After reading Maya Angelou’s quote, I realized there are still many things I have to learn about life. This quote made me think about how many things go unappreciated everyday, and how we should be thankful for these things. It also inspires me to work harder so that I can reach my goals in life. I need to learn this so that I can become a more appreciative and thankful person towards my family and friends.
The milieu of education has a history of creating hurdles. Education, if it were a live being, would be on life support having last rights preformed on it. Its past should have been a track record leading us into the future, not for man. A very brief look at two Essays from 1940 to present will show how the only thing we can count on in getting an education, will be ourselves. The Blair Reader 8th Edition gives us two essay’s that will establish evidence to show mans' in contempt for creating problems for education.
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.
Her life was not an easy one but she overcame adversity and created some of the most beautiful pieces of literature, as well as poetry, of the 20th century. Her works prove that you may come from a horrible background but you are able to become someone worth something in the eyes of society. Maya Angelou wanted equality for all and therefor fought alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Right Movement of the 60’s.
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.”
This essay will talk about what Maya Angelou went through, and and her impact on society. Maya Angelou was also a poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer,
In Maya Angelou’s “Graduation” she spoke about a fictional character named Marguerite Johnson and her eighth-grade graduation. Marguerite was always kinda of lost and selfish at times, and never look at how others seen things. But as the story goes on Marguerite starts to find herself and understand others. “Graduation” isn’t just about how Marguerite pass on to the next grade but how she has grown from a lost girl to a young intelligence woman. In this story the reader is going to follower her on this surprising journey.
When thinking of a historical figure, many imagine a president, king, or general that lead a country to greatness, but never realized some could be the ones who influence the minds of society. Although not thought of as anything, writers and poets hold the key to shaping the society’s mindset without even knowing it. Being a civil rights activist, social activist, and role model for women makes Maya Angelou a historical figure who has made a huge impact in American society and in American history. Born poor and black, she was a childhood victim of rape, shamed into silence. She was a young single mother who had to work at strip clubs for a living.
Maya Angelou was a strong African-American women who made an influential impact on the Civil Rights Movement, in bother her actions, and her literature. Her life experiences and courage helped others, and made her work influential. During Maya’s early life, she experienced many hardships that shaped her into the person many remember her as. Born on April 4, 1928, she only lived in St. Louis, MO for three years before her parents got divorced, and Maya, along with her mother and brother, moved in with her grandparents in Arkansas. At the age of eight, raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Maya learned the power that words possess.
Cody Fullerton Karen Clausen-Brown English 121 9 March 2018 Maya Angelou and Mah’Ria Pruitt-Martin: Black Students’ Similarity Throughout Time In “Graduation” by Maya Angelou, it shows Angelou’s experiences as a black student in the 1940s.
Maya Angelou worked as a professor at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 1991 to 2014. As an African American women, one whose life was full of racial discrimination and gender inequality, she had plenty of experience and wisdom to share with her students. During her time working at the university, she taught a variety of humanities courses such as “World Poetry in Dramatic Performance,” “Race, Politics and Literature,” “African Culture and Impact on U.S.,” and “Race in the Southern Experience” (Wake Forest University,
As she got older, she became aware and accepting of her talents which led to her first album in the mid-1950’s called Miss Calypso. According to Biography When that never proved sufficient, Maya became a member of the Harlem Writer’s Guild as well as an activist where she starred in a musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. (Maya Angelou Biography, 2017) As she travelled to Egypt and Ghana working as an editor and freelance writer, Maya Angelou developed further motivation to inspire others around her. Though she passed away on May 28, 2014, the life and works of Maya lingers in the hearts and minds of everyone who was exposed to this brilliant writer.
Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou were African Americans alive during the period in American history when minority groups were fighting hard for their rights and respect among the country. These two authors used their writing skill to shed light on how African Americans felt throughout this period of time, opening many people’s eyes to how the oppressed truly felt. The civil rights movement could have had an entirely different outcome if it weren’t outspoken individuals such as these two. In Hughes’s well known poem “I, Too,” Hughes talks about how the people that mistreat him will soon regret everything they’ve done and will realize the true potential of him and everyone like him.
"Every struggle in your life has shaped you into the person you are today. Be thankful for the hard time, they can only make you stronger” (Unknown). Past experiences form you into the individual you are today, whether it’s good or bad. Every experience happens for a reason, in order to shape you and turn you into the right direction. Likewise, Maya Angelou’s poem, Still I Rise, proves how her past experiences helped to shape her into who she is today and her mindset.
In Maya Angelou’s poem, ‘Still I Rise’, she said “You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt. But still, like dust, I’ll rise” (Angelou 1-4). This relates to my topic because it shows that Maya did not let hate bring her down. The more hate they showed, the more she contributed her talents around telling them ‘I don’t care!’. She was following the path she created, not the one that people should think she should follow.
