The poem Still I rise is written by Maya Angelou. Maya is an African American poet, and a civil-rights activist. The poem’s literal meaning is a response towards the people who look down on the author and her ancestors. The poem metaphorically describes her strength to always fight the battle against people’s disapproval of her and her ancestors. However, the central and most important message that this poem provides is the narrator’s strength to retaliate against discrimination of races and gender, which gives hope to others who suffer from the same or similar complications.
Maya Angelou’s main point in the poem is to show that people’s discrimination and judgement against others who are physically different, rather it be because of color of their skin or their gender, cannot tear her down. The narrator attempts to point a positive light on the subject with Maya’s sarcasm. Throughout the poem, with a strongminded and prideful manner, she expresses her strength at
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Proving this she 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”. From the poem one may infer that her ancestors lives, as well as her own, were “rooted in pain” because of the hurtful things said and done to them in the past, all because of their race and/or gender. By writing this poem, Maya Angelou is signifying that no matter what has been done to her or her family in the past or present, she will rise above it. Angelou has made a life for herself, despite all the cruel and spiteful things that have been said or done. She has stood up for herself and her past family by writing this