Maya Angelou

I recently saw Maya Angelou in a movie and was inspired to dig up this essay I wrote a while back and post it here.

Clayton Ray Randell
English 101 Section Q
November 25, 2003
In-Class Essay #2

Reflective Essay On Maya Angelou’s “Graduation”

Maya Angelou is one of the more profound humans I have read or listened to. In her Essay “Graduation” she discusses her experience with abject and insidious racist treatment. The way in which someone can reinforce a bad situation or opinion by careless and thoughtless words is made obvious. The roots I believe are ignorance and fear. A proud group of people is cast down by an authority figure who cares little for them individually. I believe this is a serious offense, and the solution is understanding and love.

The start of the essay lays a foundation for the event. We are drawn into the excitement of the people in Angelou’s essay. Not just the excitement of the students who are going to participate in graduation. The entire community turns out to show their respect and support. The proud parents dress in fine clothes and outfit their children likewise. The children are given gifts. Angelou receives a watch from her parents and a book from her brother. The other students also receive gifts and favors from family and peers alike. These are symbols of the givers dreams.

Maya Angelou shares her personal experience as she awakens the morning of graduation to receive a very special gift,
“I hoped the memory of that morning would never leave me. Sunlight was itself young…I gave myself up to the gentle warmth and thanked God that no matter what evil I had done in my life He had allowed me to live to see this day” (35).
Her family goes on to have a full and lavish breakfast in celebration, and in preparation for the event have closed their store and put on their finest threads. Her mother had specially prepared Angelou’s dress. Hours went into embroidery and crocheted cuffs. When the dress was finished others told Maya she looked like “…a Sunbeam in it” (35).

The first portent of trouble in the essay comes as Angelou nears the auditorium with her family. She is suddenly struck by a sense that things are not right. As she climbs the stairs to her school she is greeted by her fellow classmates and soothed by their presence. Feeling better she remarks on how great everyone looks. This connection with her group how it overcomes her fear, also comes into play later in the graduation.

The graduation proceeds normally at first. Suddenly the rhythm is thrown by an intrusion. The guest speaker has arrived in a hurry and the school is forced to accommodate. The leader of the school, Principal Parsons is forced to draw his speech to a close and introduce Mr. Edward Donleavy. Encroaching on the stage two white men appear. One stands before them and the other takes the seat of the town’s minister. I was struck by how well Maya Angelou made their entrance feel almost like an assault before Donleavy even speaks. When he does open his mouth that is when the audience to the essay and the graduation are shown one of the ways in which racism attacks hopes and dreams. Not by outright condemnation of a people, rather by the denial of their opportunities. Donleavy relegates Angelou’s classmates, and by extension her town and her race, to menial tasks. He allows no heroes for them other than Jesse Owens and Joe Louise. Angelou feels at that moment that the monologue reveals her people to be less than equal to this authority. Donleavy even mentions the better off white school nearby and all that they have. Equipment and buildings and teachers provided by his help. He promises in no subtle way that with the town of Stamps votes, he may get them some of the things they need, but only to help them produce more athletes or farmers. Her recounting his plea for votes is an indictment in itself when coupled with his lack of understanding to their true needs.

Angelou is so angry at the denial of other possibilities for her classmates that she is overcome with hate. I like how she reflects the influence in the society that produces someone like Donleavy. Her account of bilious feelings towards the whole of humanity out of hatred spurred by oppression are very palpable. Often people are overwhelmed with negative feelings towards the wholesome or institutionalized aspects of their society when the connections are drawn together with the misdeeds of society. Misdeeds like fear, ignorance and hate. This leads to graffiti, to riots, and to assassinations. It leads also to violent thoughts.

Angelou illustrates this pain and darkness by sharing her thoughts. The darkness fills the room as participants sit captive by tradition and are demoralized. She wishes for all the races of the world to die, lying bodies upon bodies. Not just of the white folks either, she is consumed by anger towards her own race and others. She is so overcome that she does not even get up until prompted, to retrieve the diploma that the whole town had been waiting for. This illustrates just how worthless the diploma and all the effort behind it had suddenly become to the students.

As quickly as the interlopers had come they were off. Likely they were heading to what they thought was a more important graduation. Angelou remarks, “The ugliness they left was palpable. (38)” Her mood leaves her rebutting the words of other speakers who try to champion the individuality and possibilities of the graduating classes. Even today I see this behavior. There was a time when the African American art form of rap had something to say. Feelings of oppression and anger, of loneliness and despair, hope and aspiration were detailed and expressed in poetic verse. Now there are few who use the medium to communicate. More and more, tortured facsimiles of the English language are used to lift up greed and violence, while pushing down women and community. Since there is little control over their lives some would force oppression and violence right down the line. This ends up on other races, on women, on each other.

Maya Angelou gives us the antidote for these issues. The tide is turned by the recitation and singing of the Negro National Anthem. Maya Angelou is reminded of the connection to others by the words,
“We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered. (40)”

Reminded of how far people can come and with strength and perseverance the group is raised again to their feet. Credit is due to those who inspire us, who remind us, who share with us, and support us. Credit is due to those who bring heartache and pain, as well as joy and celebration of the human experience to others. Paintings, poems, music and stories are powerful ways to communicate the connections that we all share. It is vital for all men and all women to endeavor to relate to their fellow man, if for no other reason than to understand themselves better. Maya Angelou carries this theme on in much of her work. Interviews with Oprah I found to be very enlightening. Angelou’s grace in the face of the experiences of her life, are an inspiration.

Angelou, Maya “Graduation” Fields Of Reading. Ed. Nancy R. Comely Et. Al.
Bedford/St. Martins; New York, 2001. 31-36.

Goshen, Amitav “The Ghosts Of Mrs. Ghandi” Fields Of Reading. Ed. Nancy R. Comely
Et. Al. Bedford/St. Martins; New York, 2001. 119-131.

Grealy, Lucy “Mirrors” Fields Of Reading. Ed. Nancy R. Comely Et. Al. Bedford/St.
Martins; New York, 2001. 50-63.

George Orwell Site. K-1 Internet Publishing. George Orwell 1903-1950. 24th November 2003. < HYPERLINK "http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/index.cgi/work/essays/fun.html" http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/index.cgi/work/essays/fun.html>.

Oprah Winfrey. O Magazine Website. Oprah’s Cut With Maya Angelou. December
2000. 24 Nov. 2003 .

Orwell, George “Shooting An Elephant” Fields Of Reading. Ed. Nancy R. Comely Et.
Al. Bedford/St. Martins; New York, 2001. 132-138.

Tan, Amy “Mother Tongue” Fields Of Reading. Ed. Nancy R. Comely Et. Al.
Bedford/St. Martins; New York, 2001. 77-82.

Willet, Jincy “Under The Bed” Fields Of Reading. Ed. Nancy R. Comely Et. Al.
Bedford/St. Martins; New York, 2001. 654-661.