Travel Travel is a common theme in American autobiography as a whole; as McPherson states, it is something of a
national myth to Americans as a people. This is also the case for African-American autobiography, which has its roots in the
slave narrative. Like those narratives that focus on the writers' search for freedom from bondage, modern African-American autobiographers like Angelou seek to develop "an authentic self" and the freedom to find it in their community. As McPherson states, "The journey to a distant goal, the return home, and the quest which involves the voyage out, achievement, and return are typical patterns in Black autobiography." ''. For Angelou, this quest takes her from her childhood and adolescence, as described in her first two books, into the adult world. McPherson sees ''Singin' and Swingin'' as "a sunny tour of Angelou's twenties", from early years marked by disappointments and humiliation, into the broader world—to the white world and to the international community. In Angelou's first two volumes, the setting is limited to three places (Arkansas, Missouri, and California), while in ''Singin' and Swingin'
, the "setting breaks open" to include Europe as she travels with the Porgy and Bess'' company. Lupton states that Angelou's travel narrative, which takes up approximately 40 percent of the book, gives the book its organized structure, especially compared to
Gather Together in My Name, which is more chaotic. Angelou, writing from the point of view of "an aware and articulate black woman who does not hesitate to make racial generalizations", divides her travel narrative into subgroups in ''Singin' and Swingin'''. Her observations about race, gender, and class, as well as her presentation of herself as a character making those observations, serve to make the book more than a simple travel narrative. As a Black American, her travels around the world put her in contact with many nationalities and classes, expand her experiences beyond her familiar circle of community and family, and complicate her understandings of race relations.
Race In ''Singin' and Swingin''
, Angelou continues an examination of her experiences with discrimination, begun in her first two volumes. Critic Selwyn R. Cudjoe refers to "the major problem of her works: what it means to be Black and female in America". Cudjoe divides Singin' and Swingin'
into two parts; in the first part, Angelou works out her relationships with the white world, and in the second part, she evaluates her interactions with fellow Black cast members in Porgy and Bess'', as well as her encounters with Europe and Africa. Angelou comes into intimate contact with whites for the first time—whites very different from the racist people she encountered in her childhood. She discovers, as Cudjoe puts it, that her stereotypes of Whites were developed to protect herself from their cruelty and indifference. As McPherson states, "Conditioned by earlier experiences, Angelou distrusts everyone, especially whites. Nevertheless, she is repeatedly surprised by the kindness and goodwill of many whites she meets, and, thus, her suspicions begin to soften into understanding." Cudjoe states that in ''Singin' and Swingin''', Angelou effectively demonstrates "the inviolability of the African American personhood", as well as her own closely guarded defense of it. In order for her to have any positive relationships with whites and people of other races, however, McPherson insists that Angelou "must examine and discard her stereotypical views about Whites". Lyman agrees and points out that Angelou re-examines her lingering prejudices when faced with the broader world full of whites. As Hagen also states, however, this is a complex process, since most of Angelou's experiences with whites are positive during this time. Cudjoe states that as the book's main protagonist, Angelou moves between the white and Black worlds, both defining herself as a member of her community and encountering whites in "a much fuller, more sensuous manner". In her third autobiography, Angelou is placed in circumstances that force her to change her opinions about whites, not an easy change for her. Louise Cox, the co-owner of the record store she frequents on Fillmore Street, generously offers Angelou employment and friendship. Angelou marries a white man, whose appreciation of Black music breaks her stereotype of whites. This is a difficult decision for Angelou, and she must justify it by rationalizing that Tosh is Greek, and not an American white. She was not marrying "one of the enemy", but she could not escape the embarrassment and shame when they encountered other Blacks. Later, she has a friendship among equals with her white co-workers, Jorie, Don, and Barrie, who assist her job quest at The Purple Onion. Cudjoe insists, "This free and equal relationship is significant to her in that it represents an important stage of her evolution toward adulthood."
