I Know Why The Caged You Go By Bernadette?

In the autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou writes fondly of her mother Vivian Baxter. Maya writes about her mother with admiration of her beauty and grace. In one instance, Maya and her brother Bailey compare their mother to the Caucasian actress Kay Francis because of her magnetic personality. The praise Maya gives to her mother is similar to the praise Bee gives to her mother Bernadette in the novel, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. In the novel, Bee shows her affection towards her mother and her intelligence. Bee wants to be like her mother because she achieved so much before moving to Seattle. Maya wanted to be like Vivian because of her beauty. Maya believed her mother was so beautiful that she “was too beautiful to have children” (Angelou 69). Maya and Bee show affection towards their mothers but this affection turns into disdain once their mothers disappoint them.
Bernadette disappoints Bee by becoming a recluse once they move to Seattle.
In Los Angeles, Bernadette was a genius who received a Macarthur Genius Grant to complete an architectural masterpiece. After Bernadette moved to Seattle, she becomes a shell of herself. She ignores the decrepit condition of her new home and makes all of her purchases using a virtual assistant. Bee shows disdain towards her mother once Bernadette goes missing. She believes that her mother abandoned her family. Maya goes through a similar sense of abandonment with her mother. Maya’s parents sent Maya and her brother to Momma after they divorced. When Maya lived with her mother in St. Louis, she felt distant from her mother. After Maya was raped by Mr. Freeman, Vivian sent her children back to Stamps because she did not know how to connect with her daughter. Maya wants to connect to her mother but Vivian shuts her out. Each mother fails their child in a way but they redeem themselves in the eyes of their
child.
After Maya moved to San Francisco, she became closer to Vivian. Maya starts to confide in Vivian about her deepest and darkest secrets including her confusion about sexuality. Maya’s pregnancy solidifies the bonds between her and her mother. Vivian does not condemn her daughter. She teaches Maya how to become a mother. Maya begins to admire her mother again because of this guidance. This outcome is different in Where’d You Go, Bernadette? After Bee finds her mother, she sees how distant her mother has become. Although she forgave her, Bee never forgets how Bernadette leaves her family. By the end of the novel, Bernadette and Bee are still trying to fix their relationship after their disappearance. Vivian and Bernadette are both flawed mothers who are redeemed by the end of their respective novels. The difference between them is Bernadette’s relationship with her daughter is still cracked while Vivian fixed her relationship with Maya.