In her eulogy for Coretta Scott King, Maya Angelou uses figurative language and repetition to compel the audience to follow King’s example of peaceful yet strong advocacy of human rights. Angelou uses repetition of words and phrases to emphasize King’s gentle strength and encourage the world to take up her lifelong fight. A sense of importance is imposed when she repeats the stem of her sentences, creating a rhythm compelling to her audience. For instance, the utilisation of “she believed,” said over and over again introduces an idea, while the repeated phrase “I stand here,” puts it into motion. She wraps up her use of anaphoras with the powerful call for action: “I mean to say I want to see…” Repetition is used to stimulate emotion and solidarity in the audience. The word “family” is constantly used, reminding listeners that although they not …show more content…
Angelou wants to bring these people, these hearts and souls together in love to make King’s dreams a reality in this lifetime. After Angelou builds emotion by listing the ideals that King fought for, she delivers her climax:“This is what I want to see and I want to see it through my eyes and through your eyes, Coretta Scott King.” By repeating “through my eyes… through your eyes,” Maya Angelou shows the tie between herself and King-- their fight is one and the same. Her solidarity with King encourages others to stand by Coretta Scott King’s dream, even though she has passed on. Angelou finishes her eulogy just as she started it, singing, “I open my mouth to the Lord and I won’t turn back, no. I will go, I shall go. I’ll see what the end is gonna be.” The second time the verse is repeated, it takes on a different meaning. At the beginning, sung solemnly, the words suggest a soul going faithfully into the afterlife. After Angelou’s passionate cry for peace and justice in the world, the words are closer to a battlecry-- Angelou will finish what King could
For example, when a person in the store talked using their type of language: “‘I ain’t worried ‘bout this fight. Joe’s gonna whip that cracker like it’s open season. He gone whip him till that white boy calls him Momma’” (105). This shows the reader how the society felt when the fight was taking place and the type of language the African AMericans used during their daily lives. Also, there is an appeal to ethos when Maya talks about God: “True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end” (106). This shows credibility because this is how Maya Angelou felt as an African American. The style of diction that Maya Angelou conveys is to portray the way that African American people communicate threw one another and so the reader can have the sense of how the society was in the late
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most important voices of America, who used non-violent methods to fight for freedom and equality for all in his nation. On August 28th, 1969, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., King delivered his most iconic speech “I Have a Dream.” In this speech, repetition, ethos, pathos, and logos are used to persuade the audience about the importance of the Civil Rights Movement. To create the greatest demonstration for freedom, he used these literary devices to “dramatize a shameful condition” (“I Have a Dream”). Although his life was taken away, his legacy continues to live on today.
...fe she really knew and felt deep down to the core of her being what the words truly meant. The words had brought back her hope and pride in herself and in her community. What Leavy had said was a fallacy and they could as they have in the past rise above the world's bigotry. Righteousness returned to Angelou and the entire community; "we were on top again."(841).
“Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture”(www.mayaangelou.com, 2014).
Maya Angelou lived through a time where she was discriminated against for not only her race but also her gender. In her poem “Still I Rise” Angelou sarcastically talks about how no matter what is thrown at her she will rise above it and she will do it with resilience and confidence. Her poem discusses racism and sexism and gives minorities and women a sense of hope to overcome and endure both of those things. Angelou’s self-assurance in the poem makes you believe that you too can overcome whatever obstacle. Although this poem was intended for blacks, and women, and specifically black women, the poem helps build up strong and courageous people no matter what race or gender you are. Maya Angelou in “Still I Rise” uses both pathos and ethos to
In her autobiography, Maya Angelou tells the story of her coming into womanhood in the American South during the 1930s. She begins with the story of an incident she had on Easter Sunday in which she’s in church reciting a poem in front of everyone; however, she messes up leaving her unable to finish the poem, so she runs out of the church crying and wets herself. Growing up her parents had a rough marriage, and eventually they got a divorce when Maya was only 3 years old. Their parents send her and her older brother Bailey to live with their grandmother Mrs. Annie Henderson in Staples, Arkansas. Staples is a very rural area and their grandmother owns the only store in the black section of the town, so she is very respected amongst the people
Throughout life graduation, or the advancement to the next distinct level of growth, is sometimes acknowledged with the pomp and circumstance of the grand commencement ceremony, but many times the graduation is as whisper soft and natural as taking a breath. In the moving autobiographical essay, "The Graduation," Maya Angelou effectively applies three rhetorical strategies - an expressive voice, illustrative comparison and contrast, and flowing sentences bursting with vivid simile and delightful imagery - to examine the personal growth of humans caught in the adversity of racial discrimination.
