The Life and Accomplishments of Maya Angelou
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud” (brainyquote). This quote by Angelou basically summarizes a good majority of the themes of Angelou’s poems. Angelou was, in fact, an inspiration or “a rainbow” (brainyquote) to many. Angelou wrote to express herself; she believed if she was going to write about something, it was important (Noah Charney The Daily Beast). Angelou’s childhood experiences played an important role in her poems and books. She inspired many with her words of wisdom and encouraged many to keep going even when life gets tough. Maya Angelou’s story begins on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis Missouri (bio.com). At the age of 7, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend and , because of
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Angelou mainly wrote her poems based on her feedback dealing with abuse, criticism, loss, hope, etc. (poetry foundation). Angelou’s poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is a prime example . Some of Angelou’s main influences include Edgar Allen Poe, Thomas Wolfe, Anne Spencer, and John O. Killens (Danielle Dorky). During the five years Angelou remained silent, as said earlier in this research paper, she memorized Poe’s poems, however Anne Spencer helped her to start talking again “by showing her the beauty of the spoken word” (Danielle Dorky). Businessindider.com explains how Angelou told George Plimpton a glass of wine played a key role in her writing (Julie Zeveloff Business Insider), to put it another way, she had a very unique method to writing her poems. These are only some of Angelou’s influences and methods of writing but there are many more things that had an affect and played a role in writing her …show more content…
Angelou is stating that no one can take on all of the world’s weight without the help of others. Shmoop.com says: “When we get right down to it, this poem centers itself on an emotional landscape: the homelessness of the human soul. The roving, searching heart has no home- which is perhaps why we move from setting to setting in this poem as well (Shmoop Editorial Team).” There are a few possible themes to this poem, shmoop.com has four: isolation, suffering, spirituality, and society/class. The main theme of the poem, however, is needing someone to rely on when you can’t handle things on your own, as in lines twelve and thirteen, “Nobody, but nobody Can make it out here alone.” These lines are also repeated in a couple of other stanzas. The tone at the beginning of this poem is searching as said in line three, “How to find my soul a home”, while the tone at the end of the poem is realization. The overall tone of this poem is “epiphanic, as if the narrator had just figured something out revolutionary (to her this was)” (pt10thpoetry.weebly.com). This poem describes Angelou’s life because of how much she had put up with on her own and coming to the realization that she needed someone to lean on when the weight of the world became too much to
People talk behind the speaker’s back and spread whatever rumors they can conjure, even to the point of ramming her face in the mud and really making a picture of her as a dirty, good-for-nothing person. Yet despite that, she still walks with her head high, knowing they're not true. And when people can't seem to understand why she’s not upset, they'll continue putting her down. And she'll just laugh it off, not really caring about what they say or do. The last stanza shows that even if she had a checkered past and no matter what she may have done before, she can still rise, she can still stand up, she can still look the world in the eye and tell them, “I will rise.” In lines 21-24, Angelou states, “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’ll rise.” This shows that no matter what came Angelou’s way, she still rose to the occasion and made a difference. Thus, the racism that Angelou went through left its footprints in the making of her poetic
Maya Angelou was an inspiring activist, poet, and woman. Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. Throughout her lifetime she explored her career options as an actress, dancer, singer, writer, and editor among many other careers. Angelou had a tough childhood. Her parents divorced when she was very young and she was sent to live with her grandmother in Arkansas along with her brother Bailey. As an African American, Angelou experienced discrimination and racial prejudices. Angelou gave birth to her son Guy, at the age of sixteen and married her first husband Tosh Angelos, at the age of twenty-four. Angelou and Tosh divorced years later however, she did get married a couple of more times. Angelou experienced many
Maya Angelou, named at birth, Marguerite Johnson was on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her and her family moved from St. Louis to Stamps, Arkansas, where she was raised growing up. Maya Angelou was an American author, dancer, screenwriter, actress, poet and civil rights activist. Angelou gained a majority of her fame with the memoir she wrote in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This memoir made literary history as being the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. Angelou received many awards and honors throughout her entire career. These awards included two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009. Angelou became one of the most legendary and influential
To begin with, the tone of this poem is yearning for human connections. Angelou is longing for human relations as well as telling the reader the importance of these relationships. In the first stanza Angelou states, “Lying, thinking / Last night / How to find my soul a home / Where water is not thirsty/ And bread loaf is not stone.” She is trying to find a purpose and something to fill her empty void. Then she comes to the realization, that the only way to fill the void is to make healthy human relationship. “I came up with one thing / And I don’t believe I’m wrong / That nobody, / But nobody / Can make it here alone,” she’s yearning for love or a friendship. She also exemplifies her yearning tone, “Storm clouds are
Maya Angelou is terrific performer, singer, filmmaker, and civil-rights activist. She is a phenomenal woman, one thing that she does best is writing. She is still living today, I believe her legend will never die. If one would talk to her, he or she would think she has lead a normal, happy life. Her life is blissful now, it was not always perfect. Maya beard enough emotional stress in a time frame that most people do not experience in a lifetime. Her experiences and the lessons learned encouraged her to help others become strong. Maya Angelou is one of the best examples of someone overcoming rape, being mute for several years, and having a child at a young age to achieve success of becoming an accomplished
Maya Angelou was very brave. One of the things that makes her brave is being able to talk about being sexually abused. At the young age of seven, Angelou was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend. This happened while she was briefly staying with her mother in St. Louis. For the rest of her life, she would have that memory in her brain, reminding her of such a traumatic experience. In 1970, Angelou had an autobiography that was on the New York Times’ bestseller
Maya Angelou is an amazing American author, poet, entertainer, actress, playwright, producer and director, historian and civil rights activist. She is best known for her portrayals of strong African American women.
