Oprah Winfrey
Essay Preview: Oprah Winfrey
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Every now and then in history, we find a life story that is truly remarkable. Oprah Winfrey ventured forth from the agonizing childhood, that was her world of common day, to a region of supernatural wonder. Oprahs road to success was not an easy task. From her early childhood, Oprah challenged many fabulous forces that she encountered. Oprah Winfrey tells the life story one of Americas richest and most successful show business personalities. “The fact that Oprah Winfrey is also black and a woman makes her rags to riches story an even more remarkable version of the American Dream” (About). Without a doubt Oprah Winfrey endured her share of rites of passage.
[R]ites of passage are not confined to culturally defined life-crises, but
may accompany any change from one state to another, as when a whole
tribe goes to war, or when it attests the passage from scarcity to plenty by
performing a first-fruits or a harvest festival. Rites de passage, too, are not
restricted, sociologically speaking, to movements between ascribes
statuses. They also concern entry into a new achieved status, whether this
be a political office or membership to a exclusive club or secret
society…On the whole, initiation rites, whether into maturity or cult
membership, best exemplify transition…(Tumer 235).
A time of separation
On January 29, 1954 Oprah Gail Winfrey was born to unwed, teenage parents in Mississippi. Her parents originally planned to name her Orpah, but the midwife made a mistake on the birth certificate. Oprah had many obstacles already in front her as
a newborn. Oprahs mother was an eighteen-year-old housemaid named Vernita Lee. Her father was a twenty-year-old in the Armed Forces, Vernon Winfrey. Shortly after her birth, Oprah was separated from her birth mother and sent to live with her grandmother.
“…[L]ike so many other black youngsters who were left to be taken care of
by their grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles. It actually
probably saved my life. It is the reason why I am here today. My
grandmother gave me the foundation for success that I was allowed to
continue to build upon. My grandmother taught me to read, and that
opened the door to all kinds of possibilities for me. And had I not been
with my grandmother and been with my mother struggling in the North,…I
probably would not have had the foundation that I had” (Achievement).
She was under her grandmothers care for the first six years of her life. Oprah had transitioned well under the care of her grandmother. “Oprah was a bright child and read and write when she was three” (Leaney). Unfortunately for Oprah at the age of seven, Vernita decided to make a change in her life. This change meant relocating to Baltimore, and taking Oprah out of the only true home she had known. Again Oprah endured separation, but this time her transition was not smooth. Once there, an older cousin sexually molested Oprah, and then she suffered repeated molestation by others throughout her youth. Oprah then turned to a life on the streets. She was pregnant by the age of fourteen; she miscarried and was left feeling distraught. At the age of fifteen, Vernita sent
Oprah to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father. It was here that the life of Oprah took a major turn. Vernon put rules into place, something that Oprah had not seen since living with Vernita. Vernon encouraged Oprah to focus on life and to begin to concentrate on her education. Vernon required Oprah to weekly read a book, and then to write a book report, which rekindled her lost love for reading. In a interview with the Academy of Achievement Oprah recalled that her father was a “[v]ery strict father, but I love him for it today…[She] remembered [her] father saying to [her] “You cant bring Cs in this house because you are not a C student. If you were a C student you could because Im not trying to make you do or be anything that you cant be. But you are not a C student; you are an A student. So thats what we expect in this house” (Achievement). During her senior yeah of high school, it was then that Oprah started working in the school radio station. She soon found a new love in broadcasting, which resulted in propelling her to fame. Through the different separations that Oprah endured as an adolescent, Oprah was able to persevere as a adult. The separations were a part of the road to success, which made a lasting impression in her rags to riches story.
Initiation to radio and television broadcasting
After graduation, she entered Tennessee State University where she majored in radio and television broadcasting. Oprah was very popular and well liked, earning her title of Miss Tennessee State. And with the accomplishment of her initiation to Tennessee State University, as well as her transition into the field of radio and television broadcasting, she was ready to conquer “this miraculous adventure with the power to
bestow boons on [her] fellow man” (Campbell). She was then hired by a local television station, WTVF, and became the youngest and first African-American female anchor. “In 1976, she moved back to Baltimore to join WJZ – TV news as a co-anchor, and in 1978 discovered talent for hosting talk shows when she became the co-host of “People are Talking” while continuing to serve as anchor and news reporter” (Academy). In 1984, she was offered a job in Chicago, a decision that would prove to be the most important one of her career. In Chicago, she hosted the television show “AM Chicago”, and the show jumped to number one within the first month of Oprahs arrival. Within one year, her timeslot increased to one hour, and was renamed “The Oprah Winfrey Show”.
Seen nationally since September 8, 1986, “The Oprah Winfrey Show”
became the number one talk show in national syndication in less than a
year. In June 1987, in its first year of eligibility “The Oprah Winfrey
Show”