Analysis of the Themes of Loss and Gain
The theme of loss and gain has always been popular among the people worldwide. In general, the majority of persons prefers gaining than losing. However, loss and gain usually come together. When losing something, do not be upset. Maybe luck will appear soon. As Shakespeare’s poem says, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Everyone’s life just likes a drama, sometimes you are on top, sometimes on the bottom. In Maya Angelou’s “Graduation”, she shows her experience in high school which is in Stamps, Arkansas. Unlike white students, she cannot share an equal education. She nevertheless obtained a lot of knowledge which is essential to her success. The other text “Coming to an Awareness of Language” is written by Malcolm X and is about his loss and gain when he started to learn language with his teacher--- a dictionary. After he suffered a lot while he used a dictionary to study the language, he finally was coming to an awareness of language. Both texts have the themes of loss and gain; however, Maya’s text pays more attention about her loss but I get lots of positive information from Malcolm X’s text.

In "Coming to an Awareness of Language", the theme of loss is shown through the discussion about Malcolm X improving his literacy skills. While the lack of education made Malcolm unable to convey his ideas through letters, so he did a lot effort to improve his language. During this time, he actually had a tough experience. In the text, he wrote, "I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad" (Malcolm X 18). From this sentence, Malcolm showed his emotion when he began to learn language by writing letters but he cannot express his thoughts easily because he is not good at English. Besides, penmanship is the other difficulty in learning language. "It was sad. I couldn't even write in a straight line" (Malcolm X 19). This quote shows that penmanship is not as easy as reading word. Malcolm experienced a hard to write word, which is most difficult at the beginning. I can clearly understand his feeling because I also had a tough time learning English. These examples clearly illustrate the theme of gain in this loss.

In “Graduation”, the theme of loss is shown in connection to Maya Angelou’s unfair and bad experience. In the text, Maya described her high school as “Unlike the white high school, Lafayette Country Training School distinguished itself by having neither lawn, nor hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy. Its two buildings (main classrooms, the grade school and home economics) were set on a dirt hill with no fence to limit either its boundaries or those of bordering farms”(Angelou 2). Maya stated that the environment of her high school and compared with white schools. Obviously, Lafayette Country Training School is not beautiful or equipped. She cannot share a same learning environment as white students. Besides, she gradually became frustrated and even lost control over her life. As she wrote, “I should like to see us all dead.” (Angelou 8). Maya unfortunately lost control over her life and thought about something bad. Her sadness and anger showed that she was in the bottom of life. Because of her color of skin, she was under unfair treatment. These examples of Maya’s experience show the theme of loss in this text.