What Is The Poem About My Rights By June Jordan

The poems ‘Still I Rise’ and ‘Unknown Girl’ both explore the way women are expected to behave in specific societies. ‘Still I Rise’ focuses on Maya Angelou’s refusal to accept racism and to allow “them”, white oppressors, to push her down. ‘Unknown Girl’ focuses on Moniza Alvi’s want to be accepted in a society where she belongs, but can’t call her own.

    Angelou utilizes metaphors to prove to her readers that she is determined and willing to end the conflict of racial segregation in America. She describes the past slavery and the harsh terms that her ancestors used to go through, but now in the current situation of America, she can come, “out of the huts of history’s shame /I rise” (29-30). The audience is reminded of the fact that slavery is now in the past, and Angelou does this in order to rhetorically ask the audience ‘why America overcame slavery. ’ She describes herself emerging from a ‘hut of history’s shame’ as she is referring to the huts that slaves used to be kept in, as well as proving to be the generation that puts an end the shameful segregation in America, ‘I rise.’ The relation of rising from a slave hut into the world reveals the statement being made that Angelou will no longer accept the African American’s current treatment. She goes further on the topic of America’s history of slavery and

In a late Tupac Shakur interview in the early 90’s he said, “it all comes down to we have to survive, we got to survive here in this country, because I’m not going back to Africa, we have to survive here”. Social injustice is what activist stressed during and after the civil rights movement. This paper is going to explore the poem “Mystery of Iniquity” by Lauryn Hill. In this poem Lauryn Hill warns you of the government, and the “free world”. This poem was written in 2002, during which police brutality was very prominent. In the start of this century African Americans still lived in poverty, and was treated unfairly in the court systems causing grief.

Throughout the history of mankind, change has remained a constant. Men and women continually strive to improve their lives and enact changes that enable them to better their quality of life. Our world’s history is compromised of these efforts by man to enhance society, through political, economic, and social changes, which are further documented through the cultural outputs of a society. The poets Roger Bonair-Agard and Gloria Anzaldua encapsulate the calls for change in a society through their works “how do we spell freedom – the weusi alphabeti method” and “El sonavabitche”, respectively. Though the two poets wrote on vastly different subjects, both authors employed literature as a medium for their call for activism in society and expressed discontent with the dominance of western culture over minority groups. Through their utilization of formal elements including imagery, diction, and narrator, both poets call for action to change the mindset that the imposition that American society holds over other groups of people.

Prompt: Write a unified essay in which you relate the imagery of the last stanza to the speaker’s view of himself earlier in the poem and to his view of how others see poets.

King belabors the point made on the struggles of colored people; he lists specific examples that highlight the overarching point of this paragraph. He establishes a candid, impassioned tone that allows the reader,

“Still I Rise”, written by African-American writer Maya Angelou, includes a character who rises “Up from a past that’s rooted in pain.” No matter what words are said against her, lies are told about her, threats are made towards her, or words are written against her, she takes the past and uses it to fuel her confidence. The way she writes creates a deep sense of pride and feeling, while giving the poem life and helping the audience realise that they, too can rise. The diction, literary devices, and theme help the speaker portray her feelings about the topic of oppression in her experience.

The rhetorical effect of this poem is it emphasizes that African Americans have to wear a mask because the people around them don’t let them show their true feelings. Before the Civil Rights Movement, blacks had no voice and could not speak their opinions. The rhetorical devices do very well to help meet the rhetorical

It is this dignity that many African people's all but lost in the colonial period...The writer's duty is to help them regain it by showing them in human terms what happened to them, what they lost." (Achebe/Killam Eds. Pg. 159.)

