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Harlem Hopscotch Poem Literary Devices

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Maya Angelou’s “Harlem Hopscotch” paints the portrait of the struggle of African-Americans. Angelou stresses that “the system” has been set up so that people like her do not prosper. In spite of adversity, the poem conveys a sense of victory won by rejecting the expectations of others. “Harlem Hopscotch” acts as an extended metaphor by comparing the game of hopscotch to the constant jumping, hopping, twisting, and turning with the life of a person who not only has responsibilities much like any other person in society, but also is expected to quietly subjugate themselves to of a vicious form of discrimination: racism. This sonnet uses a number of poetic devices such as metaphors, imagery, and situational irony to convey the overall message. …show more content…

African-Americans, especially at the time this poem Angelou wrote, must endure life despite being disadvantaged due of the color of their skin. This, in addition to economic difficulty, limits their opportunities. However, this affliction does not define them as an individual. Hence, why the actions such as hoping and turning in the poem never stop until the very end. Maya Angelou, an advocate for civil rights, addresses the poverty and racism that children and adults experience during difficult times in places such Harlem, a hub for African-American culture (“Maya”). Furthermore, “Angelou’s poetry can also be traced to African-American oral traditions like slave and work songs…and emphasis on individual responses to hardship, oppression, and loss” (“Maya”). Both Maya’s background and her tone weave together to form the flow of the …show more content…

Throughout the entire poem in each stanza there is constant motion. By the end, everything ceases: “Both feet flat, the game is done. They think I lost. I think I won.” (13-14). Either people continue with life or life continues without them. Stopping is equated with both quitting and losing; however, when Angelou writes when the game has finishes; a shift appears. Ultimately, the poem indicates a reject of expectations set by other people; instead steers towards to taking control of destiny. The situational irony lies in that after all this trial and tribulation, the poem surprisingly evokes feelings of arising from the ashes with something quite unexpected: hope and

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After reading through “Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou, one can identify many different poetic devices that support the theme, however, there are three devices that clearly and concisely get the author’s point across: rhetorical questions, personification, and repetition. The theme that these devices support is a message of pride and strength found inside both the individual and the community. In addition to the theme, Angelou voices her happiness and courage that she has regarding her heritage and race, because to her, being African-American is nothing to be ashamed about. Through the use of rhetorical questions, Angelou draws attention to why others react to her the way that they do, with hate and discrimination. In asking these questions,

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Maya Angelou was a strong African-American women who made an influential impact on the Civil Rights Movement, in bother her actions, and her literature. Her life experiences and courage helped others, and made her work influential. During Maya’s early life, she experienced many hardships that shaped her into the person many remember her as. Born on April 4, 1928, she only lived in St. Louis, MO for three years before her parents got divorced, and Maya, along with her mother and brother, moved in with her grandparents in Arkansas. At the age of eight, raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Maya learned the power that words possess.

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While children are growing up, they often dream of becoming high-paying doctors who live in a two-story house with a white picket fence. However, for Marguerite Johnson, the main character in Maya Angelou’s memoir about her childhood, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, her dreams were quite different. Marguerite, also known as Maya, dreamed of having beautiful long blonde hair and baby blue eyes like all the white girls in Stamps, Arkansas. The only way Maya was able to escape the racism around her was to imagine her life as a “sweet little white girl who is everybody’s dream of what is right in the world” (Angelou 4).

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While Maya is living in Stamps, Arkansas, the whole town gathers in The Store to listen to a boxing match between a white man and Joe Louis. When it looks like the black man is going to lose, Maya comments, “My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching…” (Angelou 113).

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The difficult game of hopscotch is symbolic of the struggles in Harlem, whether you are black or not in an ideal societal class, there are certain expectations society wants you to

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Identity Essay “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is an autobiography written by Maya Angelou, in which she takes us through the early chapters of her life. Throughout her childhood, her main caregiver was Annie Henderson, her grandmother. Miss Henderson, also referred to as Momma throughout the book, is a religious black woman who owned the only black store in Stamps, Arkansas. Her strength from decades of experience and discrimination as a black woman played a big part in how Maya established her values throughout life. In this document, we’ll be diving into how Momma is affected by ethnocentrism

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The rise is in equality. In Angelou’s poem however, the rise of blacks is above those of whites. By accentuating the “badness” of whites, and the mistreatments they enforces, she shows that blacks are in fact greater and stronger at heart than the whites. African American literature in the 1900’s contain differences due to the constant change of black image, and also similarities in its inherent essence. Because Langston Hughes’ “I, Too, Sing America” is written in the beginning of the century, and Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” is written in the latter half of the century, the transformation of black mindset is apparent.

