Maya Angelou Still I Rise Essay

African-American men and white men are born and raised within the continental U.S.; each of their own faculty empowered to change the social injustice of a society. The innate qualities of the African American do not compare to those of the white man, yet - “empowered” they are with character. The foundation for the concept –“character” is best defined as “holistic,” meaning of physical, mental and social qualities – A. Adler’s school of thought, as well as A. Maslow and C. Rogers’ thoughts –“[a]n equal human being… cognitive, emotional, and volitional” (Ambrus, 33 -34)

A race war between whites and blacks has blighted American history since colonial times. In her essay “Graduation,” Maya Angelou recollects the experience of her eighth grade graduation in the 1930s to examine the personal growth of humans caught in the adversity of racial discrimination. Through narrative structure, selection of detail, and use of imagery, Angelou encourages young blacks to follow their ambitions with pride, despite what the “white man” thinks of them.

The ballad still I rise is composed by Maya Angelou; an African American writer, instructor and social liberties extremist. The ballad's strict importance is a snide reaction towards the general population who look down on the speaker. To the storyteller, the sonnet figuratively depicts her quality to dependably survive the fight against individuals' feedback of her and her predecessors. All around, this ballad conveys the message of the human's fantastic quality and capacity to defeat hurt. In any case, the fundamental and most essential message this ballad gives is the storyteller's quality to counter against separation of races and sexual orientation; which offers seek after other people who experience the ill effects of a similar difficulty.

Using rhetorical questions with a combination of sarcastic diction and similes, laced with visual imagery, the speaker of “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou unapologetically mocks her audience’s desire to see her fail. By asking questions that do not expect or need an answer, such as, “Does my sassiness/sexiness upset you?” and, “Does my haughtiness offend you?” she ridicules her audience with her confidence and by not caring what their response is. Immediately, she then follows her rhetorical questions with phrases such as, “Don’t you take it awful hard,” “Does it come as a surprise” or “Why are you best with gloom,” which patronizes her audience by belittling their desire to see her “broken.” Cunningly, she utilizes her sarcastic nature by coating it with rhetorical questions and poignant visual imagery as a shield so that, “I rise/ Up from a past that’s rooted in pain” (Angelou).

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 is not ashamed of her ancestors dark past. Although she has to live through the repercussions of those who still do not respect people of color. She refuses to stay down. Angelou speaks for her fellow African American woman who do not have the courage like her to speak up on how they feel. She writes, “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” (21-24).

In “The Heart of a Woman” Angelou covers the late 1950s and early 1960s, a period in which black artists in the United States were increasingly addressing racial abuse and black liberation. In the book Angelou herself makes a decision to move away from show business in order to, as she describes it, "take on the responsibility of making people think. It was the time to demonstrate my own seriousness." She joined a group called the Harlem Writers Guild and in 1960 co-wrote the musical revue “Cabaret for Freedom”, which opened in New York City. Later that year she was asked by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to become northern coordinator for the then-fledgling civil rights organization he had helped found, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This section was interesting, She talked about a lot of important things in this

According to Erikson, there are four aspects of identity: religious, political, vocational, and sexual (Berger, 2011, p.434). As we experience Angelou’s autobiographical tale we encounter three important women who helped shaped those four aspects within her identity: Annie Henderson, Vivian Baxter, and Bertha Flowers. The following essay will analyze the impact made by Annie Henderson, Vivian Baxter, and Bertha Flowers on Erikson’s four aspects of identity: religious, political, vocational, and sexual.

Another exemplar of racism Angelou encounters is in the duration of working as a servant at the age of ten on the grounds that her employer deliberately pronounced Angelou’s name inaccurately. Angelou details her working conditions: “Ms.Cullian cried louder, “That clumsy nigger. Clumsy little black nigger … Was it Maya? … “Her name is Margaret, goddam it …” (Angelou 93). Ms. Cullians diction of hollering “nigger” and her not making any sort of exertion to articulately declare Angelou’s name is ridiculing the prejudice and the inhumane treatment African Americans were forced to be content with, and embellishing the social status in the 20th century as white as superior. Angelou also experienced discrimination in public facilities. One day Angelou had an prodigious toothache that was vital for expeditious care. When her grandmother escorted her to the dentist, ironically the only accessible dentist was a “white” dentist. The orthodontist responds to the request of attending an African American : “Annie, my policy is I’d rather stick my hand in a dog’s mouth than in a nigger’s” (Angelou

The 2016 documentary, Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, directed by Bob Hercules and Coburn Whack, is a captivating and touching film about poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou’s life and influence on American history. Angelou’s story presents the audience with the idea that history is more than just a series of political events, it is about individual hardships that help to construct American society. Angelou’s biography depicts the overwhelming amount of discrimination towards African-American people and the personal effects it has on minorities. The documentary strips down to the core of what history is made of: humankind.

The poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou sharply contrasts to the description of black people in Macomb country in To Kill a Mockingbird. The poem and the novel are about the same theme discrimination but it has different aspects. In the poem, Maya Angelou says “You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, you may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I’ll rise”(Stanza 1). In this poem Maya Angelou is discriminated and treated badly by the whites’ but she is still strong and confident about what she is doing. In To Kill a Mockingbird the black man, Tom Robinson is accused of raping white women (p.223).

Angelou takes us through many different periods of her life, and gives us a clear understanding of the situations that she has faced: “If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult” (4). She said that she was not only a victim of racism and sexism, but she felt displaced by her parents when the sent her to live with her grandmother; however, she overcame this obstacle. Her example teaches us about true strength and that we must stand by our views despite the opinions of

The poem "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou consists with seven powerful stanzas of four lines. it also offers mixture of tones: comical, angry and self assured. The poem is highly personal and political the speaker responds to a decades and even centuries of oppression in the first stanza the speaker says that the oppressors of a black women have view them throughout history by lies. Her tone seems highly significant the first kind of oppression she mention was "you may write me down in history with a bitter twisted lies" then the speaker goes on and mentions a powerful and motivated quote by saying "You may trod me in the very dirt but sill like dust, I'll rise" meaning that you will not push me me in the dirt for a long time and uses dust like metaphor "to describe them self like a dust rising in the air.

Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” is a lyrical-feminist poem, which she uses vivid imagery, metaphors, and repetition to portray the essential message that, “No matter the mistreatment or negativity she receives from her oppressors, she will still stand.” Maya Angelou is an African- American author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, singer, and civil rights activist. Angelou’s writing centered on the reflections of the experiences of African American women, oppression, and the inequality of sexes. Even today, her poetry influences the African American community and is a common referenced poet.

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.