Sound & Sense Chapter 7

Lady Luncheon Club
Maya Angelou

How does the speaker use rhetorical devices to express their feelings towards the women in the poem?

Thesis: The speakers uses literary devices such as contradiction, selection of detail, and juxtaposition to display their disapproval of the women in the poem.

Topic Sentence 1: The speaker initially introduces the "Lady Luncheon Club" as women interested in socially diversifying themselves through exploration of the dark reality of the world but immediately contradicts the good-natured introduction to display the falsity of the women's intentions.

Quotation: "Her counsel was accepted: the times are grave. / A man was needed who would make them think, / And pay him from the petty cash account" (1-3).

Analysis: The women in the poem want to make it seem like they care about the current issues in society, but they plan to pay the man "who would make them think" with "petty cash." Typically, "petty cash" has a careless connotation and is used on senseless spending. The speaker immediately contrasts the women's seemingly well intentioned plan with the inclusion of "petty cash" in order to express the women's lack of interest in the grave times of their present. The women will pay the lecturer with "petty cash" because they do not care about the money they are spending, suggesting they do not care about why the lecturer is coming. The speaker's diction and use of contradictions expresses the speaker's disapproval of the women. The women appear to be interested in socially diversifying themselves but are actually interested in keeping up a respectable public image.

Topic Sentence 2: The speaker continues to comment on the women's false representation through selection of detail.

Quotation: "Our women checked her golden watch, / The speaker has a plane to catch. / Desert is served (and just in time)" (4-6).

Analysis: The speaker's inclusion of a golden watch connects back to the petty cash the women plan to pay the lecturer. They clearly have sufficient funding to pay the lecturer, but the referral to petty cash expresses their lack of sincerity in their decision to have him come and speak to the "Lady Luncheon Club." Additionally, the inclusion of a watch suggests that the women are growing impatient with the lecturer, supporting the idea that they do not care about what he is speaking about. The woman's apparent impatience subsides when "dessert is served," which acts as a comment on the woman's materialism. She no longer cares about the length of the lecturer's speech because dessert acts as a distraction from what the lecturer is saying. The speaker believes the women are materialistic because they are more interested in the dessert being served than a socially educated lecturer. Additionally, the women grew impatient with the lecturer, proving that they were not actually interested in having someone come speak to them initially.