Maya Angelou's "Graduation" and Liliana Heker's "The Stolen Party" share a common theme. Each author demonstrates through young girls that life's experiences, especially as a child, teach important lessons. Although Angelou's "Graduation" and Heker's "The Stolen Party" share a distinct resemblance, they also differ.

The main similarity is that Margaret from "Graduation" and Rosaura from "The Stolen Party" are both excited about a day that they consider special or important. Margaret's big day revolves around her graduation from the eighth grade at the Lafayette County Training School. Margaret and her entire family are so proud of her accomplishments and achievements. Margaret felt high aspirations for the future and high hopes of all her goals being attainable. Margaret brags:

Rosaura's big day revolves around a birthday party she was invited to by Luciana. Luciana is the daughter of Senora Ines. Senora Ines is a lady Rosaura's mother cleans for in the afternoons. Despite her mother's initial wishes, Rosaura was determined to attend Luciana's birthday party. Heker writes, "She wanted to go to that party more than anything else in the world. 'I'll die if I don't go' she [Rosaura] whispered" (614). Margaret and Rosaura were both so happy and eager about their "special" days.

Two figures, Mr. Edward Donleavy from "Graduation" and Senora Ines from "The Stolen Party" damaged these two girls' feelings of self importance. Donleavy, a white male from Texarkana, conveyed the idea to Margaret that "the white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gauguins, and our boys (the girls weren't even in on it) would try to be Jessie Owenses and Joe Louises" (575). Margaret also felt Donleavy assumed the graduates, "...were maids and farmers, handymen and washerwomen, and anything higher that we aspired to was farcical and presumptuous" (576).

Senora Ines made Rosaura feel as if she were hired help, like her mother, instead of Luciana's guest at the party. This is revealed when Rosaura is about to leave the party and she awaits a party gift: "Senora Ines didn't look in the pink bag. Nor did she look in the blue bag. Instead she rummaged in her purse. In her hand appeared two bills" (616). This reveals to Rosaura how Senora Ines perceived her attendance at the party: she did not view her as a guest but as a servant.

Although Donleavy and Senora Ines had the same effect of creating a feeling of disappointment and unworthiness for the two girls, they expressed their arrogance in two different ways. Donleavy made Margaret feel her accomplishments were "nothing" (576), from the first breath he took at the speaker's platform at the graduation ceremony. Senora Ines on the other hand, made Rosaura feel special until the end of the day. Senora Ines welcomes Rosaura into the kitchen by saying "...the others [children], they're much too boisterous, they might break something," but in actuality she only wanted her to help serve drinks and distribute birthday cake to the other children.

One major difference in the two girls is their attitudes at the end of each story. At the end of "Graduation" Margaret felt like she had still accomplished something. Although Donleavy had made the audience, and especially the graduates, feel inferior and second-rate, Margaret still felt "on top again" (578). Margaret realized on that day what her ancestors and heritage represented, and that her life revolves around that as well as her future. That day Margaret did not simply

graduate a member of the "proud graduating class of 1940" (578), she graduated "a proud member of the wonderful, beautiful Negro race" (578). At the conclusion of "The Stolen Party" Rosaura didn't feel self confidence such as Margaret did; rather, she felt anger and defiance. Heker writes:

Rosaura felt her arms stiffen, stick close to her body, and then noticed her mother's hand on her shoulder. Instinctively she pressed herself against her mother's body. That was all. Except her eyes. Rosaura's eyes had a cold, clear look that fixed itself on Senora Ines face. (616)

Rosaura did learn a lesson from this experience, as would any child. It is not certain if this experience made her stronger, or if it made her succumb to her mother's view of the world. Rosaura's mother said at the beginning of the story, "That one's not your friend. You know what you are to them? The maid's daughter, that's what" (613) . However, Rosaura was "one of the best in her class" (613) and had her own ideas about people and places, hopefully this experience did not discourage her.

Finally, the last difference between the two stories is how both pieces of literature are narrated. Angelou's "Graduation" was a true story and told in first person. Angelou made this little girl come to life with words. Margaret was so natural, so life-like, so truthful. Heker's "The Stolen Party" is a work of fiction and is told in third person. Although Rosaura seems realistic and believable, her character was not as fully revealed as Margaret's.

Margaret and Rosaura were both young girls living in environments where certain things or people were not accepted. Through childhood experiences both girls have learned substantial lessons about themselves and the way others view them that should remain with them the rest of their lives.

Angelou, Maya. "Graduation." Literature for Composition. 4th Ed.

Sylvan Barnet et al. New York HarperCollins, 1996.

570-578.

Hecker, Liliana. "The Stolen Party." Literature for Composition. 4th Ed.