Maya Angelou is an African American woman who has gone through many racial prejudices and experiences. She often ponders on these experiences and uses them to illustrate messages in her various works of literature. Angelou has a very unique writing style. Angelou uses many literary devices like figurative language in her stories. To understand Angelou on a more personal level, it is important that one learns a little bit about her life and herself as well. Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri and was formerly known as Marguerite Annie Johnson. Angelou had a difficult childhood. Her parents divorced when she was young. She also moved to Arkansas, where she faced a lot of unjust issues. At, the age of seven, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Out of anger, Angelou’s uncle …show more content…
Angelou uses these genres to display her work. “The Reunion” by Maya Angelou is about a black woman named Philomena Jenkins. Jenkins is playing the Sunday Matinee at the Blue Palm Cafe in Chicago. This club is usually filled with African Americans, and Jenkins is very surprised to see a white woman walk in with a large black man. Seeing this forces Jenkins to recall some racial experiences. Angelou uses many rhetorical devices and lots of figurative language in the text. These things affect the tone/mood by using both using both to enhance the meaning of the messages Angelou tries to deliver in the text. Angelou’s purpose is to persuade the reader and have the reader empathize with what Angelou has been through. Angelou’s past experiences have most likely influenced her plot. The theme of “The Reunion” is “Harsh experiences leave scars that you’ll always carry in life.” An example of this can be seen when Jenkins sees the white woman at the club and recalls her racial