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A person’s life is often influenced and shaped by the people around them. In her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou discusses her upbringing and how the people around her shape her life. The biggest influences in Maya’s life are her grandmother, Momma, her real mother, Vivian Baxter, and one of her mother’s boyfriends, Mr. Freedman. Maya spends the majority of her life living with Momma, who in turn has a great influence on her. Momma teaches Maya the everyday things that she will need to know. One of the biggest things that she teaches her was that you do not have to live up to a standard. Momma does not just sit there and say this to her but shows it to her by having “the Store built in the heart of the Negro area” (6). She proves that anything can be done if heart is p