Maya Angelou's "Momma's Encounter," published in 1970

Who is the audience?

What is the rhetorical situation? Historical context: 1930s rural Stamps Arkansas/ publication context- 1970

Rhetorical Situation (WOW page 32)

-an appreciation of the social circumstances that call rhetorical events into being and that orchestrate the course of those events

-each act of communication is anything but self-contained

-each communication is a response to other communications and other social practices

-communications, and social practices more generally, are considered to reflect the attitudes and values of the communities that sustain them

Understanding the Structure of the Narrative

I. Introduction: 2 main threads/ideas

II. Background information: follow up with thread 1/ follow up with thread 2

III. The event/ rising action

IV. Climax

V. Falling Action

VI. Conclusion

Why doesn't the narrative immediately begin with the event? Why are the background information paragraphs necessary? How do they lay the foundation for the theme?

Discussion Questions

Repetition/Thematic threads

Sensory Description

Analyze Tone and Style

Language

Artistic Appeals