"The Graduation" (Maya Angelou)

Pierce 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. Doubt is the opposite and has no such effect. Doubt, says Pierce, is an uneasy and dissatisfied state from which we try to extricate ourselves in an effort to pass into a state of belief. The latter is a state to which we cling tenaciously.

Pierce 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" (Pierce 24). The creation of doubt is the beginning of the struggle to achieve belief. Inquiry is the primary method, and the end of inquiry is achieved with the attainment of belief. How do we find belief? Pierce asks first

. . .
on epidemic (Angelou 3). The girl is following in the footsteps of her brother, who graduated a year or so before. Both attended the "black" school in town, the Lafayette County Training School, which unlike the "white" school has "neither lawn, nor hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy" (Angelou 3). The girl seems at this point to accept the usual path for young black children in this town--all attend this black training school, then only a few go on to college, with college being one of the agricultural and mechanical schools of the South that trained blacks to be carpenters, farmers, masons, maids, cooks, handymen, 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). 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
. . .

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Approximate Word count = 1541
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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