Life Lessons in Maya Angelou's Graduation Essay

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 awareness of human prejudices. The author vividly illustrates many mood changes she undergoes throughout the story.

Maya Angelou, named at birth, Marguerite Johnson was on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her and her family moved from St. Louis to Stamps, Arkansas, where she was raised growing up. Maya Angelou was an American author, dancer, screenwriter, actress, poet and civil rights activist. Angelou gained a majority of her fame with the memoir she wrote in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This memoir made literary history as being the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. Angelou received many awards and honors throughout her entire career. These awards included two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009. Angelou became one of the most legendary and influential

Are encouraging words the uniting force when fighting injustice? In “Graduation Day,” Maya Angelou addresses how encouraging words affected the injustice she faced as a child. Angelou informs her audience about the influence encouraging words had on her and the people in her community. These uplifting words united her community in a time of overwhelming bias. Encouraging words unite oppressed people to fight injustice.

“The children in Stamps trembled visibly with anticipation. Some adults were excited too, but to be certain the whole young population had come down with graduation epidemic.” Maya was so excited that Friday morning she stated: “I hoped the memory of that morning would never leave me.” Her parents closed their store the day of the graduation with a

While becoming a valedictorian can be an honor to those who receive the title, others are debating whether or not valedictorians should continue to exist, or if it should switch from being exclusive to one person in a high school senior class to multiple high-achieving students with similar scores, GPAs, and effort shown throughout their high school tenure. In “Best in Class” by Margaret Talbot, the author emphasizes the idea that having only one valedictorian motivates students due to the prestige associated with the title, as shown through her use of logos and ethos throughout her essay.

“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.

For almost two centuries, the system of public education has honored the best and the brightest high school graduates with the honorable titles of valedictorian and salutatorian.Though these titles have been a valued part of graduation for what seem like the entire history of American public schooling, they are under heavy scrutiny as impassioned and angry parents, as well as their hardworking students, attack the idea of only recognizing one or two of the class’s most talented seniors. In “Best in Class”, reporter Margaret Talbot challenges the traditional system of choosing a single valedictorian by by exposing the emotional opposition to the system’s change or preservation; her use of emotional dialogue as well as far less emotional, far more objective writing style allows Talbot to emphasize specific ideas and opinions with syntax to avoid confrontation, while simultaneously establishing that it is time for the traditional system of valedictory to change.

Top students across the nation compete for the title of valedictorian each year, although very few actually receive it. Much to the detriment of the students, the competition can become sophomoric and pointless yet remaining intense and cut throat. In her article, “Best In Class”, Margaret Talbot conveys the message that the competition of valedictorian has unfavorable consequences through her use of diction and testimonies.

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

Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928. Her real name is Marguerite Johnson, but she later changed it to Maya. She was born in St. Louis, shortly after her birth her family up and move to Arkansaw. Maya grew up there in the rural parts of Arkansaw, and later married to a South African Freedom Fighter. She lived in Cairo with him, there she began her career as editor of the Arab Observer.

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

Talbot first touches on the fact that naming a valedictorian puts great amounts of pressure on the students in the race to the top. Speaking of one student, Kylie, Talbot quotes her teacher saying, “She’s in a pressure cooker here, and she’s about to burst” (224). Talbot utilizes this example of hyperbole that her teacher uses as a metaphor to show how the race for valedictorian brings with it more than enough weight the students must carry, in most cases making them crack at points. The “pressure cooker” here is all the classes and homework that goes on students that decide to take accelerated and advanced classes; consequently, those students reach breaking points because they overload themselves beyond their capacity. Furthermore, Talbot relies heavily on interviews to give better examples on how tough the competition is to be valedictorian, and just how far they are willing to go to earn that title.

It was a small college with only around five-hundred students. In most of her classes, Amelia would get sexists remarks from other students and sometimes even her professors, but she didn’t let that cease her motivation. Amelia graduated with honors and as valedictorian of her class.

She then begins to glow up” but then my senior year I made AB Honour roll,” realizing it was then that she began to perceive that it would impede on her college education.

Mrs.Culley, better known to others as Phaedra Culley, was a nonchalant teenager who didn’t care much for school until she met someone who showed her that she should. A teacher. Teachers were always telling her that “she was smart enough, but they never told me how to be smart enough.” This is where this teacher was different, she showed her HOW to be smart enough, putting some action to the words. This teacher showed her that she was indeed able to succeed. At this time Mrs.Culley had a new sort of coming of age. She realized that it was possible to lead a good life. Even though as a kid she was told that college isn't for everyone, she realized that it was for her. Mrs.Roberts, “the BEST teacher ever” in her opinion,