"Graduation", Written by Maya Angelou

Anticipation
Imagine how it would feel to have someone of another race speak at your graduation and put your race down. This is the story of "Graduation" written by Maya Angelou. In this story we see how a young black girl awaits with great pride and anticipation her graduation day. When the day finally arrives, her dreams and expectations are shadowed by the speech that Mr. Donleavy, a white man, gave to the graduating class of 1940. At the end of the story we see how the class valedictorian, Henry Reed comes back with encouraging words that help the entire audience become alive and feel like they were on top again. Maya Angelou used a very important literary element in this story called tone.
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