[0:00]Hi everyone, welcome to Miss Adams Teachers, English language and literature A level. Today we are going to be taking a look at the extract from Maya Angelou's Mom and Me and Mom, which is taken from the Ed Excel Voices in Speech and Writing. I'm going to take you through the content, some key contextual factors, features of the, of the form, uh, before we start looking at a few quotes from the text and considering how voice is constructed, looking at literary and linguistic devices. So let's get started. Okay, so quick recap on the content of this piece. So this is Maya Angelou recounting a time when she was 22 years old and she was living in San Francisco with her five-year-old son. And she recalls in particular a day where she went and visited her mother. Uh, there's some background information here about the relationship she had with her mother and versus like her landlady, but ultimately this extract is about this moment where her mother cooked her favorite meal for her, red rice. Um, and it's all tied up with this sort of very nostalgic feeling, uh, as she, uh, remembers the moment where her mother essentially tells her how proud she is of her and what an impressive young woman it is, and it's, it's really uplifting, and it's really optimistic, and it's all about Maya Angelou's sort of sudden recognition of herself and that she could do something, that she could be someone. Uh, some context for you. So Maya Angelou was around, uh, 1928 and then she passed away in 2014. Incredibly famous writer, uh, she's a writer, she is a poet, she was a political activist. She actually wrote seven autobiographies. Some people say that she almost like redefined the genre of an autobiography, and a lot of people view her work as fiction when it is of course not, it's literary non-fiction. Um, she deals with all sorts of huge big themes: racism, identity, and very important to this one, family. Now, Maya Angelou had a, an extraordinary life, at times very, very harrowing. Uh, and part of that, um, part of that difficulty stems from a relationship, the relationship that she had with her mother, uh, Vivian Baxter. So when she was really, really little, um, her mother sent her off to live with her grandma, um, whilst she was struggling with going through a very kind of difficult, um, difficult divorce. Um, and then at one point when she was back with her mother, unfortunately, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend. Um, and subsequently, when she, um, spoke out about that, um, you know, the, the, the, the chap was, um, imprisoned, and then he was actually killed when he left, um, prison. And Maya Angelou at the time, you know, she's still very much a kid, blamed herself for it, um, and sort of blamed the fact that she had spoken out and that he'd gone to prison and all of this had happened. Um, and it, she actually went mute, uh, for years, um, she suffered from mutism. Um, and during that period of time, she ended up going back and living with her grandma again, uh, whilst she was sort of dealing with all of that and kind of being able to, you know, get through what had happened to her. Um, so this last book, this last autobiography, Mum and Me and Mum is all about the difficulties between her and her mother and the way that their relationship then started to grow. Interestingly, she, you know, there for a time she never called her mum mum, she called her lady. Um, and this, you know, this final autobiography is about kind of that idea of, of healing. So that quite, that's quite helpful in terms of what's going on here in this extract. Okay, really quickly for you, uh, it's quite straightforward, uh, the gap, it is autobiography, which means that you can expect, you know, usual conventions, past tense, uh, first person, reflections. Uh, it is literary non-fiction, so you're gonna expect that careful crafting that you would of fiction as well. Uh, it is for a public audience. It is to be consumed by a wider audience. Um, and so who are those people gonna be? It's gonna be fans of Maya Angelou, quite specifically. It's gonna be people that have already read the previous autobiographies, so actually are, are almost completing the set. It's gonna be people that are interested in literary autobiography, uh, and certainly literary non-fiction. Um, and obviously our purpose is very much to entertain and to inform. Because it's autobiography and it's therefore it's personal writing, you might kind of get a sense of it being about reflection as well. And so funnily enough, you're going to see that in the voice, you're gonna, you're gonna see this idea of like reflective, nostalgic tone. There might be little moments of sort of bitterness, there's some lovely humor in it well as well. So each slide I'm doing for you will have a kind of describing word that you can use, uh, for your sort of voice topic sentences. So let's start right at the beginning. Uh, so, starting with our reflective voice. By the time I was twenty-two, I was living in San Francisco. I had a five-year-old son, two jobs, and two rented rooms, with cooking privileges down the hall. So, uh, very, very conventional start, opening with a temporal discourse marker, by the time I was twenty-two, so, you know, nice, nice feature