How Does Maya Angelou Use Figurative Language In Phenomenal Woman

The use of words to portray feelings slowly drifts away, becoming replaced with short sentences, the lack of descriptive words, and the use of emoticons in texting. Today there are hundreds of emoticons to describe your feelings, or even your location. Maya Angelou, commonly known as, “poet, author, performer, stage and screen producer, director, and a singer”, wrote the excerpt Graduation Day from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969. She along with many other authors changed the minds of individuals by the strategic placement of letters and words. Today the art of English is dwindling away from Americans, although many refuse to accept the fact. Words alone have very little meaning, but when arranged and a few descriptive words are added,

Oppressed women have been unjustly held back from achieving full equality for much of human history. A woman no matter neither color nor education faces discrimination on a day to day basis. Barriers that are place in their way to advancing includes: lack of mentoring, lack of opportunities for career development, biased rating and testing system and counterproductive behavior and harassment by colleges (Schaefer, pg 15). In the past, women did not have jobs and were to clean, cook and care for the children, also did not have the right to vote. While the man work long hours to provide for his family and gave orders as the women followed. As time went on and rights were given to women, the men did not like the idea that controlled was being lost. They refused to let women become equal to males. Women are allow to work the same career as males, but will never be paid the same as males. This paper addresses Maya Angelou life and how her writing and public speaking inspired women to overcome discrimination.

Maya Angelou’s poetry occupies a very special position in her development as a writer (Chow 1). As a child, Angelou went through five years of complete silence after she was raped at the age of seven years old, by a man named, Mr. Freeman. As a result of telling about her traumatic experience, her uncle’s literally kicked the man that raped her to death. Beings she spoke of her traumatic experience and the result of the man dying, she then imagined that her voice had the potential to kill. Thanks to her teacher, Bertha Flowers, at school Angelou started writing poetry as a means of expression of her life events through her poetry (Chow 1). Poetry thus played an essential part in the recovery of her voice, which in

“I’m a woman…Phenomenal woman, that’s me.” This quote from Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman” characterizes the common theme between the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the speech, “Ain’t I a Woman”, by Sojourner Truth, and “Phenomenal Woman”. The common theme between these three different pieces is the idea of a strong, independent woman, which ties into feminism and the concept of being equal to men. Even though these three pieces are each diverse genres, they are all conveying the same general theme in their own way. Throughout any of these texts, it is evident that the authors are pushing the idea that a female is not inferior to any man just because they have a different body structure or a different gender.

Maya Angelou, the current poet laureate of the United States, has become for many people an exemplary role model. She read an original poem at the inauguration of President Clinton; she has also appeared on the television show "Touched by an Angel," and there read another poem of her own composition; she lectures widely, inspiring young people to aim high in life. Yet this is an unlikely beginning for a woman who, by the age of thirty, had been San Francisco's first black streetcar conductor; an unmarried mother; the madam of a San Diego brothel; a prostitute, a showgirl, and an actress (Lichtler, 861927397.html). Her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings argues persuasively

As a matter of fact this particular poem requires thinking to understand that the writer is trying to say to the reader. This next quote is the last stanza in the poem “Phenomenal Women.” “ The need for my care. Cause I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me”(Angelou). Maya Angelou is trying to say in this quote that at some point in life a man will need the care of a woman. Although she might not be what many men would want, but yet again mot many men choose the most beautiful women out there, but they do choose what is inside of a woman such as their

“You have tried to destroy me and although I perish daily I shall not be moved,” (Angelou, 2014), says Maya Angelou in her Commencement speech to the 1992 Spelman College graduates. Poet and award-winning author, Maya Angelou, is most well known for her poetry, essay collection, and memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou happened to be the first black female cable car conductor who later started a career in theatre and music (Maya Angelou: Poet and Historian, n.d.). Once her acting and musical career began to take off, Angelou began touring with productions and released her first album Miss Calypso (Maya Angelou Fast Facts, 2017). Later, Angelou earned a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away and an Emmy Award nomination for the work she performed in the television mini-series Roots (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). Angelou was also the first African American woman to have her screenplay produced (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). Out of the number of poetry collections Angelou published, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die happened to be her most famous collection that was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). The focus of this paper is to critique Angelou’s credibility, sincerity, and appeal to her whole audience in her delivery during the Spelman Commencement Address in 1992.

