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How Does Maya Angelou Use Rhetorical Devices

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A successful writer turns literature into a poem with rhetorical devices in order to connect with the readers. Maya Angelou lived a life of poverty and hardship but turned it into something beautiful. Some examples of her most famous pieces are "Caged Bird," "Still I Rise" and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." She uses diction, syntax, and imagery to convey her message of perseverance in overcoming oppression, racism, and finding herself.
Maya Angelou employs diction to communicate her emotions and thoughts to her readers.She specifically uses metaphors to relate her life experiences in a way that helps better explain the meaning of what she is saying. For example, she describes herself as "...a black ocean…"("Still I Rise" 33) which is such a beautiful way of saying she is a worldwide role model. Secondly, Maya Angelou depicts being oppressed by describing it as"...shoot me with your words…" ("Still I Rise" 21) This assists readers in interpreting the words as bullets that send a pain so intense that it knocks you down. The way Maya Angelou uses diction can help the reader truly understand her message on a different level. …show more content…

She uses punctuation to create a sense of suspense or wonder about what she will say next. For example, she puts commas in her poem to emphasize that her brother is "...a hope of wholeness, is the unshaking need for an unshakable God. My pretty black brother was my Kingdom Come." (Caged Bird 19) Another point is that she repeats the line about the bird "..[opening] his throat to sing." so that the reader is frequently reminded that the bird keeps going and has resilience. She is able to grab your attention just by how she sets up her literature to create

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Rhetorical Analysis: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings In her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelo commemorates and admires strong independent black women and strives to become a well-educated woman herself. Through the use of visual imagery, Angelou describes Mrs. Flowers as a refined black woman to convey to the audience a feeling of pride and recognition for all sophisticated black women and a sense of empathy for Maya. Maya compares Mrs. Flowers to the “women in English novels” who had the luxury to sit “in front of roaring fireplaces” and drink “tea incessantly from silver trays” (93). The visual description of the “fireplace” and “tea” demonstrates to the reader the value that white women have in this society.

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“Maya Angelou refuses to be denied.” 383 “I WOULD HAVE THE JOB. I WOULD BE A CONDUCTORETTE AND SLING A FULL MONEY CHANGER FROM MY BELT. I WOULD.” 384 Angelou

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Maya Angelou philosophy and teachings are timeless. There is a lesson to be learned in her more than 30 published works and her lessons taught as a professor and lecturer. More important she lived what she preached. She had a strong belief in humanity as a whole, in the human spirit and in the African American community. She fought tirelessly to change extinguish racism, prejudice and discrimination during a time when she herself as a black woman experienced its effects.

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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.

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The last line of the poem is “for the caged bird sings for freedom” (Angelou) this tells us that the caged bird yearns to be like the free bird. Angelou uses several descriptive images for the reader to be able to envision her words: bird, winds, floats and sky for freedom because the free bird has power, as “he soars in the sky” (Angelou) and clipped wings, tied feet and cage for confinement because the caged bird is oppressed as “caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown. ”(Angelou)

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