asts, large bones and deep voice was indicative oflesbian tendencies. On page ten of Contemporary Literary Criticism, Sidonie Ann Smith states that Angelous self-critical process is incessant, a driving demon. She also continues to express that, In the black girls experience,there are natural bars that are reinforced with the rusted iron of socialbars, of racial subordination and importance. In order to verify thisfallacy, that indeed she was not a lesbian, Angelou seduces a beautifulneighborhood boy and becomes pregnant(Modern American Women Writers 5). At the end of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Angelou is a singlemother, yet still a child, fearful that she might harm her baby because ofher foolishness and irresponsibility of the past.In Angelous second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name,published in 1974, Maya Angelou is a young mother cynical about her place insociety because of the agony that she received as a child growing up. Shemust face obstacles that follow the Second World War(Magills Survey ofAmerican Literature 2256). As Gather Together in My Name opens,Angelou and Clyde, her son, are living in San Francisco, California, withAngelous mother and her new husband. She writes, I was seventeen, veryold, embarrassingly young with a son of two months, and I still lived with mymother and stepfather(Modern American Women Writers 4).Angelous brother, Bailey, encourages her to go to Los Angeles and tryto live with relatives. Unsuccessfully, Angelou resorts to becoming anightclub waitress, where she meets two lesbians. In a dramatic scene,Angelou and the two women spend the afternoon smoking marijuana, dancingand drinking. Angelou convinces them to turn their house into awhorehouse(Modern American Women Writers 5). As the partnership becomes successful, Angelou is able to buy herself a used Chryslerconvertible. When the two lesbians decide to defy the rules of the house by stealing money from her, the partner...
