Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was a poet whose life mirrored the lives of many oppressed people throughout history. Angelou, a Civil Rights activist, advocated during the time of the Civil Rights Movement to raise the resources that allowed Martin Luther King Jr. to arrange the movements against the cruelty of the Jim Crow Laws and she protested along with others calling for an end to racism according to John Nichols (3). Angelou often focused on the oppressor in her literary works and was able to relate to the lives of those who struggled to be seen and heard in society. Angelou wrote poetry to express her emotions about how hard oppressed people, especially African Americans, were fighting for justice and equality. Angelou’s use of repetition, personal pronouns, and symbolism in “Still I Rise”, “No, No, No, No”, and “On The Pulse of Morning” respectively illustrate the determination that oppressed people possessed during their fight against inequality throughout history.

Throughout her life, Maya Angelou was ridiculed for the color of her skin and was treated differently because of it. So many racist people lived in her town and used her and the black community as a doormat. African Americans were restricted to certain things and, “did not have the same rights and privileges as whites” (Agins 8). Racism was a big problem in Maya Angelou’s childhood, especially when she was eight. When Angelou was eight she helped her grandmother run the main store in Stamps. Momma rented out the house on the lot of her store to a poor white family. The girls would come by the store and demand things from Momma and Maya and would have to be addressed as “Miz”. One day when they went to walk up the steps they saw Momma standing on the porch with arms crossed and slippers on and started imitating her. Maya was infuriated and wanted to hurt the girls but Momma taught Maya to let it roll off her back, seeing as though racism would be a continuous thing throughout her life (Angelou 29-32). Maya felt that, “Being a product (is ‘victim’ a better word?) of southern Negro upbringing, I decided that I ‘would understand it all better by-and-by’” (Angelou 276). Angelou found it easier to be brought up through a segregated area where she was taunted and walked all over just for being black daily rather than finding it out later in life.

An example of Maya facing racism is during her eighth grade graduation. Maya was so excited to graduate. The school she attended enrolled both whites and blacks. First of all during the assembly the blacks had to recite their own national anthem titled “ The Negro National Anthem”. The principal gave a speech the the students and instead of treating the kids equal, he proudly stated the new achievements the whites were going to have, and

Maya Angelou is one of the most distinguished African American writers of the twentieth century. Writing is not her only forte she is a poet, director, composer, lyricist, dancer, singer, journalist, teacher, and lecturer (Angelou and Tate, 3). Angelou’s American Dream is articulated throughout her five part autobiographical novels; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in my Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas, The Heart of a Woman, and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes. Maya Angelou’s American Dream changed throughout her life: in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya’s American dream was to fit into a predominantly white society in small town

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

The world we live in today is full of religious conflicts. From Islamic terrorism, to church shootings, to immigration laws based on religion, the world is full of religious strife. Maya Angelou lives in a different sort of religious struggle. Whether it is an internal struggle with her emotions, or an external struggle with the demons that plague society, she battles her entire life to overcome these problems. As a youth, she is forced not only to accept religion, but to abide by it.

Maya Angelou’s tumultuous childhood in the South and the struggles that come with being black are the basis for her autobiographies such as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Through her rich, insightful literature she is able to record the black experience and ultimately the black struggle. She “[is] always talking about the human condition – about what we can endure, dream fail at and still survive.”(Matzu 23) Angelou’s early life was full of hardships; making her strong and ready to fight for her rights. As a young child she, along with her brother Bailey and their parents, moved from her birth place St. Louis to Long Beach. After her parents struggles there, she and Bailey were shipped off to Stamps, Arkansas; the starting point for

The piece is profoundly optimistic and inspiring. Considering our current socio-political moment, many could reflect on Angelou’s work. Upon reflection readers could gain a sense of unity, togetherness, and flexibility from her inspiring piece. Many minorities have been experiencing discrimination and racism for a long time in this country.

