In “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, the speaker’s identity is slowly developed throughout the poem so that we are not completely sure of the speaker’s identity. The speaker is a black female that while she is speaking for herself, she is also speaking for an entire population of people just like her. People like her who are determined to rise above the historical oppression saying, “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear/ I rise/ Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear/ I rise…” (lines 35-38). The speaker conveys the motif of identity through her use of tone, repetition, and imagery. Tone plays a big role in the development of identity in the poem. In the beginning of the poem, the tone is critical and accusatory. Angelou starts the poem
