If we are smart and attentive, we can easily learn by listening to other peoples wisdom. Maya Angelou shares her personal wisdom in her writings "Style," "New Directions," and "Complaining." In each of these works, there is an overarching theme that can be summed up in Angelou's saying, "You may not control al the events that happen in your life, but you can decide to not be reduced by them."
The general argument in the literary writing "Style," Maya Angelou discusses developing a unique sense of style. In her work she mentions "Good manners and tolerance are the highest manifestation of style," and once that style is developed and perfected you can better understand yourself, control your personal emotions, and have the tolerance to learn from those who surround you. Also she mentions "wise or stylish person takes the time to consider positive and negative possibilities in each situation," Angelou is trying to inform the readers that people who have the tolerance and patience to create and hone their own style can control how they react in certain situations. Another key quote would be "style is as unique and non-transferable and perfectly personal as a fingerprint." Thus explaining why some
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Johnson is faced with a difficult situation, with her husband leaving her, and the responsibility to take care of her two children, with no immediate job. Johnson says "there was no possibility of being hired at the towns cotton gins or lumbermill," because of her inability to work at factories and being a maid for someone else was not appealing to her as she did not want to leave her children alone with someone else. She then decides to create her own income by walking a total of 18 miles everyday to sell her homemade meat pies to workers on lunch break.She states "I decided to step off the road and cut m a new path." She overcame hardship by not letting her situation reduce and defeat her. All her hard work and persistence paid
"Angelou, Maya (née Marguerite Annie Johnson)." Encyclopedia of African-american Writing. Amenia: Grey House Publishing, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 12 March 2014.
In her narrative, titled “Champion of the World”, the nineteenth chapter of the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou recalls an incident of a heavyweight boxing match between an African American, Joe Louis, and a white contender. Angelou emphasizes the import of the match to the African American community to display the racism in this time period, the oppression people of color face, and the defeat they have to come to terms with whether they lose in one aspect of life or not. To achieve her purpose, Angelou uses dialogue, diction, and the the imbedding of a secondary narrative throughout the primary narrative. She creates parallelism through the use of repetition and utilizes short, staccato sentences to further emphasises her
In Maya Angelou's Essay `Graduation' the use of language as a navigational tool is very evident, as it leads from emotion to emotion on the occasion of the author's graduation from eighth grade. Over the course of the work, Angelou displays 3 major emotions simply based from the language she uses; excitement, disappointment and finally, redemption
In Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman”, audiences are drawn to the bold confidence and power of the female speaker. In this poem, Maya Angelou creates the image of a woman whose confidence is not hindered or threatened by imperfections and flaws. In many analyses of this work, audiences connect this poem to the expression of Maya Angelou’s individualism and self-love after having faced many personal struggles throughout her life. In a review found in the Virginia Quarterly Review, a critic states “Its theme [“Phenomenal Woman”]- the power and depth of women- echos her own personal history […]”. This theme of power is one that transcends this poem and is seen throughout many of Angelou’s works. Additionally, Angelou’s reflection on her own life through this poem is evident in the way in which she defines this power. Rather than emphasizing perfection and ideali...
Maya Angelou lived through a time where she was discriminated against for not only her race but also her gender. In her poem “Still I Rise” Angelou sarcastically talks about how no matter what is thrown at her she will rise above it and she will do it with resilience and confidence. Her poem discusses racism and sexism and gives minorities and women a sense of hope to overcome and endure both of those things. Angelou’s self-assurance in the poem makes you believe that you too can overcome whatever obstacle. Although this poem was intended for blacks, and women, and specifically black women, the poem helps build up strong and courageous people no matter what race or gender you are. Maya Angelou in “Still I Rise” uses both pathos and ethos to
Often times what makes a narrative interesting is the authors ability to tell a story that is so vivid, that we can actually feel the emotions that the characters experienced in the story. It’s not about describing the event that is happening, its about showing it. Instead of writing something for someone to read, a successful author will write things for people to live in and experience, to escape their own reality and live inside a new one. Unlike many authors Maya Angelou was a risk taker, she leaped at the opportunity to move and compel her readers. Maya Angelou’s Champion of the World consists of an alluring introduction, strategic vocabulary, and a wise use of figurative language thus causing a much stronger narrative than Amy Tan’s
As I was reading through the story “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou (written in 1959) I noticed that the author uses many different techniques like sentence structure, pathos, and logos to show and tell what she supports.
