Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou, a poet, writer, and civil rights activist. She was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri as Marguerite Annie Johnson. Her childhood was very difficult. Her parents split when she was very young. Her and her older brother, Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother in Arkansas. She had to endure racial discrimination. One day while visiting her mother, her mother’s boyfriend raped her. She was so traumatized by the incident that she became mute. Maya moved to San…

"Still I Rise," by Maya Angelou, is a poem written about African Americans right after the nation's Civil Rights Movement. It expresses the free spirit of all African Americans. Angelou writes of overcoming the hardships of the beginnings of the race in America. Furthermore, the poem gives people the will to rise above all inequities and flourish. Angelou's writing is loud with hope and inspiration. Her work is about survival and looks for the positive things in life, especially in a time of…

On April 4th, 1928, a girl, who later becomes an inspiring author and woman of the performing arts, was born. Her name was Maya Angelou. Throughout her life, Maya faced racial discrimination and the effects of the Great Depression. However, this never stopped her from expressing herself through her writing. Maya lived with her parents for 3 years at Long Beach, California before being sent her brother, Bailey, who was 4 at that time, to live with their father’s mother in Stamps, Arkansas. Their…

In Still I Rise by Maya Angelou, we read about the experiences an oppressed African woman faces while living in America, she uses the medium of poetry to express the images and emotions she has struggled with in her life. Throughout the poem we get to see how she argues that even the saddest movements we experience in life can be transferred in a shift in perception, and that these movements can provide the foundation for an improved life. That it is an exercise in which it examines the choices…

Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” is an iconic poem that portrays the importance of self confidence and self-esteem. By using sarcastic diction, personification, similes, and repetition Angelou conveys that with self confidence, she can overcome everything. In the sixth stanza Angelou says, “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 rise.”. She uses personification to present how the things people say, look, and do…

concept of being truthful, and genuine about something. The poem "Still I Rise ' by Maya Angelou, is an authentic poem. The poet speaks real, genuine facts about how blacks were seen, and treated back in the day. Although, it may seem she is speaking upon herself that is not the case when she wrote this poem. The first section of the poem, Maya states "You write me down in history, with your bitter and twisted lies" (Angelou). She is stating that throughout the generations, lies after lies were…

Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson, is probably the most well-known poet of the past generation. Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and lived in Long Beach, California, but primarily grew up in Stamps, Arkansas, where she was raised by her grandmother (Biography, no p.). At an early age, Angelou already faced many hardships, including being sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend, which rendered her mute for a portion of her childhood. Angelou used her life’s experiences, along with…

‘Still I Rise’ by the American, Maya Angelou presents the character of a black woman who is oppressed in the 1970s but refuses to accept this. ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen, however, is concerned with a character who is ‘broken’ after the disabilities he suffers in the First World War at the beginning of the twentieth century. The poem ‘Still I Rise’ is about a woman who discloses that she will overcome anything due to her self-confidence. The line ‘But still, like dust, I’ll rise’ is a metaphor…

You probably have heard of her, but under a different name. Does Maya Angelou ring any bells? Dancer, actress, singer, writer, playwright and poet, this phenomenal woman strode past many of the societal barriers of her youth, as well as her own personal inhibitions. Maya did not have an easy life, by any means. She was raped multiple times by her mother’s boyfriend, kept silent under threat for her brother’s safety. After the crime was revealed, Maya’s uncles murdered her rapist. The guilt from…

color white is considered pure and superior. Unfortunately, the same can be said when comparing ethnicities. It is not appropriate to judge somebody solely on the color of his or her skin, as they did not make the decision to be black or white. In Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise”, she demonstrates how one woman can break stereotypes and rise above all hardships. Maya’s use of rhetorical questions keeps one pondering how she is able to overlook the negative remarks and believe in herself.…