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It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to the charges brought against my color with no chance of defense.” (193) This quote suggests that African Americans lived a life that was predetermined for them by white people. Angelou’s story has brought a piece of history that I have learned about and turned it into her own narrative that allowed me to see her emotions and live through her racial struggles right alongside her. I was able to feel how she felt as the same barrier stood in her way over and over again.

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“Angelou creates this alternate identity that is rooted in literature to see herself as separate and unique from the racially biased society in which she lives. Angelou joins this isolated vision of self together with her identity that is linked to her ethnicity to form a complex vision of self that enables her to find a voice in a racially oppressive society. Once Angelou is able to view herself as an isolated individual, both removed from and connected to the collective identity of the black community, she is able to overcome the forces in her life that threaten to silence her.” (Giberson,

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This paper shall be an attempt to look at the women poets of the Harlem Renaissance especially through the works of Gwendolyn Bennet, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, Anne Bethel Spencer and Helene Johnson. The paper shall also investigate how the poetry of these poets deals with the issue of race, class and gender during the 1920s. Harlem Renaissance was not a movement which simply appeared and promoted black culture. Warrington Hudlin suggests that the birth of the movement can be seen in “the dialectical development of social and political thought during the turn of the century” (Bloom 5). The movement appears when Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois debated on the issue of racial pride and economic status of the blacks.

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Rising Above Oppression Being different and having fear of rejection is something we all experience at some point. “Still I Rise,” a poem written by Maya Angelou in 1978, expounds the indomitable spirit of African Americans, who have risen from slavery and every kind of humiliation. In it, the writer uses the motif of the image pattern “I Rise” to illustrate the way people have overcome great obstacles and oppression with enduring pride and grace, retaliating against discrimination of races and gender, and offering hope to the readers suffering from the same ordeal. In “Still I Rise,” Angelou speaks not only for herself; in fact, the poem 's scope is not limited to one person but to all the downtrodden individuals.

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Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, illustrates the pain and rejection of being a young black girl in the segregated world of 1930s Arkansas. As a result of racial segregation, African Americans quickly fell victim to poverty and hardship. Particularly in Stamps, where Maya lives during her childhood, the black community attempts to make do with their paltry jobs, accompanied by the pressures of the white society. Faced with threats of general torment, lynching, and even death, the lives of the black residents remain in an almost unbearable state. Although living in unbelievably challenging circumstances, the black citizens are able to continue in life with the hope that their faith gives them.

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543 Words | 3 Pages

In 1978, Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” was published by Random House during one of the most productive periods in Angelou’s career. She wrote three autobiographies and published two other volumes of poetry up to that point. Even though it was her ancestor’s dream to have a life in society without fear of what might happen to them, or having equity and freedom she portrayed herself like a gift to them. Maya Angelou self-esteem and confidence allows her to rise over her battles, where her ancestors fell to slavery. “Still I Rise” describes her strength to always survive the battle against people criticisms, racism, and sexism from the white for herself, others living black and her black ancestors.

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In my imitation above, I tried to capture Angelou’s ongoing message through her poems along with some aspects of her style. Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, and she talks of the fighting for equality of all in her works. As a black woman, Angelou felt strongly about what those like her have given up in the midst of fighting for complete equality and freedom. She has gone from feeling like she is playing society’s game, to reminiscing on times where she truly feels like nobody is on her side, to being prideful of herself as a woman and never backing down. Angelou has felt like a trapped animal, unable to do anything except cry her song, her poetry, for the world to see.

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867 Words | 4 Pages

What a World we Live In "Graduation," Maya Angelou's powerful essay, reveals how racial injustice in the US persists. Her powerful narrative made me contemplate race and how I benefit from being white in a culture that frequently discriminates. This essay describes my quest to comprehend, empathize, and support racial fairness. I want to demonstrate the relevance of reading narratives that challenge us and make us partners in making the world a better place by explaining how Angelou's work transformed me. I will make sure the emotional factor is abused considering how effective this story was for me, it really hit me what past generations from color have gone through and experienced.

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