Discrimination has always been a major problem in the world. Many people say that the world has changed and has gotten better, but the truth is that the problems are not always over. “Still I Rise”, by Maya Angelou encourages her readers to change the behavior and ignore others negativity to overcome people's biases. With being an African American in 1978 in the era of segregation, Maya Angelou bases her work to speak out about her experiences. In the first stanza, Angelou begins her poem with “You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies” (Angelou, 1-2). She expresses her confidence without fear of the past. “Written in 1978, "Still I Rise" is a poem of pride and protest in which the speaker says that despite the history …show more content…
“Does my sassiness upset you? / Why are you beset with gloom?” (Angelou, 5-6). The author manages to use her assertive self-confidence in an ironic way to bother the people that have discriminated against her. While she states her words directly to her situation with discrimination, Angelou puts enough emphasis to her poem to let the reader know that her statement can apply to any other circumstance a person is facing. “While her poems remind readers of past tragedies and injustices, overall they are a testimony to the power of striving to survive in life with dignity and grace” (Overview, 2). Maya may not be speaking as an emotionally damaged victim, but rather as a role model inspiring others to overcome their situations just as she did. The speaker continues to use her strength and resilience as an equality to natural forces. Maya Angelou is only a single voice in a crowd, but uses her assertiveness to hopefully overcome …show more content…
“Did you want to see me broken? / Bowed head and lowered eyes?” (Angelou, 13-14). Maya uses “you” in the poem addressing directly to racist people who have at one point offended her. She uses her self-confidence to assert back to them if they achieved the goal they desired. She continues to express herself once more with a natural earth process of teardrops. Beginning the sentence with “did” helped Maya state that they did not manage to achieve what they hoped for. Just like any other person does when someone attempts to intimidate you, you have to laugh to only make them a little angrier. When Maya says, “Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines / Diggin’ in my own back yard” (Angelou, 19-20), she uses her education as well as any other accomplishment she ever accomplished to laugh in the faces of those who disparage black people. Maya’s talent can offend those who are racist and she uses her pride and gift for poetry to act up stating to those that do not believe African Americans are equal, that they
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
She does a great job at using both of the appeals in “Still I Rise”. Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, an educator, and a poet. Maya Angelou’s constant use of “I” or “my” in her poem is her greatest use of ethos. This poem is her story so she is telling it from experience. For example, when Maya says “Does my sassiness upset you?” (Angelou 5) she draws in the audience by speaking of herself. She lets the audience know that this is a real thing. Another way that Angelou draws in her audience with ethos is when she says “Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.” (Angelou 39-40) That quote gives Maya Angelou credibility because she knows the hardships of slavery and racism because of her ancestors and culture. The second and most effectively used rhetorical device used is pathos. The entire poem draws in the audience emotionally, even from the first sentence. I believe she was so great at using pathos because it was from her heart. She lived through it, she went through the pain, and she overcame that pain. She was passionate about what she was writing and you could absolutely feel it just by reading it. A great example of pathos and one of my favorite “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise.” (Angelou 21-24) Maya’s use of words in this stanza appeals to the audience emotionally. While reading it, you feel like those things are directly happening to you. The other use of pathos that is effective is when she claims that she will rise. It appeals emotionally because it gives the audience hope, strength, and determination that they can rise. The more it’s repeated, the more effective it is. The more you say it, the more that she and the audience believe that it is true. The last example of how this poem appeals emotionally is when she says “Does my
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’s “Equality” depicts a more patient yet tenacious rebel than described in Dunbar’s poem. “You declare you see me dimly”, she begins, “through a glass that will not shine.” Maya describes the denial of her boldness, of her rebellion; but, she continues to march, chanting “Equality and I will be free. Equality and I will be free.” She identifies herself as a shadow, unimportant to those she opposes— but she intends to repeat the mantra “Equality and I will be free” until she is heard. The sixth stanza left me in literal tears (and I am not an emotional person, thank you very
Humans consistently make comparisons between themselves and the next person, over fashion, cars, jobs, the nation they belong to, religion, and the land they own. All of these are material things, yet their egos divide them into groups who feel superior to the other in order to pride themselves. Pride can be beneficial, but it has more detrimental effects than positive ones, as pride and ego make people feel more important to others, spark rivalries between groups such as how nationalism influences war and hatred, and caused white people to treat the black community as an inferior people such as in Maya Angelou’s memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In this deeply frustrating yet inspiring text we follow Maya Angelou’s emotional roller coaster as she gains more confidence and pride in both herself and her race despite extensive setbacks such as being raped at eight years old, and she explains her
Maya Angelou was one of America’s greatest writers in history. She was known for her many writings and for her part in Civil Rights Movements. Maya Angelou went through many hardships during her childhood, the most prevalent of those, racism over her skin color. This racism affected where she grew up, where she went to school, even where she got a job. “My education and that of my Black associates were quite different from the education of our white schoolmates. In the classroom we all learned past participles, but in the streets and in our homes the Blacks learned to drops s’s from plurals and suffixes from past tense verbs.” (Angelou 221) Maya Angelou was a strong believer in a good education and many of those beliefs were described in her
... all audiences can face their personal hardships. No matter the color of your skin or gender, Maya Angelou’s works are timeless testaments to the potential of the human spirit to overcome adversity, and constant reminders that even if the world is against us, we must still rise.