Music As Lupton states, there is "no doubt in the reader's mind about the importance of music" in ''Singin' and Swingin'''. Angelou's use of opposition and her doubling of plot lines is similar to the
polyphonic rhythms in jazz music. McPherson labels Angelou a "blues autobiographer", someone who, like a blues musician, includes the painful details and episodes from her life. Music appears throughout Angelou's third autobiography, starting with the title, which evokes a blues song and references the beginnings of Angelou's career in music and performance. She starts ''Singin' and Swingin'
the same way she starts Caged Bird'': with an epigraph to set the tone. Here, the epigraph is a quotation from an unidentified three-line stanza in classic
blues form. After the epigraph, "music" is the first word in the book. As the story opens, a lonely Angelou finds solace in Black music, and is soon hired as a salesgirl in a record store on Fillmore Street in San Francisco. She meets and falls in love with her first husband after she discovers their shared appreciation of Black music. After learning of her grandmother's death, her reaction, "a dazzling passage three paragraphs long" according to Lupton, is musical; not only does it rely upon
gospel tradition, but is also influenced by African-American literary texts, especially
James Weldon Johnson's "Go Down Death—A Funeral Sermon". After her divorce, Angelou earns a living for herself and her son with music and dance; this decision marks a turning point in her life. Angelou's new career seems, as Hagen asserts, to be propelled by a series of parties, evoking the title of this book. Hagen also calls her tour with
Porgy and Bess "the biggest party by far of the book". McPherson calls ''Singin' and Swingin'' "Angelou's praisesong" to the opera. Angelou has "fallen hopelessly in love with the musical", even turning down other job offers to tour with its European company. McPherson also calls
Porgy and Bess "an antagonist that enthralls Angelou, beckoning and seducing her away from her responsibilities". As Lupton states,
Porgy and Bess is Angelou's "foundation for her later performances in dance, theater, and song".
Conflict Conflict, or Angelou's presentation of opposites, is another theme in ''Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry like Christmas''. As Lupton states, Angelou constructs a plot by mixing opposing events and attitudes, which she calls Angelou's "dialectical method". The book is full of conflicts: in Angelou's marriage, her feelings between being a good mother and a successful performer, the stereotypes about other races, and her new experiences with whites. Lupton believes this presentation of conflict is what makes Angelou's writing "brilliant"; Lupton finds that the strength of ''Singin' and Swingin' ''comes, in part, from Angelou's duplication of conflicts underlying the plot, characters, and thought patterns in the book. Lupton adds: "Not many other contemporary autobiographers have been able to capture, either in a single volume or in a series, the opposition of desires that is found in ''Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry like Christmas'' and, to a lesser extent, in Angelou's other volumes." Even the closing sentence of the book ("Although I was not a great singer I was his mother, and he was my wonderful, dependently independent son") demonstrates Angelou's dialectical construction, sums up the contradictions of Angelou's character, and alludes to mother/son patterns in her later books.
Motherhood As Lupton states, motherhood is a "prevailing theme" throughout Angelou's autobiographies: "Angelou presents a rare kind of literary model, the working mother." In ''Singin' and Swingin'', Angelou finds herself in a situation "very familiar to career women with children", and is forced to choose between being a loving mother or a "fully realized person". As scholar Sondra O'Neale puts it, in this book Angelou sheds the image of "unwed mother" with "a dead-end destiny" that had followed her throughout her previous autobiography. Angelou's need for security for her young son motivates her choices in ''Singin' and Swingin','' especially her decision to marry Tosh Angelos. The book has been called "a love song to Angelou's son" even though she feels a deep sense of guilt and regret when she has to leave him to tour with
Porgy and Bess, which prevents her from fully enjoying the experience. Guy, like his mother, also changes him name as the story progresses and he becomes an intelligent, sensitive young man. As Guy grows, so does his mother; Hagen states that their growth moves Angelou's story forward. When Angelou discovers how deeply their separation injures Guy, she leaves the
Porgy and Bess tour before it ends, at great personal cost. By the end of the book, their bond is deepened and she promises never to leave him again. As Hagen states, Maya embraces the importance of motherhood, just as she had done at the end of her previous autobiographies. == Critical reception ==