If you were told that because of your skin color or your gender you weren’t good enough or you were not seen as privileged. Would you fall and stay on the floor or would you rise despite the hate you got? Maya Angelou does just that and she proves it in a so many ways. Maya Angelou poem, “Still I Rise” displays a variety of pathos a great purpose an amazing message about getting back up, challenged the wrongs, and had an audience that has seen or one day will see all the wrongs in our society.
In saying this, Angelou establishes that she feels like an adult but the reader does not know why. Many think it was because of the rape, others think that are there other factors. By establishing this, the readers understand that in some ways her identity was out of her control and that she is both a girl and woman at the same time yet she feels like neither; although she struggled with her identity she never gave up hope with knowledge that everything was going to be alright. Later, Angelou uses religion to evoke the reader’s emotions and make them think deeply about why religion seems to be a security blanket: it makes all the bad things seem a little better. For example, in chapter eighteen the town was holding a revival the pastor states, “The mean white folks was going to get their comeuppance.
Angelou uses the perspective of a guest speaker, Mr. Edward Donleavy, as one of her perspectives. Mr. Donleavy is speaking not only to the students but also to the parents and other visitors that are at the graduation. He speaks about the opportunities that the graduating class has and how accomplished they could one day be. One point he continues on about is the opportunities that the athletes of the particular graduating class has. The other perspective is of the graduating class’s actual valedictorian, Hennery Reed.
This can be seen through the extreme difference in tone. Angelou pushes on more daring tone riddled with sarcastic and bold remarks. This allows Angelou to freely belittle her oppressors while giving her advocates a laugh. Although risky, her boldness works out. The daring tone transfers her message clearly whilst giving her the power of
Angelou’s tone perfectly illustrates the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. She writes joyously, with a hint of sadness and malcontentment reflecting the racial prejudices of the South during the 1940s. She uses phrases like “sunlight itself was young” and describes herself as “the center of the moment” to convey the excitement and joy she felt as a child on the days leading up to her graduation. She also interjects more sobering statements, such as when she speaks of “hanging ropes of parasitic moss and speaks of wishing everybody dead to characterize the struggle of African Americans during the 40s. The tone of these segments is malcontentment, sadness, and anger over the subjugation of blacks
Just like Douglass’ speech, Angelou’s poem greatly reflects discrimination and just how little people’s opinions about her do not mean anything. Maya Angelou one stated, “Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise.” (pg. 3) She mentions that even if she may come from a past layered in gut-wrenching pain, no matter what has been thrown at her, she will look beyond them. Angelou also mentions, “Bringing the gifts thay my ancestors gave, I am the dream and hope of the slave.”
The frequent use of questions in Still I Rise illustrates how embracing heritage combats hate, creating an outspoken characterization for the speaker. The poem thoroughly discusses the struggles of black women in America. This is seen in her directly asking the reader questions like “Does my sassiness upset you?”(Angelou 5). The use of the word “sassiness” aligns with negative stereotypes that are commonly attributed to black women. The direct repetition of questions that Angelou uses towards hate reveals that though sassiness has been used against her, she is unapologetically proud; this reclaims the word from hate and oppression.
In line 32, the poet quotes, “I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,” which describes herself to a black ocean, which the black ocean represents terror and fear, something that Maya Angelou has faced all her life. There are two types of figurative language devices in this specific line, personification and hyperbole, respectively. Personification is giving human qualities to a nonhuman quality. Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement which isn’t meant to be taken exactly. Angelou addresses, “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’ll rise” (21-24).
When anyone in the neighborhood was going through a hard time, she used to support them anyway she could(Nero, 239).{insert transition sentence here} Suzette A. Hanke provides her thoughts on why Angelou faced hardships, “ In Angelou’s Caged Bird, negritude and femininity make contradictory, irreconcilable demands on Rite’s sense of personal identity.” She also states that Angelou’s unfortunate experience with rape signifies “adult emotional betrayal.”
The author uses personification which expresses the theme because it shows people saying mean things about the speaker, but they keep moving on. In the poem Angelou states, “You may shoot me with your words, / You may cut me with your eyes, / You may kill me with your hatefulness” (21-23). This literary device is used to show that the speaker will keep moving on no matter what people say about them and how it is relatable because sometimes you get that look from someone. Another device Maya Angelou uses is a simile because she shows that even though people are saying all this mean stuff the speaker is still happy and joyful. Maya Angelou states, “Like dust, I’ll rise” (4).
Maya Angelou, as a young, black woman with no excess of money, was part of perhaps the most challenged group of people and she was able to blossom and grow even within those conditions. Despite, or perhaps as a result of, her struggles, she was able to see the good in her life and in people and hold her own against the constant discrimination that could have crippled someone else and left them bitter. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou shares the various adversities she faced throughout her life and how she overcame each and every one. Through positive role models like her momma, the glamorous Mrs. Bertha Flowers who gave her “lessons in living” (Angelou 98), her beloved brother, and various others, as well as books which were her constant companion throughout life, she too was able to see past her own conditions and become a better person. Her experiences only served to thicken her skin and instill in her a sense of empathy, determination and an understanding of the world around her.
As mentioned before, Black people have been mistreated throughout history and Angelou chose to rise above it all. She talks about the struggles of being a woman in several of her poems. “Still I Rise” is similar to “Phenomenal Woman” in which they
In the poem “Still I Rise”, the author, Maya Angelou, shows that hatred can lead one to realize their own potential. Through tropology, the reader learns that one can overcome any obstacle they face. Firstly, the author shows how hatred towards Black people has no effect on them and by proving this. For example, in stanza 3, Angelou states a quote which displays the explanation of not surrendering to their freedom; “Just like the moons and like suns, / with the certainty of tides, /just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise” (Angelou 3). Metaphorically, the previous quote shows how “the moons and like suns” is a comparison of how much the Black people take pride no matter what anyone has to say.
Angelou wrote this poem in first person she uses words such as ‘you’, ‘me’ and ‘I’. In the quote “You may shoot me with your word, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise”. Angelou uses repetition to emphasis the word ‘you’, she wants the audience to think deeply about how racial discrimination has affected her, and want the readers to realise in the end she will keep fighting for equality. These ideas are important to her because she believes everyone deserves equality. Racism is seen in the poem through the line ”I am the dream and hope of the slave”
When I read this text something in me made me shy away from feeling sorry for her, as I felt she was not fazed by her oppressors. If Angelou did not keep her head up high, I would definitely want to reach out and help, to cry out in compassion and say that I feel your pain. I felt this because the way in which Angelou describes the feats in her life with such vivid imagery made me feel the text was more of a tale of defiance and victory rather than a tale of the struggles she went through. For example, in the second and fifth stanza’s she talks about herself owning “oil wells” and “gold mines.” She writes that she laughs “like ive got gold mines diggn’ in my own backyard” and that she walks “like ive got oil wells pumping in my living room.”