Maya Angelou is a internationally respected, brilliant poet, and author. Maya Angelou says "In all my work I try to tell the human truth, what it is like to be human, what makes us stumble and somehow miraculously rise and go on from the darkness and into the light”. This theme is consistently exemplified throughout Angelou's greatly acclaimed poem ‘Still I rise’. The poem shows us the true life story of Maya Angelou's tragedies, and their dreadful conditions she had encountered in her youth. But in Angelou's poem, she escapes the night to go into the light, leaving all the hurt and shame to prosper in a new life she has created.
“Champion of the World” Review “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou is a true story of Joe Louis becoming champion of the world. Angelou describes how the fight took place through figurative language and strong, powerful words. Angelou switches from first person point of view to dialogue from the radio announcer and listeners to show the reader thoughts and feelings of people in the story. Maya Angelou captures the audience from the beginning of the story and makes them want to read until the end. One way the Angelou grabs the attention of the reader is by using figurative language.
She says, "Storm clouds are gathering / The wind is gonna blow / The race of man is suffering / And I can hear the moan" (28-31). These four lines are Angelou's way of telling the reader that she sees more and more people suffering and that it is affecting humans of all races.
In her first autobiography, Maya Angelou tells about her childhood through her graduation through, “Graduation”, from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” when she is about to graduate. She starts as an excited graduate because she was finally going to receive her diploma, a reward for all her academic accomplishments. On the day of her graduation finally comes, that happiness turns into doubt about her future as she believes that black people will be nothing more than potential athletes or servants to white people. It wasn’t until Henry Reed started to sing the Negro National Anthem that she felt on top of the world again. Throughout her graduation she felt excited to disappointed, until Henry Reed sang and made her feel better.
The joy of the upcoming days getting close-up to a special event of her 8th graduation from Lafayette County Training School in Stamps, Arkansas was the main focus of Maya Angelou’s “Graduation.” A young African American flourishing scholar waiting with excitement and hope for her graduation moment, and to began a new journey in the real world. Angelou implies her overall excitement into the conflicts of issues that shows a reflection of societal problems that still occur in today’s society. It emphasizes how people have to be strong in everyday life as Maya Angelou did with all circumstances; referring to racism. All Maya’s dreams, hopes and expectations to her graduation day were suddenly shut by a white politician man known as Mr. Edward
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” (Maya Angelou “Quotes”). Maya Angelou is an African American author who wanted the whole world to know who she was. Even though Maya Angelou’s life was full of disappointments and miseries, she still managed to rise above them all to become a successful poet. Racism played a really big role in Maya Angelou’s life. Maya Angelou witnessed slavery when she was very young and wished that someday all men will be free. Maya Angelou had many difficulties, and her family was one of them. None of her marriages worked out, and had a son to raise on her own.
I believe this is the theme because just by reading the title of her poem; “Still I Rise” i can tell its about a person who has faced many difficulties and has been ridiculed many times throughout her life and instead of giving up she decides to stay strong and continue to stand up even though the world is trying to push her down. Also another reason why i believe the theme of her poem is, “to never give up” because of her history. Maya Angelou is a Black- American who was born in the year of 1928. she has been discriminated throughout her life only being judged by the colour of her skin. Just as how Harriet Tubman was a black- Canadian who helped many slaves through the use of the underground railway as a escape path back to their native land, she has also suffered being discriminated by the use of words and in further cases, being abused. In that era African- American women were treated brutally and were always being pushed down and were not even treated like humans. They never got the respect they deserved and were treated like absolute disgrace just because of the colour of their skin. The theme of Maya Angelou’s poem is very significant because she was born during the generation where black people could not say what they wanted without others reacting with distraught and anger. Just by the title of the poem it tells us that no matter what difficulties we come across in our life we have to manage to stay strong and keep
Maya Angelou’s word choice in “Phenomenal Woman” is simple and dull, but it fits the poem perfectly once it is read. The words used in the poem are not powerful but it keeps you reading. It makes the readers a have different opinion on the poem. Also it makes the readers analyze what she is really trying to say. For example, in the poem Maya Angelou states “Men themselves have wondered, What they see in me. They try so much, But they can’t touch, My inner mystery.” It is a little confusing on what she is trying to say because of her word choice and the way the sentences are connected, but reading furthermore into the stanza, it begins to become more understanding. Then too, If she had used a different word choice the poem would not have been so intriguing. For example, if she would have said “Men don’t really understand my personality”, instead of “Men themselves have wondered, What they see in me.” then the readers would not have to put much attention into it and the theme would be completely different. Moreover, another example would be “ It’s the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I’m a woman Phenomenally’’. She uses simple phrases like “fire in my eyes”, “flash of my teeth”, “swing in my waist”, etc. to show the phenomenal woman she is. The word choice that Maya Angelou portrays in this poem, makes woman realize that