How Does Maya Angelou Use Personification In Still I Rise

Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise,” written in 1978, acknowledges the racism and segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. During this time, although no longer slaves, the African Americans have been given little rights and opportunity in America. Maya Angelou wrote this poem to prove to other American citizens that she is unfazed by their hate, while she strengthens her people’s motive to reach equality. Angelou utilizes metaphor, imagery and repetition to reveal how proud she is of her minority’s strength.

When reading, “Still I Rise”, by Maya Angelou, I immediately get a sense of perseverance and pride. The author seems to be addressing her adversaries directly through her words. I love the imagery used in this poem. I can almost see the dust rising and can feel the swelling of the black ocean that the author mentions. “Cause I walk like I got oil wells pumping in my living room”(Angelou, 1978), and, “Laugh like I’ve got gold mines diggin’ in my own back yard” (Angelou, 1978), tells me that the author feels that her life is joyous and priceless, and can’t be taken away. As the phrase, “I Rise” (Angelou, 1978), is repeated again and again, it’s as if I can

The poem inspires one to never submit to what one thinks about them and to achieve their dreams by staying strong: "You may shoot me with your words, / You may cut me with your eyes, / You may kill me with your hatefulness, / But still, like air, I'll rise." (20-24). These quotes show Angelou’s attitude toward her doubter and how regardless of the way people look at her she will continue to strive and push to achieve all that she set her mind to. One should never give up on their dreams now be bother by anyone’s options towards them, as Angelou explained. People will always have something negative to say, it’s how one rises that matters.

Similarly, in the poem, Angelou overcomes racial prejudices by confronting racial comments made towards her from white people.

The begging of the poem shows that the poet wants to show that she does not care and has become mature enough to believe in herself. She has gaines this maturity through the time she got to spend with herself as obstacles came her way. The stanza also helps the readers understand that Angelou has been through struggles that the society would portray in different perspectives. Angelou quotes “Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.” As she leaves the past behind and the shame she went through she rises with pride.

"You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness. But still, like air, I'll rise." Have you ever been so influenced by such a small amount of powerful words? This brilliant quote extracted from Maya Angelou's own poem, "Still I Rise", basically brings out the spirit and nature of each of her publications. Maya Angelou's works of poetry are seen as inspiration for those who have been discriminated for their public appearances. As a victim of personal rejection and institutional racism, Maya writes in an assertive, confident tone with a repetitive style on behalf of African-American discrimination as seen through her poems "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", "Phenomenal

The elaborate use of the friendly voice is not unusual for an autobiographical account and is key to Angelou's ability to connect with the reader on a personal basis and instill a feeling of empathy and understanding for those in her

One example of imagery Angelou uses is the “caged bird” itself, to give the readers a visual of a bird caged bound. Another example of imagery is from the quote “The caged bird sings with a fearful trill” this gives the readers the opportunity to close their eyes and visualize a bird chirping in a frightful tone calling out for freedom. The final element that Angelou utilizes is symbolism. In this poem by Maya Angelou readers can assume she is using the entire poem to symbolize our civil rights activist such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks fighting for equality and freedom with only dream about being able to be free like a “free bird who can dips his wing in the orange sun rays or one that can claim the sky,” when she refers to a caged bird.

Foul words are used to expressed people’s emotions toward another person all the time. In “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou the speaker remains assertive even when awful words are thrown her way every day.The theme of not letting people knock you down in Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” is expressed through repetition, similes, and diction.

How does Maya Angelou provoke the audience to feel the sense of equality? Maya Angelou captures the audience’s attention through her persuasive piece ‘Still I Rise’ which evidently addresses her implicit response to oppression and mistreatment, African- American women suffered for decades. This poem focuses on the conformity of Angelou to the oppressors on the behalf of all the black women and the loss of their self-respect and dignity in the process.

Females had been oppressed by sociality in order to be accepted and Angelou is determined to fight until both genders are equal. In ”Still I rise”, she uses the rhetorical question ,”does my sassiness upset you?” to show that she does not follow the conventional acts women had to be. Angelou follows it up with another rhetorical question, “why are you beset with gloom?” to show the audience that people would be sad and anger that she is not the way the society depicts a women. She then enforced her point with the simile that “I dance like I’ve got diamonds at the meeting of her thighs” that confidence and sexuality is

Critically acclaimed writer, Maya Angelou, explores the concept of oppression and one’s ability to rise above in her poem “Still I Rise.” The piece’s purpose is to inspire African Americans to rise above the implications of oppression and confront individuals who stand in support of injustice. Angelou establishes an ardent tone and evokes a complex emotional response in the reader through her sophisticated utilization of charged language, allusion and imagery; however, she still manages to keep the piece candid by focusing her audience with personal pronouns and rhetorical questions designed to prompt self-reflection. Angelou passion is primarily conveyed through her combined use of allusion and imagery and amplified through her charged language. In the third line, Angelou paints a clear image of oppression as he describes that her oppressors want to see her “Shoulders falling down like teardrops/ Weakened by [her] soulful cries” (15-16).

Angelou' prologue centers around a young black girl. The young black girl being herself. The relation between the speaker and the writing draws a connection with the audience. The audience no longer see's the speaker as on outsider narrator but an actual relatable person. In the third line the author says "I hadn't so much forgot as I couldn’t bring

Growing up during times of common race and gender discrimination, Maya Angelou has proven to people she is a strong African American woman who would not allow inequality of any kind bring her down. This paper describes the feminist strengths Angelou refers to and implies in her two famous poems Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise.

Throughout the poem imagery paints an image of the representation of the author’s persona. Certainly, the poem’s imagery is showing the persona’s confidence as a character of strength. Likely the persona makes these images of “[Oppressors] may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, / [she’ll] rise” (Angelou 3-4). Indicating the picture of how she and her ancestors are dirt being stomp on