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Graduation By Maya Angelou Analysis

Decent Essays

Maya Angelou was one of the greatest writers of all time. Born in 1914, she wrote both about her personal life and the struggles of being an African American. Maya lived the struggle and the raw emotions she fills flow through her writings. Graduation is just one of her writings. In this short story she tells about the life of a young black girl graduating from 8th grade from the rural segregated town of Stamps, Arkansas. Stamps had two schools, the white school and the black school. “Unlike the white high school, Lafayette County Training School distinguished itself by having neither lawn, nor hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy. Its two buildings (main classrooms, the grade school and home economics) were set on a dirt hill …show more content…

It was a big deal to have ready made clothes and new shoes. “My class was wearing butter-yellow pique dresses, and momma launched out on mine.” (Angelou 76) She was quite proud of her dress and excited for the day. She felt her opportunities were not limited by her years in school. “Besides, many teachers in Arkansas Negro schools had only that diploma and were licensed to impart wisdom.” (Angelou 76) She and a classmate were the top of her class. The young man ended up being the valedictorian of the class. “No absences, no tardinesses, and my academic work was among the best of the year.” (Angelou 77) She admired the young man and look forward to his speech “To Be or Not to Be”. It was a tradition to give presents when a child changed grades and she was enjoying the attention and gifts from family and friends. On graduation day a white politician came to give the speech. He was in a hurry from the start and gave little to no attention to the audience. In the speech he talked about how the white school was getting new microscopes and chemistry equipment. If elected he would see that they received better athletic equipment. “The white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gauguin's, and our boys (the girls weren’t even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises.” (Angelou 82) By the end of the speech the young girl along with her whole

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