The section of the novel that you want to look at is
Chapter Fifteen, which introduces Mrs. Flowers to us and also narrates the first visit
that Maya paid to Mrs. Flowers, and the impact it had upon her character. We are never
told directly why it is that Mrs. Flowers invited Maya back to her house, and the author
herself tells us that she never thought about it at that stage in her life. Note what
she tells us:
Childhood's logic never asks to be proved (all
conclusions are absolute). I didn't question why Mrs. Flowers had singled me out for
attention, nor did it occur to me that Momma might have asked her to give me a little
talking to. All I cared about was that she had made tea cookies for me
and read to me from her favourite book. It was enough to
prove that she liked me.
From
this quote we can perhaps infer that it was Maya's "Momma" who had asked Mrs. Flowers to
have a chat with Maya. The author makes it clear that following her abuse she was
sinking into some kind of deep depression and low self-esteem plagued her. Momma would
clearly have noticed that Maya was suffering, and, given Mrs. Flowers' status in the
community as the "aristocrat" of the community, presumably she felt that Mrs. Flowers
would be able to help Maya.
Also, from what we know of Mrs.
Flowers, we can tell that she is a caring individual who would likewise have wanted to
help Maya get over the horrendous experience she had suffered. As a black woman who
manages to be proud of her identity, she would want to help somebody like Maya to attain
that same level of pride in herself.
No comments:
Post a Comment