Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou once said “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated” and this phrase speaks volume in comparison to Angelou’s life story. She was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. The name Maya was given to her by her older brother, Bailey Jr. Maya Angelou is not only a sister, but also an inspirational role model, a mother, an author, a poet, a civil rights activist, and an actor. In 1969 Angelou’s world renowned book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was first published. Within the book, she speaks on her early life as an insecure young black girl who had to grow up in Southern America in the 1930s and later in California during the 1940s. Written over and over in a multitude of history books, black history still remains in the shadow of being a horrific story that Africans and decedents of Africans had to endure. Angelou’s autobiography is a testimony to first-hand witness accounts of the social injustice people of color had to experience. Within Angelou’s book, she shows her strength and inner will to do better. Along with early life, Angelou also speaks on her resistance against racism during her life in both Southern America and California. Angelou’s resistance is not the only one noticed during this time though. Many other African Americans also resisted racism by installing fear in those of the “superior race”, demanding respect by vocalizing voices of the unheard, and as well as moving forward to desegregation

Maya Angelou’s poetry challenges the reader to take ownership of the issues they face by changing their perspective. Angelou uses figurative poetic form combined with accessible language to allow an immersive interpretive reading of her poetry. This enables the theme of individual empowerment in ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ and strength through unity utilised in ‘Alone’ to apply to a wider audience from a range of contexts. The emancipation Angelou offers in her poetry is heavily driven by the belief that an individual has the power to change their circumstances. Despite living in a 1950s America where she was subjugated for being part of the African American community, Maya Angelou’s poetry maintains its relevance today due to the focus she places on the emotional realm and its importance over the physical experience. Angelou uses widespread exposure by using her own experiences of racial oppression to relate to those who have felt any sort of inequality, which in turn intensifies the effect of her poetry on the target audience.

Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” was published in 1978 at one of the most productive and successful periods of Angelou’s career. “Still I Rise” tells about bouncing back and rising up past oppression and hate. The speaker in Angelou’s poem talks to a direct audience, asking them questions, announcing to them that no matter what they do, she will always rise back up. The poem is broken up into quatrains, although the last two stanzas use the repetition of the phrase “I rise” between the complete lines. The author uses figurative language in every stanza of her poem and uses similes and metaphors to create imagery and to get the tone and the theme of the poem across to the reader. Angelou uses figurative language to convey the message of resilience and succeeding even through hatred.

Maya Angelou, named at birth, Marguerite Johnson was on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her and her family moved from St. Louis to Stamps, Arkansas, where she was raised growing up. Maya Angelou was an American author, dancer, screenwriter, actress, poet and civil rights activist. Angelou gained a majority of her fame with the memoir she wrote in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This memoir made literary history as being the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. Angelou received many awards and honors throughout her entire career. These awards included two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009. Angelou became one of the most legendary and influential

In stanza four Maya Angelou asks a series of rhetorical questions in lines thirteen and fourteen. She knows that people want to see her broken, weak and crying from the criticism and hateful words that have been said to her. She not only had to deal with criticism from being an African-American in a time when whites did not accept them into their society but also dealing with the fact that she was an African-American woman. During the fifties women were expected to marry and be a helping hand around the house. They were not expected to be in the working field. Just imagine how hard it had to be to make as an African-American women trying to achieve her goals. But she refuses to show how difficult it was through her emotion she just rises above it.

When you see me passing it ought to make you proud”(Angelou). This quote makes you imagine a woman who is not trying to seek attention from others, even though people stop to stare and look. People wonder who she is and what she does. Maya Angelou has strong poetry with a little of imagination you can figure out what she is trying to say in her poem although it does require some thinking.

Perhaps the reason that Maya’s poetry has had such a lasting impact on Americans is because of her poems such as ‘Caged Birds’ and ‘Still I Rise’ that demonstrate the issues that African – Americans faced, which she has done through the power of her words. She also challenges the readers with the theme of oppression that is carried out through her pomes as she felt very strongly about it by being surrounded by it her entire life. Maya Angelou has left an everlasting mark by influencing the society through her poems by inspiring others to persist towards their goals and dreams with strength and pride. Overall, Maya Angelou’s work can be attributed to the fact that her personal and cultural experiences of power have not been forgotten by overcoming adversity and oppression, which is clearly reflected in her inspiration body of work seen

The collection contains a voice that recognizes its own power and themes of determination to “rise above discouraging defeat” (Neubauer). Fitting with this standard, Maya Angelou presents a confident and self-assured speaker in “Phenomenal Woman.” Carol E. Neubauer states that this poem “captures the essence of womanhood and at the same time describes the many talents of the poet herself” (Neubauer). This hints at the fact that the speaker of the poem may be Maya Angelou herself, but the message, recognizing and being proud of one’s own feminine beauty, can be universal among all women. In fact, much of the foundation behind Maya Angelou’s poetry can be traced back to African-American oral traditions. Angelou has said that, "Once I got into it, I realized I was following a tradition established by Frederick Douglass—the slave narrative—speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning 'we’ And what a responsibility. Trying to work with that form, the autobiographical mode, to change it, to make it bigger, richer, finer, and more inclusive in the twentieth century has been a great challenge for me" (Poetry). This poem is an example of using the first-person singular to mean the first-person plural. When the speaker says “me,” she is speaking words of empowerment for all women. The speaker does this by complimenting

Angelou had been raped at a young age and she believed that her voice “killed a man.” Ever since that incident, Angelou handled the situation by stopping to speak for five years. Mrs.Flowers, her neighbor, invited her over several times and read poems to Angelou because she loved to read. Angelou heard poetry for the first time and began to enjoy it. Soon, she spoke a line from one of the poems that she memorized and she started to express emotions. She realized that people perceive words differently when they hear them out

The Life and Accomplishments of Maya Angelou “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud” (brainyquote). This quote by Angelou basically summarizes a good majority of the themes of Angelou’s poems. Angelou was, in fact, an inspiration or “a rainbow” (brainyquote) to many. Angelou wrote to express herself; she believed if she was going to write about something, it was important (Noah Charney The Daily Beast). Angelou’s childhood experiences played an important role in her poems and books.

Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson, the author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” details her coming of age experience. Maya faces the ever rampant oppression in the deep south which impacted her dearly in her childhood. She lives in the lower class and wasn’t given many opportunities to succeed. In the duration of this paper I will explain how Maya Angelou was effected by racial differences and her socioeconomic position and how she used them to mold her.

Maya Angelou was a phenomenal writer. In her novel, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, she wrote about the situations that she experienced from childhood to adulthood. In the novel, she expressed that she experienced racism at a very young age. Maya talks about the fact that she had to live on one side of town with the black people, and white people lived on the other side. As a child she had the idea that straight, blonde hair was beautiful. In the story she says, “Wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream,

This is the world in which Maya Angelou grew up. She was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. In the sixties, at

At the end of every line Maya Angelou says that she will rise. The repetition is important in showing that no matter what comes against her she will still rise. She has learned to fight to stay happy. Even through all the adversity’s she faces she can still stay happy. The repetition of the phrase throughout the poem help signify its importance to the author. While saying that nothing can bring her down she is also saying that she will overcome adversities and rise

In this poem Maya Angelou talks about strength and her self confidence. She states how nobody hatred can bring her down or change her smile. She states how people that hate are offended by her happiness.