Mommma suddenly filled the doorway.

Their closeness is shown in the way that they conspire together and have fun together, and by the amount of time that they spend playing together.

However, as they both grow up, Maya is forced to concede that things change and people develop. Although Bailey remains incredibly important to her, the beginning of Chapter 33 makes it clear that during her absence when she went to spend some time with their father, Bailey has changed:

Bailey was much older too. Even years older than I had become. He had made friends during that youth-shattering summer with a group of slick street boys... Although I had no regrets, I told myself sadly that growing up was not the painless process one would have thought it to be.

This sense of division only widens as Bailey struggles with his feelings of love and attraction for their mother, which finally ends in his leaving both Maya and his mother. Thus, although Maya and Bailey are incredibly close throughout the novel, as they grow up and age, they are shown to grow apart, slowly but surely.

Maya’s relationship with Bailey shows the bond between siblings. The story starts off when they are young and having to endure the hardship of their parents' divorce. The backlash from the divorce is that the two children move from California to Arkansas. This helps to strengthen their bond. They have each other's support in learning how to adjust to their new surroundings and living with their grandmother, Mama.

There is a separation when Maya goes to live with their mother in Saint Louis. The tragedy is that Maya is abused by her mother’s boyfriend. Maya is happy to return to her grandmother. This also makes the bond between Maya and Bailey more precious. The book provides a vivid picture of two children who have different experiences that help to enhance their love for each other.

Yes, Maya's relationship with Bailey changes through the course of the book. The easiest reason for this is that they grow up and need one another less. Look at the way they depend on one another intensely early in the book and compare that to the intelligent independence manifest in the final pages and you'll see what I mean.

More specifically, their relationship changes when they encounter outside forces that have different impacts on them. For example, Mr. Freeman's abuse/rape of Maya draws her close to Bailey, but it also changes their relationship. She's fractured and turned inward by the pain, while Bailey is not. The appearance of their parents at various times also tugs them in different directions; the different relationships they have with their parents change their relationships.

Bailey (Junior) changes in the course of Maya Angelou’s book in several ways. As both Maya (called Ritie, for Marguerite) and her brother are growing up, it is natural for them both to change and mature. Although the reader learns the most about Maya because she is the protagonist, her close relationship with her brother also receives considerable attention. We see Bailey primarily through her eyes and through their sibling relationship. In addition, as their experiences were so different and Bailey is male, he develops along different paths than his sister and, when we last see him, has become his own person.

After establishing their closeness during the first few chapters, Angelou shows Bailey’s roles in helping and trying to protect her during and after the time when Mr. Freeman was sexually assaulting her. Bailey is also differentiated from Maya by developing a closer relationship to their mother. Once she decides that Maya needs a different environment, she sends both children back to Stamps and their grandmother (Chapters 13 and 14). It is at this point that we begin to see real changes in Bailey. Although he knows the reasons for their move, he feels confined by the small-town atmosphere. In addition, he must also strive to understand why Maya is temporarily unable to speak.

As Bailey enters adolescence, he acts out with minor incidents of rebellion against his grandmother’s and Uncle Willie’s authority (Chapter 17). Developing an interest in girls, he gets involved with Joyce, with whom he has his first sexual experiences. She also initiates him into petty crime before she leaves him and leaves town (Chapter 21). This abandonment has a negative effect on Bailey, whom Angelou says became closed up and “paled.” A random accident that involves Bailey forces him to grow up quickly and face the town's racism—confronting an enigma, Angelou says—when he and others find a dead body in the river (Chapter 25). Transporting it by train, white passengers threaten Bailey because of his race.

The next phase of their lives opens when they move to California and are reunited with their parents. Both mother and father now have new partners, and the children—now both teenagers—must get used to them. For a period they are separated when Maya goes to live with her father and his girlfriend, while Bailey stays with their mother. When she returns, it is clear that a rift has grown between son and mother (Chapter 33). He realizes that they cannot mend things and that part of the issue is his growing up. He decides he must “push off from the wharf of safety into the sea of chance,” and leaves home to join the Merchant Marine.