of the, um, nice feature of the genre. Um, we've got a little bit of listing here, which is quite interesting, because if you look at what she lists, a son, two jobs, two rented rooms, they're in order of importance, aren't they? Um, but it's also demonstrating how little she has through that listing. Now, this paragraph isn't immediately afterwards. Sorry, I should have put a dot, dot, dot in there. Uh, I just wanted to pop this one in to demonstrate the juxtaposition. Okay? Because then if you look at, uh, what her mother has, um, my mother had moved into another large Victorian house, on Fulton Street, which she again filled with Gothic, heavily carved furniture. The upholstery on the sofa and occasional chairs was red-wine-colored mohair. Oriental rugs were placed throughout the house. She had a live-in employee, Poppa, who cleaned the house and sometimes filled in as cook helper. So, obviously, we've got massive juxtaposition here, because we've got this semantic field of like, luxurious interior. There's a real kind of sense of wealth emanating, uh, which is in stark juxtaposition to her two little rented rooms with cooking privileges down the hall. Uh, other little clues about the, the difference in lifestyle. So, we've got the, um, adjective large, the large Victorian house, nice attributive adjective. Another, interesting little, uh, determiner there. So, you know, this is another large house, it's not like the, it's, obviously, it's not the first one. And then again, have a little look at the impact of this adverb, quite similar, to another, which she again filled with Gothic, heavily carved furniture. So, it's almost suggesting this is like routine behavior of Maya Angelou's mother. Um, we've got some lovely humor in the opening as well. It's got a very sort of light-hearted tone. Now, this is her describing her landlady, Mrs. Jefferson, who was kind and grandmotherly. And I think it's really important that we just take note of that early description of her, because again, we've got this juxtaposition between the kind grandmotherly, grandmotherly Mrs. Jefferson and her mother, who feels at times, quite austere. Not all the way through, but at times, quite austere. Um, so let's just have a little look. Now, this is really important that we're opening with food, because food is so, um, key, integral to this piece of writing. Um, spaghetti at her table, Mrs. Jefferson's, uh, was offered at least three times a week, was a mysterious red, white, and brown concoction. Um, so we've got this lovely triad of the colors red, white, and brown, which just sort of makes it seem, you know, less like food and more like a messy picture. Um, and we've got the adjective mysterious, obviously creates a little bit of humor. And then look at the way that this, uh, word choice here is echoed in others. We would occasionally encounter an unidentifiable piece of meat hidden among the pasta. So, building up a bit of a semantic field of mystery here. Almost sounds like an alien spacecraft. Um, so we've got like, you know, quite a, a fun amount of hyperbole here, in sort of poking fun at the, the crazy cooking of Mrs. Jefferson. Okay. There was no money in my budget for restaurant food, so I and my son, Guy, were always loyal, if often unhappy, diners at Chez Jefferson. So we've got this lovely bit of parenthesis here, which makes it, um, very, very conversational. Again, it's quite tongue-in-cheek. We've got that lovely little informality, Chez Jefferson. Again, poking a little bit of fun, but in a, you know, in a, in a nice way.
[10:27]But we're setting up the whole idea about food and relationships here. Um, you can disagree with me. I think you can say that there is a hint of bitterness perhaps or disappointment, um, in the way that she describes some of her interactions with her mother, early on in the extract. So, we've got this little bit describing, um, the relationship that she has with her grandson, with her son, Guy. Mother picked up Guy twice a week and took him to her house, where she fed him peaches and cream and hot dogs, but I only went to Fulton Street once a month and at an agreed-upon time. Okay. So, we've got all of these clues about formality here. Um, so, uh, you know, mother, mmm, formal to a degree, some people say, you know, it's more formal than mum, isn't it? Um, but we certainly have a sense of formality by using the proper noun Fulton Street as opposed to home, or even her house. Um, and again, we've got this, uh, adjective agreed upon, you know, modifying time. She, I only went once a month and agreed upon time. So, it's, it's, it's very formal, it's quite sort of transactional. Uh, which is in quite a bit of juxtaposition to, um, the treatment that her son has, uh, with his grandmother. So, he gets picked up twice a week where she feeds him peaches and cream and hot dogs. So, uh, we've got lovely triad there again, building up this semantic field of food. And there's something very kind of, um, it, it sounds like treat food, doesn't it? Hot dogs and then peaches and, and, and cream. So, there is this sort of slightly different relationship that, uh, between Guy and her mum, um, and then her and her mother as well, um, which obviously fits in with our context quite nicely.