Angelou went back into writing working on book named I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings which was published in 1970 as well as for many other books that she published becoming bestsellers.
When I first read this poem, I was overwhelmed with conflicting emotions. Maya Angelou depicts herself as a fighter that will never give up, no matter the circumstances. She has obviously faced some difficult situations in her life that should have stopped her but she continues to triumph in the face of adversity. In this way, I am inspired to continue pursuing my goals. I also felt discouraged and disgusted, mostly because of the types of obstacles that are described in this poem. It is symbolizes the obstacles that many African Americans faced in the past as a result of the abolition of slavery, racism and inequality. The discouraging part of this poem is that some of these very inequalities and injustices still go on today. So, while this poem illustrates strength,
Maya Angelou’s writing career started in the late 1950’s, after she moved to New York City. Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she was able to meet a number of major African-American authors and published for the first time. In 1968, with the help of her friend and novelist James Baldwin, Angelou wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which brought her great international recognition and acclaim. With the first volume of her autobiography, she writes about growing up as a poor black female during segregation in the rural South.
This autobiography is about Maya Angelou’s life and facing discrimination and all the challenges that she had to overcome in her life. It's also about allowing herself to accept who she is. She felt, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.” (N. A. "Excerpt: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings." NPR. NPR, 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 02 May 2017.) The meaning of this quote is Angelou went through so much through her sixteen years growing up. More than a lot of people would go through in a lifetime. And keeping all the tough times to herself she wanted to tell everyone her story. Despite the hard times she excelled in school and kept her head held high. This text is explaining what discrimination was like in the past and how they treated people that were black. By explaining what was going on in the past she hopes that whoever reads this autobiography it has an impact on them to get them to see how wrong discrimination
Angelou’s Lifestyle Connection with her Literature Maya Angelou is a well-known author, regardless of being known for her poetry, or countless autobiographies that she has written that related to some of the tragic events that took place throughout her childhood up into her adult life. Angelou used different themes throughout her work that expressed her own life experiences. Whether it was being raped as a child by her mother’s boyfriend or having the feeling that she was the person at fault when it came down to the death of her rapist. According to an article written by Smelstor and Bruce, at birth, she born with the name Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Angelou talks about still being able to rise up to her challenges and overcome the difficulties. This poem speaks to me about how she will still rise and will not back down, no matter who and what has hurt
Maya Angelou was an author, actress, screenwriter, dancer and poet. She was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up, she was known as Marguerite Annie Johnson and was later given the name Maya Angelou in her twenties. She had a difficult childhood due to her parents splitting when she was a very young age. Angelou and her brother were sent to Stamps, Arkansas, where they lived with their grandmother. Even as a child Angelou experienced racial discrimination and was even raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of eight. In seek of revenge, Angelou’s uncle killed the boyfriend, thus leaving Angelou traumatized and practically mute. Eventually, Angelou spoke again with help from Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a teacher and
an African-American author WHO is best better-known for her seven autobiographies was additionally a prolific associated booming author. She has been known as "the black woman's author laureate", and her poems are known as the anthems of African Americans.[1] Angelou studied and commenced writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and alternative nice literature to deal with trauma, as she represented in her 1st and most well-known life, i do know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She became a author once a series of occupations as a young adult, together with as a forged member of a eu tour of Porgy and Bess, and a entertainer of calypso music in nightclubs within the Fifties. several of the songs she wrote throughout that amount later found their