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Life Lessons in Maya Angelou's Graduation
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.
From the outset of the story there is an overwhelming sense of hope that has enveloped the entire community and school with the upcoming graduation. The communitie's involvement strengthens the authors excitement in her rite of passage. Everyone is preparing for the ceremony and seeking to see how it will affect the lives of those involved. "Only a small percentage would be continuing on to college" (835) and others were just excited for the "glorious release" (834) from school. She felt like she was on top of the world, after all, "the graduating classes themselves were the nobility" (834). It is obvious how much pride she takes in her community by the way she describes her class as "an extended family." (834). The author's school was not the most impressive school compared to the white schools in the area but that could not damper the spirit that was filling the air. Parents who were buying or making new outfits for their graduates made everyone including the author the center of attention. Her "momma launched out on [hers]," (835) and she was swollen with pride that she was going to be a walking mod...
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...fe she really knew and felt deep down to the core of her being what the words truly meant. The words had brought back her hope and pride in herself and in her community. What Leavy had said was a fallacy and they could as they have in the past rise above the world's bigotry. Righteousness returned to Angelou and the entire community; "we were on top again."(841).
During the essay the author lost her innocence but graduated to a deeper appreciation and clarity of who she is and who she could become. In her school with no visible fences keeping the children within the schoolyard, there were the invisible fences of racism that tried to limit them from reaching their full potential. The author concludes, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death" (841).
Works Cited:
Angelou, Maya. 'Graduation.' Cromley 29-39.
In Maya Angelou's, Graduation, the protagonist Marguerite gains awareness of herself and others through the Duboisan concept of double consciousness. She realizes that she must reconcile her own perception of herself with the unflattering perception society will also possess of her.
The culmination of the novel is when Maya describes her eighth grade graduation. Angelou, her classmates, and parents listen to the condescending and racist manner in which the guest speaker talks. After listening to his insults, Maya realizes "she is the master of her fate" which was expressed in the valedictory address given by her classmate. Maya becomes a single parent at the age of eighteen, bu...
We even made a sign for the Store.. It read clearly "CLOSED GRADUATION" (837). They even closed the town store for the festivities. The coming of graduation is shown as a proud day, and holds a sunny future for the narrator and her classmates, "My class was wearing butter yellow pique dresses.the lemony cloth.embroidered raised daisies" (835) and "My dress fitted perfectly.everyone said I looked like a sunbeam in it" (837). All these images of warm colors, flowers and butterflies, were scattered throughout the beginning of the work, and contributed to the high spirits and overall happy mood of the day.
The Measles starts with a fever, runny nose, cough, red eyes, and sore throat. It is then followed by a rash that spreads over the body, starting first on the face along the hairline. The infectious period of measles is 4 days before rash onset through 4 days after rash onset. The measles are a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus and spreads through the air through coughing and sneezing. (WHO, 2016). The measles virus can remain airborne for up to an hour after the infected person has left the area. The measles are so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of the unvaccinated people close to them will become infected. Rarely can the virus be deadly. The incubation period for
To begin, Angelou’s early discovery of life showed attainable hope though in storms. At age fifteen, Angelou was set on getting a job on the street cars. No colored person had ever yet done so, but that did not stop her determination. Though she faced great struggles during the process, joy was later received when she finally got the job. One morning when Angelou was about to leave for her newly received job, she spoke with her mother then she stated, “She
By using the subjective form, Angelou has separated herself out from the community as a whole and described her position within the community. In terms of economic class, it can be concluded that she and her family are a bit wealthier then others because they are able to afford material for a new dress and even a little bit of extravagance. Yet, her family is not among the wealthiest as they are not able to afford to have the dress custom made. In terms of intellectual ability, it is clear that she is better achieved than the majority. She stands at nearly the top of her class, beaten only by Bailey. In terms of aspirations, she clearly dreams of more than being an athlete as suggested by the White politician giving the commencement speech.