[12:48]Um, right, now starting to move towards the kind of monumental bit of food. Um, after we embraced, I washed my hands and we walked through her formal, dark dining room and into the large, bright kitchen. Much of lunch was already on the kitchen table. Vivian Baxter was very serious about her delicious meals. So, um, breaking some of the conventions, um, here by having these one-sentence paragraphs again, demonstrating something of the significance of this moment. Now, uh, we've got the use of Vivian Baxter, so the full proper noun again, rather than mother. Now, that, you know, to a degree is about formality, but I think it's also telling us something about Vivian Baxter. You know, it's about her identity that food is who she is. And then we've got another use of proper noun here. On that long ago Red Rice Day, so she has named this day after the food, demonstrating how significant in her memory it is. And then we've got another bit of, you know, semantic field building, uh, all to do with food. My mother had offered me a crispy, dry-roasted capon, no dressing or gravy, and a simple lettuce salad, no tomatoes or cucumber. Note the way that these, uh, clauses are almost syntactically parallel. And it's all about emphasizing again the lack of fuss.
[14:41]This isn't about, um, a really big posh fancy meal. And then we get the little clue, this wide mouth bowl covered with a platter sat next to her plate. So she's not revealing yet that it is, uh, the red rice. Uh, although we can guess it because of the, the proper noun here.
[15:08]Super descriptive. The chicken and salad do not feature so prominently in my tastebuds' memory, but each grain of red rice is emblazoned on the surface of my tongue forever. So we've got beautiful personification there of the taste buds. But each grain of red rice is emblazoned on the surface of my tongue forever. So we've got beautiful hyperbole built up through the adverb of time there. But also through the strength and intensity of the metaphor. It, it's, you know, it's, it's incredibly over the top, but it's also very beautiful. This idea that every morsel that she, she bites is, is unique in itself and is worthy of memory. Um, and we might be thinking to ourselves, well, why? Come on now, it's food, even if it's the best food. But it's because of what the food is linked to.
[16:29]And here we have it, and this is towards the end of the extract, um, where she describes how her mother, um, says to her, you are the greatest woman I've ever met. Now, bearing in mind the tempestuous nature of their relationship, I think this is so, so significant. And then the response that she has to it is so beautiful and it's so optimistic. I thought, 'Suppose she is right? She's very intelligent and often said she didn't fear anyone enough to lie. Suppose I really am going to become somebody. Imagine.' So first of all, you kind of get that sense of disbelief that is created through the repetition of the verb suppose. Um, but I think the fact that we've got this dialogue and the fact that she reports her mother's words, you know, it shows that it's, she's mulling it over, over and over and over in her head. And then you've got this beautiful minor sentence and it's an imperative, 'Imagine'. But she's saying it to herself, she's not saying it to us, she's saying it to herself, she's giving her the instruction, imagine this. This could be real. At that moment, when I could still taste the red rice, I decided the time had come to stop my dangerous habits like smoking, drinking, and cursing. Imagine, I might really become somebody. Someday. Okay, so again, now here's where we've got that link, haven't we, between, um, the food and what the real point of this is, is that it's all about her mother's belief in her. One, her mother made the effort of doing this meal that she knew was her favorite. So you've got that kind of warmth and like, that kind of comforting behavior there. But it's what it's attached to. Okay? Um, and it has this massive impact because she decides that she'll stop her dangerous habits, which, we have, um, the little, uh, triad there, uh, smoking, drinking, and, uh, cursing. Um, all hyponyms of, um, the dangerous habits. Yeah, uh, the dangerous habits is the hyponym. Um, sorry, the hyponyms, the dangerous habits is the hypernym. Um, smoking, drinking, and cursing are hyponyms. Um, and then we've got the repetition of the imperative verb one more time. Imagine. I might really become somebody. Someday. You've got that lovely minor sentence, which is where it ends, um, just on this adverb, someday. You know, that there is this kind of future is bright feeling. And there's something pleasingly vague about becoming somebody. You don't need to know who it is, but it's someone of significance. So it actually ends really, really nicely. That's it from me. I was only going through a few little quotes. If there are any lines in here that you would like to go through, just drop me a line in the comments and I will come back to you. Tell me which bit you want any help on, uh, and I will give you a steer. Um, if you haven't subscribed, please do so, it would, uh, it would really, really help me. And also you'll get notifications if when the next, um, videos are up and ready to go. Otherwise, thank you very much for staying with me, and I will just say happy revising.
