Eng. II Fall Final

inordinate

beyond normal limits

abomination

an action that arouses disgust or abhorrence

appellation

identifying words by which someone or something is called EX: All adults had to be addressed as Mister, Missus, Miss...

aversion

a feeling of intense dislike

nonchalance

the trait of remaining calm and seeming not to care

renege

to fail to fulfill a promise or obligation

smidgen

a tiny or scarcely detectable amount

preceding

coming before something else

insolent

showing a rude and arrogant lack of respect

sobriquet

a person’s nickname

gaffe

an unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to its originator; a blunder

admonish

warn or reprimand/scold someone firmly

bombastic

elevated; impressive

brevity

shortness of time or concise use of speech

flippant

disrespectful, shallow, or lacking in seriousness

morose

gloomily or sullenly ill

inequities

unfair and/or biased situations or proceedings

regale

to entertain

incessantly

constantly

pacify

to bring to a place of peace and tranquility; to comfort

Bailey

brother of Marguerite

Annie Henderson

more commonly known as “Momma”; Marguerite’s grandmother (father side)

The pickers

they commonly visit Momma’s shop and have troubles paying their debts due to society’s restrictions on jobs

Uncle Willie

Momma’s son, disciplinary uncle and devoted christian

Mr. Steward

the former white sheriff that scares them with the arrival of the “boys” (K.K.K.); a symbol of the condescension (sense of superiority) that many whites in the book have for black people

Reverend Howard Thomas

the presiding church elder in the district, visits Stamps every three months. He stays with Momma on Saturday and delivers a sermon in church on Sunday. Maya and Bailey hate him because he always eats the best parts of Sunday dinner.

Sister Monroe

she often causes commotion that offers a great deal of comic relief. One story is that she becomes so inspired during a service that she assaults Reverend Thomas, knocking his teeth on the floor.

Mr. Murphy

Momma's third husband; visits one weekend when he passes through Stamps. While the rest of the family goes to Sunday church service, Uncle Willie stays at the General Store with him. According to Bailey, Uncle Willie stays home to prevent Mr. Murphy from stealing from the store. Angelou describes Momma as a tall, good-looking woman who exudes power and strength and enjoys leading hymns in the Sunday church service.

Maya’s and Bailey’s dad (aka Big Bailey Johnson)

Maya and Bailey’s father exemplifies ignorant, parental neglect. He is handsome and vain, and he speaks with proper English, almost to the point of caricaturing a stereotypical, upper-class white man of the time. Big Bailey ruins his own attempts to reconnect with his children, particularly with Maya. Absent from the children’s lives for years, he arrives in Stamps out of the blue one year, impressing the children and everyone else in town with his congenial nature and his fancy car and clothing, but Maya feels neither glad nor sad to see him go when they reach St. Louis. She regards him as a stranger, for he shows little genuine effort to care for her.

Grandmother Baxter

they operate so smoothly that glide over the matter of Mr. Freeman's murder and on to Maya’s health as if a gangland-style execution were business as usual. When Maya next encounters them, ramrod straight and adorned with pince-nez glasses, suffers chronic bronchitis and continues to smoke heavily while sharing her granddaughter's bed.

Mrs. Flowers

the closest thing to a refined aristocrat in the black section of Stamps, Arkansas. Maya admires her beauty and speaking skills and is embarrassed that Momma, in contrast, struggles with basic sentence structure.

Tutti, Tom, and Ira  

Vivian's three older brothers — the “Baxter Uncles”; their "unrelenting meanness" compels them to avenge Maya's rape by kicking Mr. Freeman to death. Uncle Tommy, gruff like his father, consoles Maya for not being pretty by reminding her that she is smart.

Vivian Baxter

Maya’s mother; she is the most lighthearted of the grim, vindictive Baxters and covers her criminal acts with a nonchalant charm, fairness, and gaiety that bobs this side of reality, walling her off from guilt at sending her children away during crucial stages of their lives. Trained as a nurse, she earns her living "cutting poker games in gambling parlors," sometimes to the detriment of her children.

Mr. Freeman

A large, flabby Southerner who unashamedly worships Vivian, his paramour, following her out of the room with adoring eyes. A foreman for the Southern Pacific Railroad, Mr. Freeman spends his life waiting for Vivian's return. Faceless, sinister, and smelling of coal dust and grease, he sexually abuses eight-year-old Maya, then rapes her. After stopping by her bed to repeat his threat against her brother if she reveals his crimes, Mr. Freeman departs from Vivian's house. His murder, although grisly, seems well deserved.

Marguerite

The tall, vibrant, gifted daughter of divorced parents who lives with her paternal grandmother in the racist, unreconstructed milieu of Stamps, Arkansas. Delighting in books, which appeal to her braininess and provide escape from tedium, rigidity, and unfairness that permeate her world, Maya survives rape, but exists under an aura of guilt. She constantly compares herself to the “great” (Momma, Vivian, Mrs. Flowers) and lowers her own self-esteem