The Overcomer Maya Angelou is well known around the world for her stupendous writing and the multiple hardships she has overcome. Although Maya Angelou made many impacts in her lifetime, she continues to impact the lives of society today. She gave life to everything she ever wrote or performed. Angelou had an interesting life, an abundant amount of works, numerous awards, and an exquisite writing style. To begin with, Angelou had an interesting life because of her education, previous jobs, and family. Maya Angelou was born into a life of segregation. This would make one think that she had little to no education, but it was quite the opposite for her. Angelou went to high school at George Washington High in San Francisco, and later went to the California Labor School after winning a scholarship to study dance and acting (Angelou, Maya p.5). Before establishing herself as a writer, Angelou worked as a nightclub entertainer, a streetcar director, and a shake dancer (Maya Angelou Biography). When growing up, she had her mom and brother. At a young age, she was sent to live with her maternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, after being raped by her mother’s boyfriend (Borus, Audrey p.108). …show more content…
She had written many books and poems, often being criticized by what she had written. Some of Angelou’s many books are I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die, and Singin’ and Swingin’(Cuffie 8-9). Along with her books, Angelou wrote multiple poems. Her poems were meant to show a context of experiences and character of incidents that gave them meaning (McGeagh 1). Although her works were brilliant, she was still given critical reception. Many people said that Angelou would hardly be known as a poet if she had not become famous for the chronicles of her life. Her poems were also considered thin in substance, lackluster in language, and having a lack in poetic invention (McGeagh