A Rhetorical Analysis Of Still I Rise By Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” was published in 1978 at one of the most productive and successful periods of Angelou’s career. “Still I Rise” tells about bouncing back and rising up past oppression and hate. The speaker in Angelou’s poem talks to a direct audience, asking them questions, announcing to them that no matter what they do, she will always rise back up. The poem is broken up into quatrains, although the last two stanzas use the repetition of the phrase “I rise” between the complete lines. The author uses figurative language in every stanza of her poem and uses similes and metaphors to create imagery and to get the tone and the theme of the poem across to the reader. Angelou uses figurative language to convey the message of resilience and succeeding even through hatred.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, this famous quote means that whatever suffering you are going through it will make you tougher and wiser. "Still I rise" is a poem written by Maya Angelou, an African American poet and a civil-rights activist. This poem was written around the civil rights movement, when people where being segregated by their race. Throughout this poem we are shown the thoughts and feelings people have displayed against her, but she will not let them get her down. Her dark past allows her to have strength and rise above the criticism where her ancestors fell to slavery. In poem "Still I rise" the main message is about people’s opinion against others who are different color and gender, the narrator expressing her

Maya Angelou said “I am human and nothing human can be alien to me” (Angelou). Born on April 4, 1928, and raised in segregated rural Arkansas. At the age of 7 she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend during a visit to see her. She had her first child at the age of 16 in 1944. Angelou uses figurative language to show how people can put down a person but that person needs to stand strong.

The poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou sharply contrasts to the description of black people in Macomb country in To Kill a Mockingbird. The poem and the novel are about the same theme discrimination but it has different aspects. In the poem, Maya Angelou says “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”(Stanza 1). In this poem Maya Angelou is discriminated and treated badly by the whites’ but she is still strong and confident about what she is doing. In To Kill a Mockingbird the black man, Tom Robinson is accused of raping white women (p.223).

“Still I Rise” is an inspiring poem written by Maya Angelou, she delivers a powerful message from within to provide her African American ancestors an opportunity to rise above segregation and racism. Maya Angelou expresses her pride throughout the poem and describes different hardships in her past. Angelou incorporates her past experiences, powerful views, and over comings while also expressing the tone regarding her pride, feminist values, strong confidence, and close ties with African American ancestry to create a timeline of events that have allowed her to push forward in life despite obstacles from her and her ancestor’s past. Angelou is the speaker and the white race is the audience that has doubted her future and oppressed her

Maya Angelou employs similes to demonstrate how she will not be disturbed because of others’ opinions about her. In the first stanza she says, “You may trod me in the very dirt, / But still, like dust, I'll rise” to make her oppressors know she feels very confident with herself (3-4). Angelou utilizes a simile to compare herself to dirt and then dust, the dirt represents how her oppressors include her in the lower class, which has no power to conquer their enemies, while the dust symbolizes her potential to succeed. With this comparison, Angelou makes the reader know she is strong-minded, and she does not care what others think about her. With a very confident tone, the author says, “Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines/Diggin’ in my own backyard”(19). This simile compares her laugh to gold mines, gold mines usually

Maya Angelou is known worldwide not just for being a poet, novelist, producer, actor, musician, civil right activist, and educator, but also as one of the most renowned and influential voices. Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Stamps, Arkansas. One of her greatest writing that has inspired is “Still I Rise”.

Maya Angelou develops an influential and telling position in her bold poem, "Still I Rise". This particular piece is significant due to the overall and underlying message being called upon. Contrary to most poems written during the civil rights movement, this poem exchanges views upon the positive results of slavery as opposed to the negative results. By using various literary devices, such as shifts in tone, powerful diction, effective comparisons, and alliteration, she reveals the strength she has gained from white supremacy and her oppressors. Angelou emphasizes the fact that no matter the circumstance, she will succeed and despite popular opinion and society's unfair wishes, not one person would prevail over her. Instead, Angelou would prevail over every ounce of racism and hatred she has encountered.

Published in 1978, ‘Still I Rise’ is a poem written by Maya Angelou, a strong and proud African American poet that had released her poems, autobiographies and screenplays as early as the 1950’s. This poem is about the discrimination and stereotyping of races, more specifically the African American race. Overall, I believe Maya Angelou is saying that no matter how much her and her race are discriminated against, she will always stand strong. Maya Angelou has used a lot of “I” sentences, which means she is the speaker, this is affecting herself personally. I think that it is important to know that times have changed, that we need end racism, because it is only bring more hate into people’s lives.

In Maya Angelou’s empowering poem “Still I rise”, she introduces a different type of love and with the use of simile and imagery, she illustrates her views to the reader. Though similes are evident throughout this poem Angelou includes lines like "but still, like dust, I'll rise" and has a double meaning in that it is a simile but engages the reader with it’s imagery, by invoking the image of a rising cloud of dust giving the reader a tangible connection, with the deeper themes in the poem. Alongside simile Angelou uses imagery throughout the poem to create a contrast between the past and the present: "Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Maya Angelou is a credible well-known writer and civil rights activist. Angelou’s poem, Still I Rise, constructed of 43 lines, 7 quatrains, and 2 end stanzas serves as a secular hymn or declaration to the oppressed on the determination to rise above society. The poem also aids as a sarcastic retort towards the people who look down on African Americans, otherwise known as the oppressors.

The poem I have chosen to write a detailed description and interpretation of is Maya Angelou's 'Still I Rise'. In analysing the chosen poem I will be considering the ways in which my own knowledge, experience and cultural identity might have an influence in the way I have read and interpreted the poem.

Strength. Strength can be seen in the readings that we have encountered this semester. Blacks have been through a lot ever since coming to this country called “America.” From being beaten, oppressed, and even worst, killed. Whites have always felt that Blacks had to be controlled because they were “property” but obtaining the obedience from Blacks was not a simple task. So in order to get the control of the people in the Black community, Whites thought that fear was the only way. Fear was something that could be put into a race so that they could be controlled by another. And with this fear a community could be controlled but Whites never through about the strength and braveness that was instilled inside of the Black culture.

Maya Angelou, a black woman, wrote the poem, “Still I Rise,” in 1978 when racism was still prominent. Maya Angelou was reaching out to a racist community to prove oppression will not bring her down. Angelou brings up topics of what she and every other black person has to endure when living in their communities. She brings up all of the oppression she faces in her community and then continues to say she will rise above it. Maya Angelou uses rhetorical questionsing and hateful diction to prove to others regardless of the situation she, and others will rise against the racism and oppression they face.

Structured in first-person, the poem ‘Still I rise’ explores how Maya Angelou, along with her past family, possessed the resilience and persistence to overcome racial discrimination.  Maya is filled with might as this is very evident