The stores closed, her mother "made a Sunday breakfast although it was only Friday" (25), and Angelou's dress was handmade. It is through Angelou's examples about the days to come of the graduation that exhibit the relevance of the event. Finally, Angelou personifies her excitement when she states, "I hoped the memory of that morning would never leave me. Sunlight was itself young, and the day had none of the insistence maturity would bring it in a few hours" (24). Because Angelou reinforces her enthusiasm about her 8th grade graduation, the audience can better understand her later disappointment and feeling of hopelessness. Overall, because Angelou describes the significance of her graduation to the audience, her emotional response to Donleavy's speech has a greater impact on readers. .
The turning point of Angelou's tale occurred when Mr. Donleavy delivered his speech to the crowd. Right from the beginning, Donleavy altered the mood of the ceremony. Angelou describes the men on stage when, "the Baptist minister gave [the white man] his chair, then with more dignity than the situation deserved, the minister walked off the stage" (27). This quotation exemplifies the lack of common courtesy African Americans received- even at their public event- by white people. Furthermore, Angelou provides a simile to describe the change in feeling: "Like a river diminishing to a stream and then to a trickle" (27). Here, Angelou compares the emotion of the auditorium crowd to a "river diminishing." Next, when Donleavy expresses his racist thoughts, it makes Angelou contemplate her self-worth. Angelou professes, "The white kids were going to have a chance to become Galilieos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gaugins, and our boys (the girls weren't even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises" (28). As Donleavy gives his speech, Angelou realizes that African Americans could not aspire to be acclaimed philosophers or scientists; they are suppose to be athletes or lower respected individuals.