If winners write history, how do the failures, the underdogs; the people in the shadows endure the oppression, or do they rebel? In the poem “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou argues that the mistreated can’t worry about the social norms. The speaker in the poem is ranting about how she is better than the others around her, even when they try to bring her down. She recites how she has all of these disapproved qualities of persistence and confidence, even when getting shot down. Additionally in her poem, Angelou uses banter and humor to make the argument that even persecution can’t stop people from defying the social norms. Angelou starts a majority of her stanzas with rhetorical questions to emphasize the speaker’s taboo qualities with a twisted