In Maya Angelou’s first published autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, in 1970, she focuses in on the concept of black skin, and the emotions and fears that come along with it. Caged Bird begins, it opens with a symbolic presentation expressing Angelou’s fears as a little girl being stared at in church by the whites in society who looked down on the people of colored skin. Further, Jon Zlotnik Schmidt of American Writers separates this introduction as one of the several, in which Maya Angelou feels abused because she is a black child, and sees herself as an outcast in all of society(American Writers IV 2). Throughout Caged Bird, Angelou remains displaced as being a racist in society.
Rising Up in Still I Rise by Maya Angelou ? Still I Rise? by Maya Angelou is directed towards blacks on how to be proud of their ancestry, themselves, and their overall appearance. The poem is a special and motivating poem that African-Americans (and other races for that matter) should read and take to heart. According to African-Americans, Maya Angelou states that no matter what white Americans (slave owners) say or do to African-Americans (slaves) they can still rise up to make a better life for themselves and their race as a whole.
Within the poem we also see the usage of onomatopoeia, this is where the author uses words to imitate sounds, some of the words used to imitate sounds within the poem are, ‘history’, ‘twisted’ ‘dust’, the author is trying to give us the feeling of what it would have been like living in the real world of racism. Angelou also makes good use of rhymes and the frequent asking of rhetorical questions such as ‘Does my sassiness upset you’. Maya is asking the question for which she does not expect an answer because she already knows the answer, but rather she is making a statement. Another language factor used are the similes ‘Just like hopes springing high’. This suggests the simile of nature which is used to describe oppression which also tells us that oppression will not last forever.
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 and Oodgeroo Noonuccal in their poems ‘Still I Rise’ and ‘We are going’ explore the scandalous nature of discrimination and expose the reasons for its need to be challenged. Where Angelou explores the nature of discrimination in the context of a defiant African American woman in her free verse poem, Noonuccal , in contrast, exposes the anguish of continued prejudice and the annihilation of her Indigenous community after European settlement. ‘Still I Rise’ commences with Angelou’s narrator challenging white men, their discrimination and oppression. Taunting them at each step she refuses to permit its acceptance or tolerance. In contrast, Noonuccal describes and challenges the impending annihilation of her Indigenous community at the hands of white men.
Her poems speak to racism, discrimination, and many different kinds of struggles. I can remember a quote of Angelou’s that I used in writing my senior legacy paper, “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by these.” In a way, her works helped me to better accept that challenges that I encountered in high school. While I understand that my life does not
“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).
Every line in the poem has an underlining meaning related to being phenomenal. Maya Angelou begins the poem with, “Pretty women wonder were my secret lies. / I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model size / But when I start to tell them, / They think I’m telling lies” (Line 1-4). The use of alliteration makes the reader’s interpretation of the poem have a deeper meaning. Angelou’s words interpret that a woman’s size, shape, and appearance does not contribute to the opinions people may have against them, but to how they think of themselves. Angelou allows the reader to develop an understanding that a person’s inner beauty tells a lot about a person and the confidence they possess within. She states, “It’s in the reach of my arms, / ...