and her father could not

get along properly to be able to take care of two young children. The author did an excellent job of clearly

informing the reader who and specifically giving information about each location.

A time came when Maya and Billy were going to visit her father’s mother in St. Louis. She was

only there for a short period of time but during that short time she was raped and her rapist was killed She

explained how she thought she killed him because she informed his family that he was the one who did

the action. This traumatic event took a toll on her and she stopped all context with everyone except her

brother Billy because they had a love for each other like no other. Soon later the racism in their area

became severe. Billy turned fourteen and he became those usual teenage years. It became very dangerous

for him to be the black boy in the “segregated South.” (Angelou 9) He started acting out in the town

where most of the white people congregated and got a call to his grandmother. His grandmother said to

Billy, “Don’t you know these white folks will kill you for poking fun with them.” (Angelou 9). This quote

goes along with the connection of the category I chose. The African American Perspective. The African

Americans during this time were separated from everyone else and unfortunately, it was more strict in the

South where Maya and Billy lived. This shows the view of the African Americans and what they saw and

how they knew they were being treated.

The memo of this novel and the end of the circle was love and black civil rights. From beginning

to end, the book through at you love that was given back and forth to Maya, Billy, her grandmother, and

the turning point of when her mother became the most supportive for Maya. Showing love is something

that can help someone go from downhill to going uphill at a jerking moment. Black Civil rights was

something running rapid in the 20th century when Maya was growing up and she stuck with her beliefs

and a great mind to never let it break her down.

The word choice of this book guided me and any other audiences like women, African

Americans, and civil rights activists to understand thoroughly. It was written more of a personal story so it

was interesting to hear how she lived, what she went through, and how she overcame it. After reading
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Maya Angelou’s book, I saw many things past what I have read before and learned loving, supporting,

and staying true to what you believe in is the path to having a great character.

Work Cited

Angelou, Maya. Mom Me and Mom, Random House, 2013