Our Grandmothers By Maya Angel Essay

make them stop teasing and making fun of her. I think if she did say

In “Mericans” Sandra Cisneros uses imagery to develop the text’s theme. Imagery is when an author uses visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work. In “Mericans” Sandra Cisneros uses imagery multiple times to describe and develop the scene around the narrator. The first example of imagery is “Some with fat rags tied around their legs and others with pillows, one to kneel on, and one to flop ahead”. Additionally imagery is used again, as it states, “After all that dust and dark, the light from the plaza makes me squinch my eyes like if I just came out of the movies.” The use of imagery creates an visualization of the area around the narrator and how she is reacting to that area.

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.

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

The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the

In stanza four Maya Angelou asks a series of rhetorical questions in lines thirteen and fourteen. She knows that people want to see her broken, weak and crying from the criticism and hateful words that have been said to her. She not only had to deal with criticism from being an African-American in a time when whites did not accept them into their society but also dealing with the fact that she was an African-American woman. During the fifties women were expected to marry and be a helping hand around the house. They were not expected to be in the working field. Just imagine how hard it had to be to make as an African-American women trying to achieve her goals. But she refuses to show how difficult it was through her emotion she just rises above it.

In Maya Angelou's’ excerpt, she uses descriptive imagery to shed light on what it was like to be alive in the black community at the time of this special event. Using imagery can display the audible and visual settings of a story. This allows a better understanding for the audience. Moreover, making the audience feel as if they are a part of the story. Angelou writes,“The last inch of space was filled, yet people continued to wedge themselves along the walls of the Store. Uncle Willie had turned the radio up to its last notch so that youngsters on the porch wouldn't miss a word.”

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.

Another use of a metaphor in the last stanza relates back to the key idea of the poem. In the line, ‘I am the dream and the hope of the slave,’ Maya Angelou is directly comparing herself to what a slave dreams about, which is equality and freedom. She is calling herself the ‘ambassador’ of equal rights, and therefore stating herself as a leader who will make the first step to rise up against racism and fight for equal rights. This again shows her strong, powerful approach to overcoming racial inequality.

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

The author uses imagery to interest the reader in her story that may seem mundane without the imagery. An example of this happening is when Jeannette is going to her new school in Welch it was her first day and the teacher picks on her because she did not have to give the school her records to her not having them as that is happening a tall girl stabs her out of nowhere“I felt something sharp and painful between my shoulder blades and turned around. The tall black girl with the almond eyes was sitting at the desk behind me.

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.

Imagery is any piece of language that provokes the readers mind to form a mental picture or image.

Imagery is a strong element that helps portray a lot of internal feelings for the audience to fathom with, thus creating an experience that the audience can enjoy. Imagery is the language represented by sense experience and a literary device that helps create a mental picture for the reader to understand what the writer is trying to say to the audience (Johnson, Arp 779). The following is the poem by Langston Hughes: “The calm,/Cool face of the river/Asked me for a kiss.” (Hughes 1-3) When examining the poem, “Suicide’s Note”, it is full of imagery with only three lines present. The

The use of metaphors by Maya Angelou reflect her Confidence. When she says “Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells pumping in my living room” She is saying that you shouldn’t be unhappy because she is happy and she uses this metaphor to help show that. She uses metaphors because it gives you a tangible comparison between reality and her metaphors. She showed irony when she talked about rising like dust because dust eventually settles but she wants to stay risen and on top of the world. She wants to be like dust and rise, but she wants to be unlike dust and stay