Perhaps the reason that Maya’s poetry has had such a lasting impact on Americans is because of her poems such as ‘Caged Birds’ and ‘Still I Rise’ that demonstrate the issues that African – Americans faced, which she has done through the power of her words. She also challenges the readers with the theme of oppression that is carried out through her pomes as she felt very strongly about it by being surrounded by it her entire life. Maya Angelou has left an everlasting mark by influencing the society through her poems by inspiring others to persist towards their goals and dreams with strength and pride. Overall, Maya Angelou’s work can be attributed to the fact that her personal and cultural experiences of power have not been forgotten by overcoming adversity and oppression, which is clearly reflected in her inspiration body of work seen

Unlike Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou devoted her life to inspiring African Americans to do whatever they wanted to do no matter what other people said. She also wanted to inspire people. Her poems Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise inspired not only the African American people, which is was intended to, but the whole world including men. Like Hughes, Maya Angelou did not think that one day she would be reading one of her poems at President Clinton 's inauguration. But she did think that she would inspire young African American writers that they too could become wonderful writers in a white society. Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary black literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman.

Even though it deviates from traditional patriarchal culture, women like men have sexual needs. The traditional sex script shows men as aggressive and women as passive. Yet, although viewed as negative, the Jezebel image shows women expressing their sexual needs and desires. The music group TLC and poet Maya Angelou popular culture expressions positively express women’s sexual needs. In one of their early songs “Ain't Too Proud to Beg”, TLC positively tells the story for African American women who are comfortable with expressing their sexual needs. They see it as natural and a given right to be participants in their sexual experience. In a more subtle tone, Maya Angelou poem, “Phenomenal Woman,” speaks about a women’s ability to attract men. The woman in Angelou’s poem is not hypersexual like the standard depiction of Jezebel; instead, she is confident with herself and her sexual needs. The notion of women’s sexuality is not negative or unholy. TLC and Maya Angelou both manage to express a positive reality of a long-standing negative impression of women’s sexuality in their popular culture

Maya Angelou employs similes to demonstrate how she will not hurt 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 is 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 lowest class,which has no power, while the dust symbolizes her potential. With this comparison, Angelou makes the reader know she is a strong person and cannot be put down easily, she does not care what others think about her. Maya also mentions, “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 represent being rich or having a lot of money, so here Angelou says she doesn't need to be rich to be happy because of what she has is enough.

Maya Angelou is one out of the best known poets. She has written a lot of poems that inspires and assist people with their lives. She has a “desire humbleness to learn and experience all that life has to offer her” (gale biography in context, “Maya Angelou More than a Poet”) which makes her poems have a meaning to them. In addition, Maya Angelou got a lot of pieces of poems considered equality to her experience as a human of the United States during race times and her experience as a person who worked with other civil right activist. Maya Angelou uses deep themes that leaves the reader to think about the topic is being talked about. In her poem, “Still I Rise” she talks metaphorically about discrimination. In the poem, it states, “does my haughtiness offend you? ( the poetry foundation, “Maya Angelou”). This quote from the poem shows how the rest of the poem is about people believe they is better than other people and that the other people should suffer because they are inferior to the people, but the people being abused should not be embarrassed of who they are and be thankful for life(“Maya Angelou More than a Poet 1”).

In the poem “In and Out of Time” by Maya Angelou, she writes about a love, a predestined love, a love so strong that it recognize the pain and suffering she felt. It is about a love so good, powerful and steady that nothing which comes against it has any chance of harming. It erases the past hurts and sufferings and it allows the light in for a brighter future to come forth and blossom. She loved him since the beginning of time, even though she never realized it. Maya Angelou is a poet from St.Louis, Missouri, United States of America.

The main arguments in this poem is how women should be confident in themselves. Maya Angelou is an embodiment of a strong, powerful woman. Even the title of the poem I picked empowers and encourages women. With the stroke of her pen she writes with amazing sass and confidence. The point of this book is show how she gives reasons why women are beautiful and why she loves being a woman.

In the the poem there are many poetic devices. There is lots of repetition and refrain like in the end of every every stanza it says, “I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me” (st. 1). There are four stanzas. In each stanza there are kind of stanzas within stanzas. Each section of the stanza has different ideas. The first part of the stanza explains what people think about her. The second part of the stanza is her describing how she sees herself. The third part of the stanza uses the refrain saying phenomenal woman. All of the four stanzas are structured that way. Every time Maya Angelou writes “I say” (ln. 5) and uses imagery to describe herself, the rhyme scheme is ABCB. There are a lot of rhymes throughout the poem. Maya Angelou uses a lot of end rhyme in the poem and there is also some internal rhyme. There is also internal rhyme and eye rhyme. In the first part of the first stanza the rhyme scheme is AABA and it is a good example of end rhyme, “Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size, But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies”(ln. 4).Lies rhymes with size and then lies is repeated at the end. There are hyperboles in the poem such as, “Fall down on their knees” (ln.18). She was describing how men saw her when she walked into a room and how they think she is beautiful and they would swarm around her. When it says “It’s the fire in my eyes,”(ln. 22) it is a metaphor because it is talking about how you can see that she is passionate about what she says and thinks. The “fire” is the spark of interest for her that