"Graduation"

Graduation" reflects the development of the writer during a difficult time in her life. This young black girl in the South comes face to face with the second-class status of blacks in the society of that time at her graduation, a time that should give hope for the future. Instead. the white power structure in the form of the local politician makes use of this graduation ceremony to remind the assembled black students that their choices are limited when compared to white students. This incident in Angelou's life illustrates some of the ideas of Charles Sanders Peirce as he explains the role of doubt in producing belief or knowledge.

Peirce begins with the difference between doubting and believing, citing the feeling of believing as an indication of the establishment of some habit in our nature which will determine our actions. Indeed, belief shapes our behavior, and without belief, we would not take certain actions. Belief is also persistent as we cling to our beliefs and so to a level of comfort. Doubt is the opposite and leads to dissatisfaction. Peirce characterizes doubt as an "uneasy and dissatisfied state" (Peirce 24) from which we try to extricate ourselves in an effort to achieve a state of belief.

Peirce says that the irritation of doubt causes a struggle within us as we try to attain a state of belief, and he further says that the irritation of doubt "is the only immediate motive for the struggle to attain belief" (Peirce 24). The creation of doubt is t

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and baby nurses. She sees the onus this places on those around her: Their future rode heavily on their shoulders and blinded them to the collective joy that had pervaded the lives of the boys and girls in the grammar school graduating class (Angelou 3). The event is important, and to prove it, Whitefolks would attend the ceremony, and two or three would speak of God and home, and the Southern way of life. . . (Angelou 3). The girl had been enjoying the moment of graduation, a moment of success seen not merely as an ending, the end of one level of school, but as a beginning, the beginning of the next step on the way to adulthood. The girl's family and social group placed a high value on education, and their behavior showed this: "Among Negroes the tradition was to give presents to children going only from one grade to another" (Angelou 5). The girl therefore feels considerable excitement as the day arrives and the ceremony begins. This excitement continues until the middle of the ceremony as the band fails to play the anticipated Negro National Anthem, and the girl begins to believe something is about to happen that will make them all look bad. What that proves to be is the arrival of the white speaker, Mr. Edward Donl

Category: Philosophy - "