"Graduation" Rhetorical Essay

Hey followers (if there are any left...), I just finished up my Rhetorical Analysis essay for "Graduation" by Maya Angelou, but I'm really not feeling what I've written. Any suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated.

There is no doubt that Maya Angelou is a fantastic writer. But even by her standards, “Graduation” is a fantastic piece of writing. Part of what makes it great is her command of rhetorical strategies. From her beautiful imagery to the building in the final paragraphs, this essay’s appeals and language really get you caught up in it.

                The essay starts off very informative and impersonal. Introducing you to the broad situation without revealing her part in it, Maya builds one’s interest and emotional involvement in the whole situation by introducing very accessible emotions. Anticipation, excitement, excessive pride are all emotions she references. On top of that, the situation (graduation) is one that almost every single person is familiar with, even further building the connection of the reader. The shift in paragraph six is significant as it introduces her specific role, as well as her specific emotions. As a primary source, her ethos goes through the roof. She also focuses much more on her internal feelings than the events going on around her. By referencing the future often, (“I was going to be lovely”), she builds the anticipation for the even that is coming, drawing the reader in even more. She draws out this section of preparation in order to build that anticipation even more.

                Ultimately though, her best use of rhetoric comes in the last several pages, from the beginning of Mr. Edward Donleavy’s speech through to the end. Her word choice during Mr. Donleavy’s speech becomes especially vitriolic: “I willed the offender to immediate death” or “The man’s dead words fell like bricks around the auditorium and too many settled in my belly.” In this section, she absolutely rips this man apart, describing with vivid detail how all of the energy, anticipation and excitement that had been building up throughout the beginning just got sucked out of the auditorium. After that is the build that is Henry Reed’s valedictorian speech. Relying on a song packed with pathos, the “Negro national anthem”, Reed manages to push all of the lost energy back into the ceremony, effectively rescuing the graduation. What is particularly effective is the extreme dichotomy between Maya’s language before and after his speech. Before his speech, she borders on the nihilistic. “It was all for nothing”, she says. After though, her language swings all the way back around the pendulum to extreme positivity: “We were on top again.”

                By leading you by the hand through her emotional journey during her graduation, Maya ultimately manages to get across the point that she has tried her best to convince the reader of: no matter what is done to try and keep them down, the people of Stamps will not be held down by a condescending, pretentious white man. They are made of stronger stuff, and the emotion poured out by Maya in this essay drive that point home.