Maya Angelou

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

n American history, racial inequality has been a prevalent issue for many decades. Slavery is America's original sin. In the 1930s, racial inequality and segregation lived and breathed well. At this point in time, segregation in schools and other public places was still present. For preposterous reasons, white and black people had separate water fountains, restaurants, rest rooms, and areas on the bus. During this time full of racism and racial inequality, Maya Angelou was just a little girl growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis is a town in the South, like many others, had inequalities at the time. In 1938 Maya Angelou was only ten years old. At this age, she worked for a lady named Mrs. Viola Cullinan. Maya Angelou wrote briefly about her time spent working for Mrs. Cullinan in her short story “Mary.” Maya Angelou's’ use of vivid, direct characterization and alternating childish voice to mature adult narrative diction filtered through her authentic first person point of view helps to prominently establish the theme of Angelou’s distaste for racial inequality throughout the short story.

As a child she didn 't feel too much animosity coming from white people, but always knew everything always had to be separate. “Whites lived on the town’s small rise (it couldn 't be a called a hill), while black lived in what had been called known since slavery as “the Quarters.”(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.

Louis. The man who assaulted her was her mother boyfriend, who was later found dead. He was “kicked to death” the same night of the incident (Bloom 3). The incident concluded with five years of silence for Maya (Eller, 2). Maya’s rape incident was compared to the suffering of the African American community in the South during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Edward Eller, an assistant professor of English at Northeast Louisiana University writes that; “Just as the child had to give in to her rapist because she has no choice but to endure and survive, the blacks had no choice” (Eller, 2). The fight for Maya to fulfill her American Dream of finding a home, and being accepted into American society goes hand in hand with the fight for civil rights for the African American society. Eller states that Angelou’s voice through her literature showed African Americans that they could overcome racism and segregation; “Because Angelou shows us we can do more than endure. We can Triumph” (Eller, 2). Young Angelou along with the blacks in the South were looking for a place to call home, together they searched for a place where they belonged, were they fit in.

Maya Angelou, an African-American woman, wrote the poem, “Still I Rise,” in 1978 when racism was still prominent. Maya Angelou was reaching out to a racist community to prove oppression will not bring her down. Angelou brings up topics of what she and every other African-American person has to endure when living in their communities, and how they feel. She also brings up topics of oppression and marginalization throughout this speech to state that she will continue to rise up above it. Maya Angelou utilizes rhetorical questions, hateful diction, as well as, similes and metaphors to prove to others that she, and other African-American’s will rise against the racism and oppression they face.

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.

The memoir written by Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is a personal and ultimately reflective narrative that presents readers a slew of scenarios fueled by racism and racist people. It brings to light the life and upbringing of an African American girl who is plagued with the knowledge that her people are constant victims of prejudice; all while she struggles within herself over her image and very identity. Many reminders of both ailments are placed throughout the book using a literary device that Angelou excels at, her diction. Utilizing her diction, Maya Angelou is able to portray this society along with herself candidly in Chapter 16 to expose the normalcy of racism and discrimination, the effects it had on her self image

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.

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

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 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

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.

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

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, is an autobiographical work with fictional elements of Angelou’s life. It tells the story of Marguerite, or more affectionately known as Maya, living in the racist climate of America in the 1960’s. The prevalence of racism in Stamps, Arkansas seemed greater than any other state in the country at that time. With Maya being a black, young girl in the South, she felt that she had drawn the short straw in life. She often found herself believing that she was born in the wrong body, and fantasized about having pale skin with long, flat, and blond hair. Maya and her brother, Bailey, were dropped off in Stamps by their parents to live with their grandmother, Momma. Momma is the lady one would pictures when they think of an old, black, southern,Christian mother. Momma was one of the richest people in the black community because she owned the local convenience store, and she was respected by all because she was stern and fair at the same time. The only person Maya loved above Momma was Bailey, who she would consider her closest comrade and partner and crime.