Analyzing Oprah Winfrey's Eulogy For Rosa Parks

This paper will analyze Oprah Winfrey’s eulogy for Rosa Parks and explain the significance of her speech in engaging grief, mourning, and funeral process in general. When a family member, a friend or an important person dies, people get bereaved. They experience mixed feelings including anger, confusion, and anxiety. This state is referred to as grief. People express their loss and bereavement to others in a number of ways. This process is referred to as mourning. In this paper, Oprah’s eulogy on Rosa Parks will feature in form of lines, passages, or extracts which forms a good application of the language and exact words to explain the subject of grief, bereavement, and funeral process.

When one is bereaved, there is a change in status. For example, a when parents die, children become orphans, when a husband dies a wife becomes a widow, and when a wife dies the husband becomes a widower and so on. Oprah explains in her eulogy up how she grew up in the South and she took Rosa Parks as her hero. Oprah Winfrey recognized and honored her even before Rosa refused to surrender her seat to a white man. Rosa’s death meant that Oprah had lost a heroin and a

It is a process through which one responds to bereavement. Rosa Park was a renowned award winning civil activist and Oprah Winfrey explains her personal experiences that define both what is distinctive and universal concerning a given culture’s experiences through grief. In her eulogy for Rosa Park, “...God uses good people to do great things.” Oprah expresses her love, honor and respect for Rosa. To her, Rosa Parks was not an ordinary elderly person. Nevertheless, she was a constant source of inspiration and delight for Oprah. She lived her entire life, cherishing and looking up to Rosa for her exciting, bold and rewarding life. Instead, Oprah dealt with the grief of losing her heroin by celebrating and emulating Rosa’s strength, conviction and