Maya Angelo

Summary: Maya Angelo talks about her expierence graduating grade school in her book "I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings" She is one of few people of color graduating. Even some of her teachers haven't went on to High School. She sits in her seat during the graduation contemplanting the things the speakers were saying. The first speaker that had an affect on Maya was Mr. Edward Donleavy. He talked about how the "central" (white) kids were going to succeed and get many prvilages and that the black males were going to become athletes like "Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises" (179), but Donleavy said nothing about the black girls. After everything he said the audience would say Amen and every time they did Maya choked on the words. Everything he said made her sick and angry. Maya argued the fact that blacks were only meant to be "Maids and farmers, handymen and washwomen," and anything they did would amount to nothing. She continued to tell us about how she wished certain black movement people would of died or never caught for black rights out of anger. It wasn't till Henry Reed gave his Valedictorian speech that changed Mayas persprective of her graduation day. He actually spoke to everyone and made her feel like she accomplished something and she was ready to move on to her next chapter of her life.


Response: Maya was such a strong women and she deserved to have a graduation she could be proud of. Reading this chapter made my heart hurt for Maya. She has come so far already and now she had to sit there and get all her hopes and dreams crushed by Mr. Edward Donleavy. This was her graduation too and she worked just as hard as those white kids, if not harder. As he spoke you can see her build up anger. Although she was in a mixed racial school it was still segregated and made people with color think that they would not succeed in life. The anger made her think things that were hateful, like when she talked about how she wished Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner were killed and that she wished Abraham Lincoln was assassinated before the Emancipation Proclamation. My interpretation was that she thinks they would be better off if no one tried to make blacks equal and why did they even do it in the first place. It didn't change anything, they are always going to be looked down upon. Her future was dwindling away listening to Donleavy speak but Maya comes through at the end of the chapter when one of her peers gave his speech. Henry Reed turned away from the audience during his speech  and concentrated on the graduating class, all of them. He said a poem that moved Maya and showed her that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Tears fell down her face and then just like that her spirits were lifted and her hope was back. I could not even imagine being around in a time where there was so little respect for black people. I can't wait to continue Mayas journey with her, even after "I Know Why the Cage Birds Sings."