Maya Angelou Influences

Maya Angelou is terrific performer, singer, filmmaker, and civil-rights activist. She is a phenomenal woman, one thing that she does best is writing. She is still living today, I believe her legend will never die. If one would talk to her, he or she would think she has lead a normal, happy life. Her life is blissful now, it was not always perfect. Maya beard enough emotional stress in a time frame that most people do not experience in a lifetime. Her experiences and the lessons learned encouraged her to help others become strong. Maya Angelou is one of the best examples of someone overcoming rape, being mute for several years, and having a child at a young age to achieve success of becoming an accomplished

Since a young age Maya Angelou has experienced racism from the children around her. It is strenuous for Maya growing up because she feels as if she does not belong. From a young age to adulthood Maya had to go through racism and segregation due her skin color. There was a group of young boys, around Maya’s age, saying rude comments towards Maya because she was black: “Boys? It seemed that youth had never happened to them.

Maya Angelou was the woman of many artistic gifts and talents. She had several different careers in the performing arts including creative writing, dancing, and acting. She really wasn’t raised by her birth parents, but she had learned to accept what her parents did for her brother and her. Somehow through all that she has been through she made a way out of a way that almost seemed impossible. So please give me the honor of giving you the honor of sharing her life story and telling about her road to success.

Maya Angelou has inspired me in more ways than one, and I had to write about her. When Maya speaks people listen. She has this wisdom that only few have, especially when life wasn’t always great. She turned tragedy into triumph, and helped others in doing so. So, Maya has proven too many women, especially black women that you succeed, even if you have had a child in your teen years. She’s proof that with determination nothing is unattainable.

“Pursue the things you love doing, then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” (Brainy quotes) Words have great strength and power, she had wonderful insights. Maya was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize during the 1970’s. “On the Pulse of Morning”, she wrote for Bill Clinton’s presidency ceremony in January

Maya Angelou utilises her passionate style to send a clear message and to create an empowering response within her audience. Through her use of imagery, figurative language, diction and repetition, she creates an uplifting tone of proud defiance

Who is she and why is she important? Maya Angelou was an articulate, imaginative, courteous, lively collection of chapters and stanzas all wrapped up in a powerful, intelligent, successful, beautiful woman. Angelou was a world renowned author, actress and teacher who inspired millions. She possessed the capabilities to connect to the heart with her voice and her life experiences. She traveled and aided people across the world through her books, speeches and poems. She was

Maya Angelou, author, performer, and leader, is an inspiration to various people across the world. She fought for equality between men, women and segregation. Angelou experienced many hardships including abandonment and abuse throughout her childhood.

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 is a phenomenal woman. She rises through all things that come her way and she refuses to back down. Angelou chose at a very young age to be a writer and a role model for many people. She believes that everyone should be treated equally and that the world should come together as a unity. Angelou had many careers but is known mostly for her poetic creations. She has come a long way from where she started and I think anyone can agree with me when I say, she has made us all proud with her accomplishments. Angelou writes poetry to inform and encourage others to carry on through the worst of times. She is a strong, confident, inspirational woman and I am more than honored to be doing my senior paper on her.

Her poems speak about the turmoil our world is in. She encourages us to love, love, and love. (Source card #4)      In her poem "Human Family", Angelou says, "We are more alike, my friends, then we are unlike." Maya's poems, which include "Equality" and "These yet to be United States", show the pain of humanity and the ignorance of the world. My favorite poem "Phenomenal Woman" shows what it's like to be a woman now a days. "I think the most impressive thing about Maya Angelou's poetry is that it is purely honest.

The poem speaks out to women as far as of where they are in society. The poem reminds women that they are filled with beauty and strength and they should love themselves for who they are. "I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size," says Angelou. In this poem, she doesn't spare the painful details of blacks. Instead, she gives them hope (Cookson). Every woman should be filled with joy, confidence, and wisdom in her as well to challenge the stereotypes of what makes a phenomenal woman. Just like "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", Maya again not only writes about the discrimination of blacks, but about all women. "When we hear this poem, we listen to ourselves" (Sylvester). Surrounded by music her whole life, like a blues singer, Angelou sings the suffering of black women and their indomitable spirit ("Explanation of…Angelou"). She writes, "When you see me passing it ought to make you proud." A great influence on her charisma in this poem is her occupation as a performer. Working as an exotic dancer and showing off her body all the time, Maya accepted who she was ("Explanation of…Angelou"). The theme of this poem is self-confidence, and how Angelou has hope in each and every insecure woman out there. She uses a sassy, assertive tone in this poem also. For example, she says "I'm a woman./ Phenomenally" This sense of anger is seen in the previous poem, too. In addition, she uses a strong, straightforward rhyme in her poetry (Cookson).

Maya Angelou is one out of the best known poets. She has written a lot of poems that inspires and assist people with their lives. She has a “desire humbleness to learn and experience all that life has to offer her” (gale biography in context, “Maya Angelou More than a Poet”) which makes her poems have a meaning to them. In addition, Maya Angelou got a lot of pieces of poems considered equality to her experience as a human of the United States during race times and her experience as a person who worked with other civil right activist. Maya Angelou uses deep themes that leaves the reader to think about the topic is being talked about. In her poem, “Still I Rise” she talks metaphorically about discrimination. In the poem, it states, “does my haughtiness offend you? ( the poetry foundation, “Maya Angelou”). This quote from the poem shows how the rest of the poem is about people believe they is better than other people and that the other people should suffer because they are inferior to the people, but the people being abused should not be embarrassed of who they are and be thankful for life(“Maya Angelou More than a Poet 1”).

When I first read this poem, I was overwhelmed with conflicting emotions. Maya Angelou depicts herself as a fighter that will never give up, no matter the circumstances. She has obviously faced some difficult situations in her life that should have stopped her but she continues to triumph in the face of adversity. In this way, I am inspired to continue pursuing my goals. I also felt discouraged and disgusted, mostly because of the types of obstacles that are described in this poem. It is symbolizes the obstacles that many African Americans faced in the past as a result of the abolition of slavery, racism and inequality. The discouraging part of this poem is that some of these very inequalities and injustices still go on today. So, while this poem illustrates strength,

Maya Angelou was inspirational and helpful to others. She has helped people to look at themselves and other people in different, better ways. Angelou also had a joyful and loving personality. She was very engaged in everything that she did (Hoffert). Along with her outstanding personality and inspiration to others, Angelou was helpful. She helped people from many nations and bridged divides between races. This was such an admirable trait that a residence hall at Wake Forest University was named after Angelou (Kennedy). It has been said by Toni Morrison that she was there when you need it the most. Morrison has a firsthand experience with this because Angelou was the first person not in the family to call when Morrison’s son died (Hoffert).