Home seems smaller and quieter when Maya returns from the junkyard. She has gained independence, but lost innocence. She thinks she gained more than she lost. Bailey is changing as well. He is becoming more street smart. He hangs out with the boys from the streets and begins to speak in their slang and take on their mannerisms. He is not interested in her return. They only have dancing in common now. Their mother allows them to attend dances at the city auditorium.
Bailey is in love with his mother, which Angelou describes an oedipal relationship. He begins acting like her friends, wears a diamond ring, a new suit and goes around with a white hooker. Mother is enraged that her son is being exploited by an aging hooker. Maya feels like Switzerland during.....
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