Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Tia Castor
Ms. Jacobs
English 132
In Still I Rise by Maya Angelou it speaks about a strong African American woman
who addresses those who clearly overlook and undervalue her and all black women. To better
help explain that she uses does it through the speaker and the situations throughout the poem.
She is speaking up for African American women, her ancestors, and as well as for herself. The
speaker highlights critical situations of racial discrimination throughout the poem by using a
confident persona.
Maya Angelou structures her poem in a way that points out a specific audience, white
people for example who have as a group been responsible for oppressing people of color..
Historically, African American women were looked at as inferior and worthless. African
Americans, especially women, would walk around with their heads down, ashamed of how
others viewed them. The speaker explains these years of oppression and discrimination toward
African Americans when she begins: You may write me down in history/ With your bitter,
twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt/ But still, like dust. Ill rise (Lines 1-4). She
continues, Did you want to see me broken?/ Bowed head with lowered eyes?/ Shoulders falling
down like tear drops,/ Weakened by my soulful cries?/ (Lines 13-16). Angelou pulls realistic
situations females used to face every single day and uses it as a way to show the mental torture
females faced and the effects of being trampled on through years of frustration. For instance,
African American women were thought to be lazy and incompetent before they were even able
Castor 2
to reveal their worth. They also were criticized as a group without any space for seeing them as
an individual. The poem highlights situations where the speaker responds to typical criticism
amongst African American women. White people see African Americans in a certain way; they
expected the speaker to walk around with her head bowed and her to not be a strong woman. She
a strong African American to someone who is starting to directly questioning and replying to
someone specifically who seems bothered by her personality. You can tell this by the way she
says things and the questions she asks. She asks does her Sassiness upset you? (Line 5).
Meaning are you shocked that she is not like what others thought her to be. She next inquires
Why are you beset with gloom? /Cause I walk like Ive got oil wells/ Pumping in my living
room (Lines 6-8). These lines reveal a person who uses figurative language to show how she
has richness at her finger tips. She goes on to say, Does my haughtiness offend you?/ Dont you
take it awful hard/ Cause I laugh like Ive got gold mines/ Diggin in my backyard. (Lines 17-
20) The speaker talks in a way that overshadows all the insults blather people used to say about
African American women. She does not talk in an arrogant way, but more so in a way that gets
the readers to sympathize with her. The speaker goes from showing how rooted and upset she is
to someone who is finally breaking free and standing up to the rumors and the lies of what
people think she is to who she really is as a person. The metaphoric examples Angelou uses
better helps the reader you understand the liberal content and the domination she discusses
throughout the poem. She starts off before she even begun writing her poem with a quote that
Another oOne of the refrains of the poem is also the title which shows her confidence.
Angelou repeats after the situations and questions, I rise ( Lines 4, 12, 24, 30, 32, 36, 38, 41-
43). This an ultimate display of strength and confidence. The speaker is reassuring herself and
others that regardless of what she has endured, she will be victorious. In some of the final lines,
she notes, Out of the huts of historys shame/ I rise/ Up from a past thats rooted in pain/ I rise/
Im a black ocean, leaping and wide,/ Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. (Lines 29-34).
This is someone who is knows exactly where she came from, but is not allowing for it to limit
her. The speaker knows her power and the impact it could cause and no matter what, as she says
Overall in Still I Rise by Maya Angelou is a poem that explains the injustice and
oppression the speaker is facing. Through critical situations of racial discrimination and a
confident persona, the speakers transitions throughout the poem helps the reader see no matter
what people may say or think about her, or other black women, she still will overcome. She rises
above all the discrimination and all of the hate that has traveled through her ancestors and every
African American woman who may be facing the same exact thing.