1. The Meaning of Love
At the beginning of the book Maya is a confused little girl suffering from the associated with being a black child in America. She is also suffering with the pain of living without her parents. Maya is smart and ingenious, but she always feels like other people judge her for being black. She feels v...
Her dream of being beautiful, understood, and accepted-all of which she has imagined in terms of being white-is shattered, and her mind is occupied with thoughts of persecution, impending death, and imperative self-restraint. ... Family life in the store included disciplined study of arithmetic; leisurely reading of novels, poetry, and Shakespeare; and lessons on deportment and avoidance of trouble with whites. ...