Maggie

In the book Big Mama Stories by Shay Youngblood we read a short narrative called “Maggie Agatha Christmas St. Clair.” In this story we read about the narrator’s awareness of those they call flim-flammers, who they are and what they do, but also about a strange woman named Maggie, who lives with Big Mama and the narrator for a while. The narrator learns about Maggie’s life, who she is, and what she has been through. Although the time/era of this story is not exactly specified we know that at the beginning the story takes place at Kin Folks Corner, a row of shops in the black part of downtown from where the narrator lives, and soon after transitions back to the narrator’s house. The main conflict that is presented in this story is that of an external conflict between people such as the flim-flammers and the people they steal from like Otis and many others. Besides this type of conflict you can also say that another would be an inner conflict, which involves Maggie and the struggles with her lifestyle. She is who she is, what she had done in the past will always follow and haunt her for the rest of her life.

As the story starts to unfold the narrator becomes close with Maggie just like sisters. Through a conversation that the narrator has with Maggie we discover that the narrator’s mom is up North and has been a while since she’s seen her. I believe there are two main characters in this story, the narrator and Maggie Agatha Christmas St. Clair. Maggie is woman who Big Mama brings home one day after she tried to beat Big Mama out of her money. We find out that Maggie was an orphan child who was abandoned on a Christmas morning and soon became a prostitute, later a flim-flammer. She had two babies and were somewhere out there in the world. The antagonist is the flim-flam person(s). These people would rob someone without having to use a gun and were only motivated by greed and had no scruples. At the beginning of the story we read about Mr. Rogers, who according to the narrator was “a big plum-black, bald headed man with a gold tooth that had a real diamond stuck in it” and happened to be sitting next to her and warns her about the flim-flammer(s). Next we read about Otis, a good hearted man, who was coned out of his money by two flim-flammers. At the end of the story we read a little about Deacon Perry, the youngest deacon at the church where the narrator, Big Mama, and Maggie attended. He was a thirty year old man who looked like a boy and still lived with his mom. As the narrative comes to an end we read that Maggie runs off with him but a few weeks later Deacon Perry comes back broke and without any signs of Maggie.

Two growing up themes/issues were presented in this story. The first theme is experiencing the loss of innocence or childlike perspectives and this is clearly manifested in the narrator as she learns about the flim-flammers and realizes there are cruel and malicious people who would do anything to get money. She also experiences this through learning about Maggie’s personal life and what she had been through. The second theme presented ties in with the first theme, experiencing life-changing turning points, and this occurs the moment the narrator meets Maggie because meeting her is something that changed her life. She is someone who taught the narrator secret things, girl things, in a sense she became her older sister and someone she will never forget and will surely miss.

The lessons that the narrator learns are many. First, to be very careful of those they call flim-flammers because they are full of greed and malice. They would do anything to take or ploy you out of your money. Through Maggie’s experience she learns that people can make mistakes and it is from those errors that one gains knowledge and grows in life to become a better person. Most importantly the narrator’s major lesson learned was that one is capable of change and sometimes all one can do is try and fix the mistakes one has made, just like Maggie realized her life wasn’t going in the right direction and decides to fix her mistakes in life by looking for her babies and give them the love she never had from her own mother. There is always a first step in doing what’s right and Maggie took that step in her life to make it better.