Childhood Memories Summary and Analysis

The chapter opens with the famous story Temple tells about almost killing her mother and sister. She is three-years-old and is on the way to a session with a speech therapist. Her mother asks her to put on her hat. The hat feels tight and squishes Temple's ears, making them feel as if they are just one ear. She screams as she lacks the language to tell her mother how she is feeling squashed by the hat. The mother is driving and cannot be so distracted so she just insists that Temple put on the hat. The hat begins to become physically uncomfortable for Temple even to hold. She feels she must toss it out the window but is too young and small to roll down her own window. So, she reaches across and tosses it through her mother's...