Maya Angelou had a traumatic childhood filled with sad events that left an impact on her for her writing career to develop. She faced racism as a child being a young black girl living in San Francisco during the time of war and heavy racism she stuck our everywhere: “she wasn’t a white girl with long blonde hair. As she remembered that she was a girl with dark skin, a gap between her teeth, and kinky hair” (“Maya Angelou” 24). She was also being beat by her father’s girlfriend and ran away to live in a junkyard for a month with other misfits who struggled as well. At the age of seven and a half, she was raped and hospitalized by her mother’s boyfriend. He went to jail and when he got realized he was kicked to death by her uncles. Angelou felt the murder was her fault so she stopped talking for five years. During this time of not speaking she read every book in the

Initially, Maya Angelou’s poems left me conflicted. They are a testament to her frequent themes of African American history “and now I’ll tell you my Golden Rule I don’t mind work but I ain’t no mule”, love “love, by nature, exacts a pain unequaled on the rack”, painful loss, overcoming hardships, perseverance and most assuredly holding on to hope “just like hopes springing high”. As a caucasian girl living in a relatively affluent suburb in comfort, I feel such gratitude for the gifts I’ve been granted, but I also have guilt. Maya Angelou’s poetry reminds me of my opportunities and my own strength to make a change in the world; “but still like life I rise”. This poetry sample is most often targeted toward African

She speaks not only for herself but also for her gender and race. “This extension of self occurs in Angelou’s autobiographies and protest poetry. It is in keeping with a traditional practice of black writers to personalize their common racial experiences” (McGeagh 28). The ‘I” of Angelou’s refrain is obviously female and, in this instance, a woman forthright about the sexual nuances of personal and social struggle. Maya Angelou has been very involved with the civil rights movement. In her poems she really captures an incredible sense of momentum, vitality, and hope. She states that these experiences are “so important for me in my life that it must come through in my work” (McGeagh 5). Her writing attempts to capture and preserve the determining forces, vicissitudes, and ambiance of her own life story and of the ongoing African-American story, which helped to shape her and which she reflects and illuminates. “Abandoned by both her parents when they divorced, Angelou early experienced the twin forces that would determine the contour of her life and the nature of her career: personal rejection and institutional racism” (McGeagh

If racism and discrimination are the most prevalent themes, then Maya’s less than standard self image is the closest second in this narrative. With the fact that only two years prior Maya had been molested and raped in mind, which is an inarguable factor in determining her self worth, the negativity must stem from somewhere. The negativity arose from what her society makes her believe about the way she looks. The general belief hold by the African American people, children at least, is that the lighter their skin, the straighter their hair and the brighter their eyes, the more beautifully they are viewed. Maya strove to resemble “sweet little white girls” because that is what the discrimination against her race told her, that little white girls are “everybody’s dream” (Angelou 2). She becomes envious of those that do fulfill, or come close to fulfilling her idealistic dream. For example, Maya compares herself to the daughters of Mr. Cullinan and his mistress. Angelou describes the Cullinan girls as if their physical beauty is her life’s unattainable goal. This truth is proven to the

She was a black woman in the South, and grew up during the harsh times of racism during the 20’s and 30’s. When Maya was younger, she faced discrimination everywhere she went. Maya was ashamed of for not having white skin and blonde hair by certain kids. Even Maya’s mother was discriminated against by the same kids, which hurt Maya because this was the main person who she looked up to, longed for, and wanted to be someday. As they said in Role-Playing as Art in Maya Angelou’s

She portrays each detail of her suffering in a way that people of every race can understand. Whether it be Joe Louis winning heavyweight championship, moving to St. Louis, or the strong relationship with her brother, Maya Angelou finds a way to trace it back to the causes and effects of her race. The setting creates a model of differences in prejudice around the country, symbols lie hidden in everything she experiences to provide a deeper meaning that is understandable, and the way she explains each characteristic of the discussion between two sides help in realizing the level of her bias. Maya Angelou is surely an author worthy of her dignity, and in her novel she contributes an astonishing message to the society of racism that exists within

Besides the obvious racial tension present, Maya loved her life and family. However, her considerably smooth life was shaken up when her eloquently spoken, estranged father showed up suddenly to take his children to Chicago. Maya was unsettled by her new city life and living arrangements with her biological mother’s and multiple-person family. Her mother was so beautiful,