Maya Angelou was one of America’s greatest writers in history. She was known for her many writings and for her part in Civil Rights Movements. Maya Angelou went through many hardships during her childhood, the most prevalent of those, racism over her skin color. This racism affected where she grew up, where she went to school, even where she got a job. “My education and that of my Black associates were quite different from the education of our white schoolmates. In the classroom we all learned past participles, but in the streets and in our homes the Blacks learned to drops s’s from plurals and suffixes from past tense verbs.” (Angelou 221) Maya Angelou was a strong believer in a good education and many of those beliefs were described in her
when Maya Angelou was a young woman -- "in the crisp days of my youth," she says -- she carried with her a secret conviction that she wouldn't live past the age of 28. Raped by her mother's boyfriend at 8 and a mother herself since she graduated from high school, she supported herself and her son, Guy, through a series of careers and buoyed by an implacable ambition to escape what might have been a half-lived, ground-down life of poverty and despair. "For it is hateful to be young, bright, ambitious and poor," Angelou observes. "The added insult is to be aware of one's poverty." In "Even the Stars Look Lonesome," her new collection of reflective autobiographical essays, Angelou gives no further explanation for her "profound belief" that she would die young.
In 1960’s she devoted herself to the cause of African-American rights and freedom. “As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked for Dr. Martin Luther ...
Maya Angelou lived through a time where she was discriminated against for not only her race but also her gender. In her poem “Still I Rise” Angelou sarcastically talks about how no matter what is thrown at her she will rise above it and she will do it with resilience and confidence. Her poem discusses racism and sexism and gives minorities and women a sense of hope to overcome and endure both of those things. Angelou’s self-assurance in the poem makes you believe that you too can overcome whatever obstacle. Although this poem was intended for blacks, and women, and specifically black women, the poem helps build up strong and courageous people no matter what race or gender you are. Maya Angelou in “Still I Rise” uses both pathos and ethos to
In an expressive voice, Ms. Angelou paints a memorable picture of a small black community anticipating graduation day fifty-five years ago. She describes the children as trembling "visibly with anticipation" and the teachers being "respectful of the now quiet and aging seniors." Although it is autobiographical, an omniscient voice in the first six paragraphs describes how "they" - the black children in Stamps - felt and acted before the omniscient voice changes to a limited omniscient narration in the seventh paragraph. Her eloquent voice skillfully builds the tension as she demonstrates bigotry destroying innocence.
Graduation by Maya Angelou really touches on the fact that discrimination towards blacks in the hundred or so years following the end of the civil war was an endless and relentless torture that had to be endured even at an event as innocent and important as an 8th grade graduation. To hear the superintendent go in front of the school and talk about white accomplishments made Maya feel insignificant even though she had n...
The early 1930’s a time where segregation was still an issue in the United States it was especially hard for a young African American girl who is trying to grow and become an independent woman. At this time, many young girls like Maya Angelou grew up wishing they were a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. That was just the start of Angelou's problems though. In the autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou goes into great depth about her tragic childhood, from moving around to different houses, and running away and having a child at the age of 16. This shows how Maya overcame many struggles as a young girl.
In the days leading up to her graduation, she was so excited about receiving her diploma for her academic accomplishments, even though she hasn’t accomplished a lot in life by experiencing a little bit of it. She felt like the birthday girl with her pretty dress, beautiful hair, and the presents she received from Uncle Willie and her mother. She felt like it w...
Throughout all works of literature, the daily events affecting the lives of the authors can be found in many different pieces of their work. Although it may not be a direct relation to what these authors experience, they often relate the themselves to their narrators through many different literary devices. However, these processes really stand out through the works of Maya Angelou. Through the use of metaphors and similes, Angelou relates her writings back to the harsh conditions of the socially unjustified period of the 1930’s onward; explaining the restraints placed upon both herself and her race by those who considered themselves to be her superiors.