Throughout ‘Still I RIse’, Angelou repeatedly reiterates ‘I’ll Rise’ to show her profound personality, whilst, Harrison’s lexical field of anguish conveys a lack of identity; Angelou’s use of ‘I’ll Rise’ delineates persistence and perseverance. The speaker uses this effective phrase on numerous occasions to emphasize how she will resist the oppression and stand proud. Moreover, Angelou’s speaker uses repeated rhetorical questions and an antithesis to again bring this perception of dedication and stamina. This is evident when said, “...to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes?” The consecutive rhetorical questions used here show determination and strength. Angelou’s application of “Bowed head and lowered eyes?” suggests submissiveness to challenge tyranny. This recapitulates perseverance and persistence. An antithesis is used to show how she falls, yet, she is still rising: “Shoulders falling down like teardrops.” The contrast of ‘shoulders falling’ and ‘teardrops’ shows the belligerence and controversy but still gracefully and with refinement. On the contrary, in ‘The Bright Light of Sarajevo’ there is a dark and secretive atmosphere. This is evident when said, “Dark boy-shape leads dark girl-shape away to share one coffee”. Harrison exploits ‘dark’ to create this lexical field of despair and concealment. This concealment shows the lack of identity and insignificance. Furthermore, Harrison uses ‘candlelit cafe’ to devise a hidden and clandestine ambience. The application of ‘leads’ suggests mystery and the boy having an authoritative character . Throughout the poem, many themes are created, nonetheless, the most prominent is this matter of concealed emotions. Contrasting of confidence and uncertainty creates this conflict between one’s identity and the lack of identity.

In “On the Pulse of Morning”, Angelou uses visual imagery and symbolism to argue that people must learn from the past to eliminate racial injustice in society today. The vivid descriptions found in the poem evoke feelings of injustice through the emotionally painful pictures that they paint. Americans as a whole are described in the poem to have “crouched too long in / The bruising darkness, [...] / Face down in ignorance” (“On the Pulse of Morning” 15-18). The speaker of the poem insinuates that “humans have been hiding, [...] afraid of what they might learn” from history (“On the Pulse of Morning”, 1998, 3: 276). The bestial visual of a person “crouching” takes away the humanity of the subjects, and the description of “bruising darkness” calls to mind the dark times of slavery over a hundred years prior. The image evokes a feeling that Americans have made terrible mistakes in the past that have not yet been corrected. They have committed terrible, animalistic acts in the blackened cover of history. These people refuse to look up and accept what has been done. The shadows of slavery and the pain caused by it are still ubiquitous in modern society, and if humans do not stop hiding from the truth, they cannot right the wrongs that have been committed. In order for the ignorance to end, people must accept the continuing prevalence of injustice. Not only does Angelou use detailed descriptions, but her use of symbolism allows the reader to see the injustice in society through

The aim of this essay is to address the problem of inequality and oppression through three separate texts, The Second Sex, The Death of the Profane and Killing Rage. The Second Sex focuses on the woman and her role compared to man. The Death of the Profane and Killing Rage are both texts that describe experiences about the constant racism felt by blacks. To thoroughly examine these texts and how they are related to oppression and inequality it is important to first define what each mean. Oppression and inequality each have different definitions but they go hand in hand. Oppression is the state of being subject to prolonged unjust treatment. While inequality is defined as lacking equality, equality is the state of being equal especially in status,

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” declared by an influential leader Martin Luther King Jr. As a soldier againsts unfairness, King strongly states that people should fight for freedom. Driven by human nature, humans are always chasing freedom. In “A Century Later,” the Pakistan-born British poet Imtiaz Dharker uses the poetic devices of symbolism, diction, and allusion to explore how perseverance drives freedom.

    The narrator describes a vision he had while he was listening to Louis Armstrong, exploring back into the history of slavery. He his introduced in an intangible voice , someone who has lost his specification through the society . The narrator casts back on an earlier period of the 20th century, encouraging that a newly educated black class felt guilty of a past that was no flaw of its own. The narrator's  granddad emerged  to be in this line hoping to forget the history of slavery, but on his deathbed reveals that the struggle against white oppression is still continuing .

The apartheid era in South Africa, uprooted the lives of many people who were forced to endure oppressive laws and inequality based on the colour of their skin. It continues to remain a painful memory to those who lost loved ones in their struggle for freedom. In Chris Van Wyk’s novel, Shirley, Goodness & Mercy (2004), he explores fond memories growing up in a township called Riverlea. This township is predominantly occupied by coloured people as a result of segregation laws. Contrary to the negative connotations that apartheid holds, Van Wyk shares the memories which enriched his life during his formation. It is against this setting that I will explore various moments in the novel that contributed to Van Wyk’s views of a pre-apartheid time in his growing up. I will establish this by discussing the given extract, and looking at how he perceived a sense of freedom with his friends, his open state of mind towards knowledge, his outlook on justice and the wrongs that were not evident in his growing up. I will also discuss how it relates to the whole novel.