Graduation By Maya Angelou Analysis

The power of language and its ability to deconstruct and reconstruct not only the individual’s identity but also a community’s identity is the overall main point in Maya Angelou’s “Graduation” piece. Angelou is able to capture this in her writing through her personal experience, and also simultaneously by using the example of American society’s social infrastructure which can limit opportunities for people of color, specifically the black community. After Edward Donleavy, a white politician during the late 30’s/ early 40’s, had spoken down on the students from Lafayette Country Training School, down on their black community, a sense of defeat filled the auditorium. Angelou’s simile, “the man’s dead words fell like bricks around the auditorium and too many settled in my belly.” (Language Acts,

Throughout life we go through many stepping stones, Maya Angelou's autobiographical essay "Graduation", was about more than just moving on to another grade. The unexpected events that occurred during the ceremony enabled her to graduate from the views of a child to the more experienced and sometimes disenchanting views of an adult. Upon reading the story there is an initial feeling of excitement and hope which was quickly tarnished with the abrupt awareness of human prejudices. The author vividly illustrates a rainbow of significant mood changes she undergoes throughout the story.

After she stops speaking, Angelou and her brother are sent back to Stamps. Here, she begins to see the solace that many blacks feel in their resignation and acceptance of prejudice and racism. She writes, "They showed me a contentment based on the belief that nothing more was coming to them, although a great deal more was due. Their decision to be satisfied with life's inequities was a lesson for me" (Angelou 86). Angelou learned this lesson, but never quite became satisfied with life's inequities; thankfully, she retained some of her rage regarding inequalities between white and black, which give great depth and emotion to her writing and her life.

Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise,” written in 1978, acknowledges the racism and segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. During this time, although no longer slaves, the African Americans have been given little rights and opportunity in America. Maya Angelou wrote this poem to prove to other American citizens that she is unfazed by their hate, while she strengthens her people’s motive to reach equality. Angelou utilizes metaphor, imagery and repetition to reveal how proud she is of her minority’s strength.

The thoughts and/or opinions of others often have to be overlooked or else they’ll ruin every happy moment that is to come. In Maya Angelou's story, Graduation, she discusses her eighth-grade graduation. Maya describes how she feels after listening to someone else opinion on her and the rest of African Americans of her graduating class at that time. This person's opinion had a huge impact on Maya herself, and the crowd. No one ever wants to feel wretched on the most memorable day of their life but this is exactly what took place on the day of Maya’s graduation.

“Graduation Day” illustrates Maya Angelou’s experience on her graduation day. All of Angelou’s feelings, reasoning, and thoughts of her graduation day are depicted between the pages of her short story. Her text covers multiple different aspects of a segregated community’s lifestyle and explains their decisions on coping with their limitations. The power of words impacts the community in several ways during Angelou’s story. Because words impact and shape people, they influence individuals into themselves.

“Civilize Them with a Stick” by Mary Crow Dog and “Graduation” by Maya Angelou are each experts of autobiographies written about their own personal experience in school during the 1960s. Each author presents a specific argument that adds to their effectiveness as a rhetor. Crow Dog gives the argument that “racism breeds racism in reverse” (79); when we do not look at people as people, it gives us an excuse to treat them badly. The author explains that they are like animals and savages; the Indians being the animals, and the nuns and priests being the savages. Her argument is effective because it still applies in society today. The rhetor’s essay is kairotic because racism has always been a pressing issue and when Crow Dog went to St. Francis Mission School, it was during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. She was treated poorly there, and began to

Racial segregation was very dominant in the United States in the mid nineteen hundreds. This is the time that Maya Angelou was graduating from the eighth grade in Stamps Arkansas. The theme of racial segregation is well shown by the how different the schools of the African-Americans was compared to that of whites in the essay “Graduation” by Maya Angelou. In the essay the Angelou points out that Lafayette County Training School didn’t have a lawn, hedges, tennis court, climbing ivy as well as a fence the thing the white high school had. In every stage of life, graduation marks the advancement to the next different phase of life and is usually acknowledged by some ceremonies relating to the growth

The separation of the African American displays the importance of graduation day. Angelou was only graduating from the eighth grade, but because of the sociocultural differences, graduation proved momentous in their community. Angelou later states “Oh, it was important, all right. White folks would attend the ceremony, and two or three would speak of God and home, and the Southern way of life” (Angelou, 2014, p. 181). The school making a minute event into a grand celebration conveys much about the state of the position African Americans were subjected to. Angelou displays this later when she describes the scene of small children presented in a play about buttercups and daisies and bunny rabbits and older girls preparing snacks and beverages. Normal society does not make such an event of Middle School

“You have tried to destroy me and although I perish daily I shall not be moved,” (Angelou, 2014), says Maya Angelou in her Commencement speech to the 1992 Spelman College graduates. Poet and award-winning author, Maya Angelou, is most well known for her poetry, essay collection, and memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou happened to be the first black female cable car conductor who later started a career in theatre and music (Maya Angelou: Poet and Historian, n.d.). Once her acting and musical career began to take off, Angelou began touring with productions and released her first album Miss Calypso (Maya Angelou Fast Facts, 2017). Later, Angelou earned a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away and an Emmy Award nomination for the work she performed in the television mini-series Roots (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). Angelou was also the first African American woman to have her screenplay produced (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). Out of the number of poetry collections Angelou published, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die happened to be her most famous collection that was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). The focus of this paper is to critique Angelou’s credibility, sincerity, and appeal to her whole audience in her delivery during the Spelman Commencement Address in 1992.

Maya Angelou, an African-American woman, wrote the poem, “Still I Rise,” in 1978 when racism was still prominent. Maya Angelou was reaching out to a racist community to prove oppression will not bring her down. Angelou brings up topics of what she and every other African-American person has to endure when living in their communities, and how they feel. She also brings up topics of oppression and marginalization throughout this speech to state that she will continue to rise up above it. Maya Angelou utilizes rhetorical questions, hateful diction, as well as, similes and metaphors to prove to others that she, and other African-American’s will rise against the racism and oppression they face.

Graduation is often a time of celebration for not only those graduating, but for the family members and friends of those going through the ceremonial transition. The children in Stamps, Arkansas that are graduating alongside Marguerite Johnson know that they’re celebrating more than just that. Upon reading the story, Angelou reveals the initial feelings of excitement and hope for everyone’s future; Those feelings quickly overwhelm with disappointment due to human prejudices. In Maya Angelou’s, “Graduation”, Marguerite Johnson’s ultimate feeling of pride in her academic achievements and approaching graduating is confronted when the commencement speaker delivers an undermining speech that addressed his stereotypical views of African-Americans

In this article, Angelou talks about her eight-grade graduation experience. Angelou mainly focused about the unfair treatment of African Americans during that time because they were not values on their educational intelligence. Also, the white people were in charge of the African

To illustrate the hardships that black people faced during the early 20th century, Angelou wanted to speak from experience about her 8th grade graduation. Now to most, graduations are taken for advantage. They are little more than a blip on a person’s radar. But to Angelou, it was everything. She wrote about it chronologically just to express how important it was. She does this

In Maya Angelou's Essay `Graduation' the use of language as a navigational tool is very evident, as it leads from emotion to emotion on the occasion of the author's graduation from eighth grade. Over the course of the work, Angelou displays 3 major emotions simply based from the language she uses; excitement, disappointment and finally, redemption