Maya Angelou is an author and poet who has risen to fame for her emotionally filled novels and her deep, heartfelt poetry. Her novels mainly focus on her life and humanity with special emphasis on her ideas of what it means to live. The way she utilizes many different styles to grab and keep readers’ attention through something as simple as an autobiography is astounding. This command of the English language and the grace with which she writes allows for a pleasant reading experience. Her style is especially prominent in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", where the early events of Angelou’s life are vividly described to the reader in the postmodern literary fashion.
Maya Angelou's life growing up was not always perfect. Given the birth name of Marguerite Ann Johnson, Maya Angelou was borin in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4th, 1928. Although she was born there, she spent most of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas with her Grandmother, Annie Henderson and in San Fransico, California with her mother. Maya Angelou is still living today and teaches at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Maya had to deal with many hard things growing up and although it wasn't perfect, she's lead a very eventful life.
The early 1930’s a time where segregation was still an issue in the United States it was especially hard for a young African American girl who is trying to grow and become an independent woman. At this time, many young girls like Maya Angelou grew up wishing they were a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. That was just the start of Angelou's problems though. In the autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou goes into great depth about her tragic childhood, from moving around to different houses, and running away and having a child at the age of 16. This shows how Maya overcame many struggles as a young girl.
In her first autobiography, Maya Angelou tells about her childhood through her graduation through, “Graduation”, from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” when she is about to graduate. She starts as an excited graduate because she was finally going to receive her diploma, a reward for all her academic accomplishments. On the day of her graduation finally comes, that happiness turns into doubt about her future as she believes that black people will be nothing more than potential athletes or servants to white people. It wasn’t until Henry Reed started to sing the Negro National Anthem that she felt on top of the world again. Throughout her graduation she felt excited to disappointed, until Henry Reed sang and made her feel better.
The joy of the upcoming days getting close-up to a special event of her 8th graduation from Lafayette County Training School in Stamps, Arkansas was the main focus of Maya Angelou’s “Graduation.” A young African American flourishing scholar waiting with excitement and hope for her graduation moment, and to began a new journey in the real world. Angelou implies her overall excitement into the conflicts of issues that shows a reflection of societal problems that still occur in today’s society. It emphasizes how people have to be strong in everyday life as Maya Angelou did with all circumstances; referring to racism. All Maya’s dreams, hopes and expectations to her graduation day were suddenly shut by a white politician man known as Mr. Edward
Maya Angelou is a well acclaimed poet, author, and civil rights activist. Though she passed away in 2014, her work continues to awe and inspire people worldwide. Angelou had written numerous poems, but in this analysis I will be focusing on “Caged Bird,” “Phenomenal Woman,” and finally “Touched by An Angel.” In these works we see her approach issues such as equality, racism, feminism, love and many more issues as well. Angelou is a very skilled poet; though some people find her work too straight forward and little more than common text broken into stanzas. Maya Angelou 's poems are easy to understand; and though I do enjoy her work, I find that how she structures her poems can be confusing
Society creates the thought of what makes an ideal woman; however, Maya Angelou shows us what truly makes an authentic woman in her poem, “Phenomenal Woman.” The word “Phenomenal” is defined as something that is magnificent, remarkable, breathtaking, as well as extraordinary. This poem illustrates confidence and beauty from within, instead of the conventional view that society tends to have, which only focuses on the appearance. She shows how to acknowledge womanhood. One is able to appreciate the poem, even further, by analyzing many of the poetry elements that Maya Angelou illustrates, such as imagery, tone, and diction.
It is said that when we look in the mirror, we see our reflection; but what is it that we really see? Some people look through the glass and see a totally different person. All across the world identity is an issue that many women have. Woman today must be skinny, tall, thick, fair skinned and have long hair in order to be considered beautiful. Maya Angelou feels otherwise, as she gives women another way to look at themselves through her poem "Phenomenal Woman".