I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (pages 160-220)

Summary

The time finally came for Marguerite to graduate Lafayette County Training School, and every seem to be very excited. Momma made Marguerite a new dress for her graduation and also bought her a Mickey Mouse watch, along with the other gifts she received from people. On the day of the graduation, nothing seemed to be magical because the white speaker who came to the school had a message to deliver to the students. The speaker told all the graduates including Marguerite that they weren't going to amount to nothing because they were Negroes and that was all they were ever going to be. With the spirit of graduation gone, it was brought back by the valedictorian by singing the black national anthem, which assured everybody that things were going to be alright. Marguerite and Bailey ended up moving back to California to live with their mother in San Francisco, California after Bailey witnessed the cruel ways blacks were treated in the South. with leaving in California Marguerite was put into a white populated school because of her advanced knowledge. Marguerite came to love George Washington High School, because one particular teacher looked past the color of her skin. Marguerite's mother also remarried a man named Clidell whom Marguerite had a great relationship with. Marguerite learned from Clidell the things people do to get themselves to where they want to be.

Quotation

"The air of collective displacement, the impermanence of life in war time and the gauche personalities of the more recent arrivals tended to dissipate my own sense of not belonging" (Angelou 206).

Reaction

I am very fascinated with the way she describes how surrounding and how that surrounding ended up changing her mood of belonging. In a way I can relate to her her mood because when I first came to a America, I felt out of place. It wasn't my home, since I left my real home behind, but the more I took in my new environment, the more i got used to it and felt welcomed to it. To Marguerite the way San Francisco has changed makes her feel even more outcast and unwelcome than before.