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Analysis Of Still I Rise By Maya Angelou

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Maya Angelou interprets, in the poem “Still I Rise,” that she is disposed to speak up for herself, for other living African Americans, and for her black ancestors. This poem conveys the message of the human’s incredible strength and capability to conquer from suffering. The speaker is completely responding to decades and centuries of mistreatment and oppression. By looking at the context and studying the tone and imagery in the poem, readers can understand how Maya Angelou states that African American women face difficulties every day, but they should consistently be confident and have pride in who they are. One difficulty that African American women experienced was Slavery, and Maya Angelou reveals that she aspires to leave behind all effects of slavery and the history of oppression. The poem takes the reader on a trip back into time when, “during most of the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery was the law in every one of the thirteen colonies,” in which a slave was considered the property of the slaveholder (“Immigration”). Maya Angelou uses a serious tone by using imagery when she states that she is “the dream and the hope of the slaves,” which designates that this poem can be put in the time of slavery in the United States (40). Maya Angelou declares that she will not let “terror and fear,” affect her life and that she will overcome her difficult days and suffering “into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear” (Angelou 35, 37). She refuses to let the past intervene in her life from accomplishing all of her goals. The speaker uses repetition by stating, “I rise,” this indicates that she will continue to look forward regardless of how the past has been.
African American women experienced the civil rights movement, Bernard and Onwubiko state that people, especially men, did not want black women to rise up out of oppression of their society and succeed (57). The authors declare that “the freedom for black women and the poor generally in the Americas was transformed to encompass the notions of anti-imperialism, equal opportunity and justice,” which before in the decades, African American women did not have social, political economic and legal freedoms (Bernard and Onwubiko 59). Black women back then were not paid

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