Graduation by Maya Angelou

This essay I read called Graduation told a story about a young Middle School African American girl named Maya Angelou, who was graduating and was moving on to High School back in 1940. She was from a small town in Arkansas and was extremely excited to be graduating. She had high hopes for the future and right before the graduation ceremony, she felt like she was the birthday girl, the center of attention. She had done well for herself throughout the school year with very good academic grades and no tardiness and no absence. Her mom was proud and couldn't wait to see her daughter graduate, her mom even made her a nice dress. They had a guest speaker at the graduation ceremony his name was Mr. Donleavy. His introduction speech to the graduates had put the black race down while he praised the white kids and said they were going to be doing much better. that speech by Mr. Donleavy had really upset her. It made her feel really low about being black. Right after the speech one of her classmates went up to speak, his name was Henry Reed. He was the valedictorian. He read a poem that gave her hope and brought her back up in good spirits. She once again felt good about the color of her skin. The graduating class was happy and was encouraged by Henry Reed's speech, they felt like the black race was on top again.

I thought the writer had a really good flow of style and expressed herself really well, especially with the storyline. It was a great story overall, the writer was very graphic with her words and it kind of made me feel like I was there re-living that moment with her. Her style was cool and she built up the story with conflict. The suspense was awesome because she made it feel like it was going to be good from the start to the end, but then I felt the tension when things became dark and muggy. The argumentation was written well and the story ended on a good note. The writer wrote for her people and you could literally feel her pain