"Graduation" Soapst Discussion

Maya Angelou wrote the essay "Graduation". The occasion in this essay is her graduation in Stamps, Arkansas, during the year of 1940. She is graduation the eight grade. She is an African American woman, which affects the story greatly. The story is about how during her graduation, she felt she was going to be free when she graduates, but when the graduation plan went wrong, she started to lose hope on herself and the black community. But when the valedictorian of the class rallied the class together to sing the African American anthem, she gained her hope back and she started to write what she wanted the reader to remember and know about the African American community. Her purpose is to inform and to inspire the reader. She is trying to inform people outside of the African American community to learn about the troubles that the African Americans went through, and also to learn about all the great people they had and have. But her purpose to inspire is to the African American audience, which she wants all of them to learn about their history and never to give up in anything to do. She wants them to keep rising and show the true colors of the African American community to the world. The subject of this story is her graduation experience, and the whole story is revolving around her pre-graduation experience, her feelings during the graduation, and her message to the audience in the last paragraphs. In my opinion, the last paragraphs are the most important from the whole story because this is where her purpose shines and this is where she proves to the world that even an African American can write as well as she wrote.