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Maya angelou essay papers
Maya angelou essay papers
Brief history of maya angelou
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Dr. Maya Angelou is an influential poet, author and historian. Becoming one of the greatest poets of our time was not an easy task for Dr. Angelou she had to overcome a few obstacles starting with attending a segregated school, and facing racial discrimination. Being an African American attending Lafayette Training School, a school that sat on a dirt hill with no lawn, tennis courts, and fence limiting the boarding farmers surrounding the school educators expected Angelou and her fellow classmates to not do great things in life. According to a speech given at her 1940 graduation they were “maids and farmers, handymen and washerwomen” (p.84) and anything higher that they aspired to was farcical and presumptuous. Causing her to feel angry but
those expectations were different from the expectations Dr. Angelou and her fellow students had for one another, they wanted the freedom to go and make a difference in life regardless of their race spoken by Patrick Henry at the graduation “I know not what course others may take, but as for me give me liberty or give me death.” (p.86) once the final speech was given by Henry Reed Maya “To Be or Not to Be” Angelou and her classmates had the courage needed to conquer the world.
Maya Angelou is one of the well-respected African-American women figures. Maya is a poet, actress, civil right activist, dancer, singer, writer, educator, and a director. Maya’s real name is Marguerite Johnson. Maya was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. Maya’s parents divorced when she was three. She was sent to live with her brother and grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. She was very close to her brother Bailey and her brother named her Maya. When she lived in Arkansas, she experienced discrimination towards African-American. At the age of seven Maya was sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend. “She only told her brother,” but a few days later her uncle has murdered the man who assaulted her. She thought her words have killed
Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. In her early years, Angelou was an author, screenwriter, actress, dancer and poet. Her and her brother had a difficult childhood as her parent’s split up when she was young and they were relocated to live with their paternal grandmother in Arkansas. It is in Arkansas where Angelou experienced the true horrors of her childhood. Along with encountering racial prejudices and discrimination, Angelou dealt with feelings of abandonment and rejection, which stemmed from her parents lack of presence in her life. However, the worst of Angelou’s childhood came at age seven, when her mother’s boyfriend raped her. He was later murdered in response to the sexual assault. The assault itself
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
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 went from living in a place where the religious and pious were the ones who garnered respect, to an environment in which gamblers, hustlers, prostitutes, and gangsters were the ones who held the power. I too had a similar experience when I moved from my quiet hometown to the big city when I was eight years old. I learned quickly, as Maya did, that the more diverse aspects of life I was able to experience, the more well rounded a person I could become. I could also relate, in many aspects, to the part of the story in which Maya and her brother attend a non-segregated high school in California, until at 16 years old Bailey, gets his own apartment. Subsequently, Maya is forced to spend the summer with her father and his malicious girlfriend, Dolores, in a trailer park. After an argument with Delores comes to blows, Maya runs away from home and vows to make it on her own. I too had a brother that moved away from home at an early age, and I have experienced problems with stepfamilies for most of my life. Though my experiences have never reached the tragic depths that Maya’s did, I can unremittingly sympathize with her plight and empathize with her pain.
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.
During the late 1950's and early 60's, a movement arose called the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement made great strides in ending racial segregation and inequality. One of the greatest and most influential figures in the Civil Rights Movement was Maya Angelou. She has lived an eventful life, working as a poet, author, teacher, playwright, actor, a strong mother, and an influential human rights activist. The stories she wrote about her experience have made the people who read them feel strong and motivated. Her influential poems and stories and her activism in human rights had a role in changing the world, in terms of ending racial segregation and the progression of the Women's Rights Movement.
The early 1930’s a time where segregation was still an issue in the United States it was especially hard for a young African American girl who is trying to grow and become an independent woman. At this time, many young girls like Maya Angelou grew up wishing they were a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. That was just the start of Angelou's problems though. In the autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou goes into great depth about her tragic childhood, from moving around to different houses, and running away and having a child at the age of 16. This shows how Maya overcame many struggles as a young girl.
The graduation scene from I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings illustrates how, living in the midst of racism and unequal access to opportunity, Maya Angelou was able to surmount the obstacles that stood in her way of intellectual develop and find "higher ground." One of the largest factors responsible for Angelou's academic success was her dedication to and capacity for hard work, "My work alone has awarded me a top place...No absences, no tardinesses, and my academic work was among the best of the year" (Angelou 13-14). Angelou worked hard and read a great deal in order to be able to perform on such a level, in spite of the fact that she had much less access (or none) to the quality of teachers, school environment and other resources available to whites because of her color.
Final question Maya Angelou was asked Has being a black woman been a blessing? Yes very very much she said, hearing the music, the music of the black language. It’s the it is spoken she says, its like a melody, it’s so fetching, so delicious. It’s like the way people speak now or act interest her very much, it seems like she like to compare the way it used to be to the way it is now. Maya Angelou is a very inspirational woman she has been through so much in her life, to where she has become such a successful woman.
Maya Angelou grew up and was born in the state of Louis, Missouri. She was a Daughter of two hard-working parents, named Bailey Johnson who was the main provider and worked as a doorkeeper and Vivian Johnson who was a nurse. Eventually, her parents were divorced just when she turned three years old. At a young age, her brother Bailey that was eight years and herself and their grandmother were living in a very small town called Stamps in Arkansas where she absorbed much religious faith and would have to wear old-fashioned courtesy due to the old traditional African American lifestyle. In her early childhood years, Maya Angelou was raised with her brother Bailey during in the racially segregated South by her paternal grandmother. She earned a scholarship to a drama school.
Maya Angelou: Strength of the Human Spirit “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty,” [are the famous words of former author, singer, dancer, and poet, Maya Angelou. This famous role model has won many awards, including two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work category, achieved many goals by becoming an activist, and left many marks on the world in her various poems, stories, and biographies. She was beyond successful and carried out a career like no other. Not only has she lived what most people would call an amazing life, but she worked her way towards it using every pound of her strength in doing so. ] Maya Angelou was, without a doubt, one of the
Maya Angelou grew up in an urban environment. Many say this influenced her writing greatly. Angelou expressed many things in her writing. Often times her stories and poems relate to the discrimination that was going on right her own hometown. We are shown the awful things that were going on. Riots would occur often as would segregation. Maya wrote about all of the discrimination going on in our world. Even if her writing was not completely direct, it taught many to be more aware of what was going on, which was exactly what she wanted. It was Maya Angelou’s dream to live The American Dream, freedom. She spent her whole life trying to accomplish this and lived to a day where she was able to see this. As her life went on she was able to see the
“In the stamps the segregation was so complete that most Black children didn’t really, absolutely know what whites looked like. Other than that they were different, to be dreaded, and in that dread was included the hostility of the powerless against the powerful, the poor against the rich, the worker against the worked for and the ragged against the well dressed” (Angelou 25). These two sentences set the premise for the rest of the book and really for Angelou’s life as a whole and how her opportunities would be shrouded by segregation. As a result of the time period that Maya Angelou grew up in, her skin color affected major components of her life, this influence is showcased as racism
There are events and past experiences in Angelou’s life that play a major role in her poems and writings. Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri with divorced parents. At the age of three Angelou and her older brother Bailey, were sent to live with their grandmother in Arkansas (“Maya,” Academy). At the age of seven, while visiting her mother young Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend: “Too ashamed to tell any adults she confided