‘Still I Rise’ is about an African American who addresses the white oppression on blacks. The author, Maya Angelou portrays this impact in her poem as a building point for her. She uses the phrase “Bringing the gift that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and hope of slave” to bring her whole idea together. As you read through it more you see that she is taking the strength that her ancestors had and learning form it and letting her ancestors wish that they had for the future and making it happen. Still I rise was published in 1987 which was a very controversial time because that was when speaking out about the mistreatment of about the blacks was challenged. So, when the poet spoke out about this issue it was a huge step into her standing up and rising. People did not expect Maya to do such a thing and many viewed it as offensive and not right. In her first line, she starts it off with “You” which clearly has an important reason behind it. Basically, the way she started it off with the word you it demonstrates that she is addressing the poem to others which means that it’s not private. …show more content…
She demonstrates this in the lines “you may shoot me with your words… cut me with your eyes… kill me with your hatefulness.” As you can see she uses words that correlates with pain, danger and fear to express the pain she feels. For instance, in the line “you may shoot me with your words” she talks about the names she must have been called and the amount of pressure she gets from them. When the poet talks about the line “you may cut me with your eyes” she is explaining the looks she gets on the daily just beaming at her skin. Lastly, in the line “you may kill me with your hatefulness”, it is kind of self-explanatory, but she is addressing the hate she gets form the white oppressors who judge her for who she
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.
Majority of African American women get judged on the day to day basis. When scrolling through social media there will be large amounts of individuals who will bully or even belittle a colored female because of the natural kinks of her hair, her sense of fashion, the full shaped curves of her body, and the color of her skin . The poem “Still I Rise” by the well-known poet, Maya Angelou, specifically describes the reasons why she had so much confidence; even if she were to be judged by her appearances and mindset. This poem is about embracing females, but it mainly introduces similar life situations that many African American women have experienced. The symbols and point of view that Angelou specifically added in her poem made her readers realize that there are many meanings to this poem.
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”).