Summary Of Graduation Nite By Ntozak Shange

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One profound piece of African American literature is Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. This revolutionary text presents black women with poems that address the various aspects their life and challenges they face. To aid in the telling the stories of black woman, Ntozak Shange utilizes the feminine gaze. The feminine gaze is the viewing of a scenario from the prospective of a woman. While the masculine gaze often objectifies women, the feminine gaze views women as the complex people that they are. The female perspective is an essential part to the pieces of Shange’s work. One poem in the work that employs this viewpoint is the Lady in Yellow’s “Graduation Nite” poem. The feminine …show more content…

In this poem, there is not much attention given to the men. When it begins, they are even acknowledge as being “bobby mills martin jerome & sammy yates eddie jones & randi,” one large collective group (Shange 21). Although the Lady in Yellow has a close relationship with these men, the Lady in Yellow does not offer much commentary on them. Even when she mentions winning contests with the guys, she shares one detail about the men and then proceeds to centering herself again (Shange 22). The Lady in Yellow’s relationship with these men does not matter in this poem. In “Graduation Nite” her goal was to celebrate herself and to accomplish the goals that she has set for herself. Including the more information about the men would have distracted the audience from this. However, the Lady in Yellow does allow other women to have a role in her narrative. In the poem she includes the actions of Ulinda Mason, Sheila, and Marguerite (Shange 22). By placing these women in her perspective, the Lady in Yellow shows the differences between each woman. While she is dancing, Sheila and Marguerite are standing against a wall, and Ulinda goes from “stickin her mouth all out” to fighting with one of the guys (Shange 22). Although the men are also participating in the party, she does not give them much attention. By analyzing the behaviors of the women, she is emphasizing that they are not all there for the same reasons. This use of the feminine gaze aids the Lady in Yellow in distinguishing herself to the audience. They are forced to see her for who she is, and not what the other perspectives would have projected onto

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