I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Study Questions
1. What book in Chapter 35 influenced Marguerite?

2. Where did Marguerite buy her shoes?

3. What book did Marguerite’s mother use as a sex manual?

4. What did her mother ask for that helped Marguerite know that her bodily problems were not serious?

5. What nickname did Marguerite’s mother use for Marguerite?

6. Where had the dictionary come from?

7. Why did Marguerite decide to find a boyfriend?

8. Who did Marguerite ask to have sex with her?

9. What attitude did Marguerite have after the affair?

10. Was the affair something Marguerite enjoyed and something that made her know she was normal?

Answers
1. The Well of Loneliness was a book that influenced Marguerite.

2. Marguerite bought her shoes in the old lady’s comfort section of the shoe store.

3. Webster’s Dictionary was the book they used.

4. If the situation had been serious, Marguerite’s mother would have asked for scotch and water, not a beer.

5. Mother called Marguerite “Ritie.”

6. The dictionary had been a gift for Daddy Clidell from Mother.

7. Marguerite decided to find a boyfriend to find out if she was a normal female and because she was finding a newly awakening sexual appetite.

8. Marguerite asked a boy up the street to have sex with her.

9. Marguerite’s attitude was that she would “understand it all better by and by.”

10. The affair left her with questions about her normalcy and she did not enjoy it at all.