System's Mesed Up By Maya Angelou: Perseverance Towards Racism

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

n American history, racial inequality has been a prevalent issue for many decades. Slavery is America's original sin. In the 1930s, racial inequality and segregation lived and breathed well. At this point in time, segregation in schools and other public places was still present. For preposterous reasons, white and black people had separate water fountains, restaurants, rest rooms, and areas on the bus. During this time full of racism and racial inequality, Maya Angelou was just a little girl growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis is a town in the South, like many others, had inequalities at the time. In 1938 Maya Angelou was only ten years old. At this age, she worked for a lady named Mrs. Viola Cullinan. Maya Angelou wrote briefly about her time spent working for Mrs. Cullinan in her short story “Mary.” Maya Angelou's’ use of vivid, direct characterization and alternating childish voice to mature adult narrative diction filtered through her authentic first person point of view helps to prominently establish the theme of Angelou’s distaste for racial inequality throughout the short story.

During her graduation, two speeches were given, one was from a fellow black student who directed his speech in the way of pathos in which he tried to evoke emotion and motivate all the students to be their best despite their backgrounds. The other speaker was a white man, who was an elected official and went more the way of ethos, using ethical words, which made him lose the audience. He implied that all the white kids would go on to do great things and all the black kids would go to be athletes or do some sort of social work. In Maya’s essay titled “Graduation,” Angelou mentions “The white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gauguins, and our boys (the girls weren’t even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises” (51). From this quote I can resonate with the fact that people, including my mother thought that white kids had more of an opportunity to be great as opposed to minorities, which is why she moved me so I could be a Galileo, or a Madame Curie. Also, that shows how I might relate to Maya in the fact that even though they are two completely different times, the reality is that based on race or being colored there is a pre-placed weight on one’s shoulder to break past that. Another quote that resonated with me personally is when Angelou discusses the speech made by Henry Reed- “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” (Reed qtd. in Angelou 53). I personally think that this quote compares Maya and I’s thinking because she felt like she had no control over her life and it was determined, and at one point my mother felt like that was going to be my path, however we both chose to be the “captain of our own soul”. I could of chose to be a stereotype and be like the majority but I decided to take my life into my own hands

Maya Angelou narrates her account in a conversational tone.  She uses the past tense which tells her audience "it's over" for her.  Her words are free from severity.  They encourage the reader to see hope in the midst of sadness.  Instead of trying to elicit a particular emotional response, Angelou invites her audience to share in her thoughts and feelings.  For instance, having given an account of the rape, she writes, "I thought I had died--I woke up in a white-walled world, and it had to be heaven."  The reader feels a connection with her pain, yet realizes redemption lies close at hand.  Whereas Walker tells how she was confronted by her parents, Angelou explains,"she [mother] picked me up in her arms and the terror abated for a while."  There is no impression of combativeness.  There is only tenderness and care.  Once again, she invites the reader in.  Walker wants the reader to feel for her; Angelou wants her audience to feel with her.  They achieve their objectives by directing the reader's attention to specific emotions.

Maya Angelou, an African-American woman, wrote the poem, “Still I Rise,” in 1978 when racism was still prominent. Maya Angelou was reaching out to a racist community to prove oppression will not bring her down. Angelou brings up topics of what she and every other African-American person has to endure when living in their communities, and how they feel. She also brings up topics of oppression and marginalization throughout this speech to state that she will continue to rise up above it. Maya Angelou utilizes rhetorical questions, hateful diction, as well as, similes and metaphors to prove to others that she, and other African-American’s will rise against the racism and oppression they face.

Maya Angelou’s tone is overall assertive throughout the whole poem but it tends to become more powerful and stronger in the 6th stanza, creating a sense of empowerment, as she accuses her oppressors’ mistreatments and fights back by saying ‘But still, like air, I'll rise’. Sarcasm is clearly evident in the stanzas where Angelou incorporates rhetorical questions to accuse the people who humiliated and mistreated her and her self – confidence also reflects as she says ‘Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines, diggin' in my own back yard’. Her confidence portrays her as a strong person, as even though she suffered through a harsh world she still managed to laugh like she has ‘gold mines’. The tone was calm by the end of the poem which allowed Angelou to highlight the final conclusion to the audience much more

In Maya Angelou’s memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, Angelou tell an experience she had early in her life that relates to being “great but misunderstood”. When Angelou is around the age of sixteen, she wants to start working and wants to get a job as a conductorette of street cars. Her mother tell her she can’t because she is black, but Maya tries anyway. After being very persistent, she finally get the job and becomes the first black person to conduct on a San Francisco street car. This is an example of self reliance because black people typically did not conduct street cars, but Maya did not care about what other people thought.

Do you think that the author primarily wants to change the attitudes of white or black people? When writing this Maya Angelou was living in a world where equality was irrelevant to society. In this story, she wanted to tell the white people, so to speak, that black people can do great things too. Just recently the information came out that three black women were the heart of the mission to the moon. The author can’t believe that in this world and in the world that Maya lived in are still full of racism and other discrimination.

The duration of Maya Angelou’s life saw African Americans being looked down upon by and oppressed by whites. People like Angelou weren’t seen as equals or professionals that strived for success which is something Angelou greatly defends in poetry. Angelou believes that anyone can be successful and prosper with hard work regardless of the color of their skin. In the poem “Times-Square-Shoeshine-Composition,” Angelou depicts a day in the life of an African American shoe shiner in Times Square, and a white man’s pity and refusal to support the shoe shiner’s business which can relate to all. In her poem “Times-Square-Shoeshine-Composition”, Angelou creates a distinct speaker’s voice using sound elements and structural variations to prove that African Americans can achieve success and prosperity despite being looked down upon.

Maya Angelou acclaimed poet and author wrote a poem entitled “America”. The poem offers words of truth of our country America. The poem begins, “ The gold of her promise, has never been mined.” America, promises us that all men are created equal. The first problem with the promise is we are not all men. The gold of her promise, address equality. Although it is promised to all in this country, its never delivered, when discrimination, of race and gender are still existent. “Her borders of justice, not clearly defined.” We all have our opinions on what justice is, because circumstances differ when we speak of justice in the terms of punishment, to make up for ones wrong doing. Yet, the borders of justice are not

An example of Maya facing racism is during her eighth grade graduation. Maya was so excited to graduate. The school she attended enrolled both whites and blacks. First of all during the assembly the blacks had to recite their own national anthem titled “ The Negro National Anthem”. The principal gave a speech the the students and instead of treating the kids equal, he proudly stated the new achievements the whites were going to have, and

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

In “My Name is Margaret”, Maya Angelou, the author of this short story, elucidates upon a fictional scenario depicting the dictating entitlement and superiority exposed to a myriad of African Americans during her generation. Angelou demonstrates this racial contrast by emphasizing the feeling of irrelevance through the looking glass

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.

As Angelou’s essay continues, she writes how she had the opportunity to work in Mrs. Viola Cullinan's kitchen, a white and wealthy woman from Virginia. Angelou was generally curious as Mrs. Cullinan showed her the differences in silverware and plates, but as she continues to write she still seemed jealous. She seemed jealous to the point she was bothered that Mrs. Cullinan could