Maya Angelou Quotes

In I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Angelou uses various stylistic devices and rhetorical strategies such as similes and metaphors. Angelou’s use of similes are used in order to describe her own character. In this, Angelou remarks “For nearly a year, I sopped around the house, the Store, the school and the church, like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible” showing that Angelou's inner feelings of not being good enough to be picked or loved. Correspondingly Angelou felt her skin looked “dirty like mud” showing her inner insecurities of her skin colour being unattractive. The sense of Angelou’s insecurities can also be seen with the use of metaphors regarding Angelou's skin as she remarked “I was described by our playmates

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 is a phenomenal woman. She rises through all things that come her way and she refuses to back down. Angelou chose at a very young age to be a writer and a role model for many people. She believes that everyone should be treated equally and that the world should come together as a unity. Angelou had many careers but is known mostly for her poetic creations. She has come a long way from where she started and I think anyone can agree with me when I say, she has made us all proud with her accomplishments. Angelou writes poetry to inform and encourage others to carry on through the worst of times. She is a strong, confident, inspirational woman and I am more than honored to be doing my senior paper on her.

Her poems speak about the turmoil our world is in. She encourages us to love, love, and love. (Source card #4)      In her poem "Human Family", Angelou says, "We are more alike, my friends, then we are unlike." Maya's poems, which include "Equality" and "These yet to be United States", show the pain of humanity and the ignorance of the world. My favorite poem "Phenomenal Woman" shows what it's like to be a woman now a days. "I think the most impressive thing about Maya Angelou's poetry is that it is purely honest.

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 inspirational and helpful to others. She has helped people to look at themselves and other people in different, better ways. Angelou also had a joyful and loving personality. She was very engaged in everything that she did (Hoffert). Along with her outstanding personality and inspiration to others, Angelou was helpful. She helped people from many nations and bridged divides between races. This was such an admirable trait that a residence hall at Wake Forest University was named after Angelou (Kennedy). It has been said by Toni Morrison that she was there when you need it the most. Morrison has a firsthand experience with this because Angelou was the first person not in the family to call when Morrison’s son died (Hoffert).

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, is a writer,and she is known for many auto-biographical novels and she also writes poetry and essays. She also loved to study music, dance,and drama. From 1963 to 1966 Angelou was involved in the black civil rights movement. Maya Angelou wrote this specific poem called; “Phenomenal Women”. Angelou has a very creative way of saying things throughout her poem. Angelou talks about a woman in the poem that talks about herself a lot she repeats the phrase“ I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman that's me”( Angelou) therefore Angelou might be this person in her poem. Angelou is trying to show the reader that you need to have more confidence in your own person instead of worrying about others judgment.

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.

Maya Angelou has inspired me in more ways than one, and I had to write about her. When Maya speaks people listen. She has this wisdom that only few have, especially when life wasn’t always great. She turned tragedy into triumph, and helped others in doing so. So, Maya has proven too many women, especially black women that you succeed, even if you have had a child in your teen years. She’s proof that with determination nothing is unattainable.

again. But she had strived to do her best and did not give up. “You

African Americans in my generation should be ashamed. What did our ancestors fight for? In this generation we use the word nigger as if it is slang and not a word that our ancestors looked down upon. What did Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders fight for? In Maya Angelou’s book Rainbow in the Clouds she discussed that we as African Americans should respect our descendants and behave in a way that they would be proud of. Maya Angelou also expressed how she is proud to be an American and how she is thankful to our troops.

Life is a giant curveball and can sometimes cause a person to go through a bottomless pit of stress and depression. People who allow worrisome events in life linger in their mind only set the future for themselves up for a negative never ending cycle. Temporary mourning and negative thoughts are healthy for the body; this allows the mind to be emptied rather than bottling all feeling inside letting it overwhelm you. In the bible it says “Greater things are yet to come” and I feel that this quote fits perfectly with the Maya Angelou quote. With greater things to come why would you let a negative part in your life interfere with your other adventures, as Maya Angelou says. When reading this quote, I connected with it instantly through the

Commemorative Speech Maya Angelo Introduction: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” These are the words of Marguerite Ann Johnson, better known as Maya Angelou, who is known as one of the most influential voices of our time.  Maya Angelou was no ordinary woman, she is the voice of reason for so many today. She inspires many individuals through her poems, memoirs, movies, plays and autobiographies. What is so inspiring to me, is that, although she encountered major hardships throughout her childhood, she did not allow those moments to dictate her future.

In Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” Angelou uses similes and the placement of her ideas to establish that self-esteem generates strength to resist humiliation. Angelou includes examples of society belittling the speaker to establish their humiliation. Angelou follows the incidents and examples of humiliation with similes that create images of elevation, to establish the speaker’s strength to continue after humiliation. Angelou uses similes to associate valuables with the speaker to establish their self-esteem. By placing an example of the speaker’s self-esteem between two different displays of the speaker’s strength, Angelou establishes the influence self-esteem has on a person’s strength to continue after humiliation. Angelou’s strategic placement of examples, which demonstrate the speaker’s self-esteem, and her use of similes establish self-esteem as the source of the strength one needs to overcome humiliation.

Maya Angelou once said, “ When someone shows you who they are believe them: the first time.” The ambience that Maya Angelou is tracing in this quote is not to blame those who do you wrong, when you already know how they are. Not only that but also in believing what a person demonstrates themselves to be, regardless of who they claim to be.