Mom and Me and Mom (Angelou)

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to get a discussion started for Me and Mom and Me:

1. Maya says her mother was "irrestible." What makes her so? How would you describe Vivian Baxter? What did you admire most about her? And what did you not admire?

2. How do you view Vivian's decision to send her children to live with their father at such a young age? Why did it take her so long, even after the divorce, to call her children back to her?

3. Talk about Maya's resentment of Vivian...and the halting path toward reconciliation that she followed. The Washington Post reviewer believes this process contains some of the best writing in the book. Do you agree...or not?

4. Discuss Maya's brother Bailey and his easier path into his mother's orbit. What can explain his later struggles with drugs?

5. What are some of the episodes in Maya's life that particularly shocked you?

6. Talk about the society in which Maya grew up and the degree to which it was pervaded with racism. How have we changed...or have we?

7. Reviewers talk about the tone of optimism in this book—the fact that Angelou's prose lacks bitterness. Do you agree? If so, why do you suppose that is? How has she been able to overcome a resentment that many of us would carry with us for years?

8. Mom and Me and Mom is the seventh book in Maya Angelou's remarkable autobiographical series, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Have you read any other of the books in this series...or any of her books of poetry? If so, how does this book compare with the others? Can you identify elements of poetic writing in the prose style of this work?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online of off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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