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Critical review of maya angelou
Critical review of maya angelou
Critical review of maya angelou
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“Maya Angelou is the most renowned and influential voices of our time” (poemhunter.com). She is also a multi Grammy-award winning author(mayaangelou.com). Angelou who wrote the poem, “On the Pulse of the Morning” for Bill Clinton’s Inauguration(mayaangelou.com). As a voice for equality, Maya Angelou has dealt with discrimination head on as evident in her writing.
Maya Angelou is a voice for the Civil Rights Movement and is known as “America’s most visible black female autobiographer”(poemhunter.com). Born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4th, 1928, Angelou is still alive and writing today (mayaangelou.com). Angelou is a civil right activist, because Angelou fought through the persecution of racism, the testing of faith, the effects of rape as a child, as well as homelessness and drug addiction(mayaangelou.com). Angelou has contributed to society through her poems, books, and plays about freedom for all as well as progression for women(poemhunter.com). Maya Angelou is a courageous and brilliant individual. Angelou has stood up for her beliefs no matter what the cost. Angelou's writing has meant a great deal to others, especially in the poem “Still I Rise” and also “Alone”(poemhunter.com). Inspite of her horrible abuse and persecution, Angelou was able to have a successful and memorable adulthood(mayaangelou.com). Maya Angelou is and has been an inspiration to people all over the world with her many achievements and beautiful poetry(mayaangelou.com).
Angelou’s writings give voice to those who have faced discrimination in their lifetime. Having a personal experience with discrimination also has affected her writings. She has the introspective poems that change people’s thoughts about her and her poems. Angelou was greatly in...
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...once said, ”I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”(quotestree.com). Even though she has affected many lives with her work, Angelou has been given a gift of writings and talent that she shares with others.
Works Cited
"Maya Angelou - Biography." Maya Angelou - Biography. Maya Angelou, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.
"Maya Angelou." : The Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.
"Maya Angelou Quotes." The Quotes Tree. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
"Maya Angelou Quotes." The Quotes Tree. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Poet: Maya Angelou - All Poems of Maya Angelou. "Poet: Maya Angelou - All Poems of Maya Angelou." Poemhunter.com. Poem Hunter, n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.
"Public Statements Made by Maya Angelou." Hyperink. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Maya Angelou was raised in segregated rural Arkansas. She is a poet, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director. She lectures throughout the United States and abroad and is Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina since 1981. She has published ten best selling books and numerous magazine articles earning her Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations. At the request of President Clinton, she wrote and delivered a poem at his 1993 Presidential Inauguration.
Angelou’s writings reflect who she was. We must learn who we are.
"Angelou, Maya (née Marguerite Annie Johnson)." Encyclopedia of African-american Writing. Amenia: Grey House Publishing, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 12 March 2014.
Maya Angelou is not just known for being a poet, novelist, educator, producer, actor, musician, and civil right activist, but also as one of the most renowned and influential voices. Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Stamps, Arkansas. As a child, she had a passion for art. She attended public school in Arkansas and California, and won a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor school. At the age of fourteen, Dr. Angelou dropped out of school and became the first female cable conductor. Dr. Angelou later went back and finished high school. A few weeks after she graduated from high school, she gave birth to her son Guy. Even though being a single mother and working different jobs would challenge her, her passion for music, dance, and poetry grew (Bloom).
She was known worldwide for many things. She was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry. She was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She was and still is a woman that people look up to. Many people know her as Maya Angelou.
All in all, Maya Angelou's poems have became more inspirational as there years went on and the African Americans got the rights they deserved. She used imagery and a lot of emotions through her poems, as if you could feel the pain they had went through. Her poems had plenty of hope in them. She was hoping for the best during the Civil Rights Movement. In I Know Why The Cage Birds Sing, you can feel how that poem changed from the negative times to the positive. She talked about how the American Dream of giving blacks rights before the movement they had no hope, but as the poem went on you can feel a more positive vibe of hope.
Angelou shows this climb of confidence when she recounts her thoughts as she hears Henry Reed sing the Negro National Anthem. She recounts at even though she had, “Never the words, despite the thousands of times I had sung them. Never thought they had anything to do me.” Angelou found new meaning in the words that she thought she understood long ago. She understood that other Negros had gone through the same feelings that she felt and had come out on top. A final example of Angelou’s renewed faith in her education is apparent when she states that, “The depths had been icy and dark, but now a bright sun spoke to our souls.” Angelou is filled with new resolve after the completion of the Anthem. Angelou acquires a new appreciation for her education and a newfound pride in her
Maya Angelou was one of America’s greatest writers in history. She was known for her many writings and for her part in Civil Rights Movements. Maya Angelou went through many hardships during her childhood, the most prevalent of those, racism over her skin color. This racism affected where she grew up, where she went to school, even where she got a job. “My education and that of my Black associates were quite different from the education of our white schoolmates. In the classroom we all learned past participles, but in the streets and in our homes the Blacks learned to drops s’s from plurals and suffixes from past tense verbs.” (Angelou 221) Maya Angelou was a strong believer in a good education and many of those beliefs were described in her
Maya Angelou is one of most well-known poets ever. Her work is a reflection of her hardships during her childhood and her life as an adult. She expressed many of her opinions through her poetry and other writing. Many of her poems revolve around equality and freedom because she grew up in the segregated era and worked with civil right activist. The poems she writes are to inspire the lives of others. Till this day, Maya Angelou is still continuing to write inspiring poetry.
In Maya Angelou’s third book of poetry And Still I Rise, the personal struggles of the African American Woman are brought to life through poetic works. With inspirations drawn from personal journeys of Maya Angelou herself, powerful poems praise, celebrate, and empathize with the feminine colored experience. Angelou’s writing sheds glaring light on themes of feminine power, beauty, and perseverance, raising the African American Woman to a pedestal that demands respect and adoration. For Angelou’s audience, the everyday woman is presented equipped with all the necessities to thrive and shine in the face of adversity. In Maya Angelou’s works “Phenomenal Woman”, “Woman Work”, and “Still I Rise”, audiences are able to connect to the strength and virtue of the woman that is brought to life through the praising of femininity, and through its power to make an impact on society.
A poet, an author, a play-write, an actress, a mother, a civil-rights activists, historian and most important a survivor. Perhaps Maya Angelou, award winning author of many books, is one of the most influential African Americans in American history. I believe that she rates at the top of the list of American authors, with Hemingway, Hawthorne, and Voight. I believe through my research and reading of Maya Angelou that she should be among the members of The American Authors Hall of Fame. Maya was born on, April 4th, 1928 as Marguerite Johnson, in St. Louis Missouri. She was raised in Stamps Arkansas, by her Grandmother Annie Henderson and Her Uncle Willie. Stamps was a rural segregated community. However, it was tight knit between the African Americans. Maya grew up during a very difficult time period in American history. They were just recovering from the Great Depression, and learning how to deal with different races of people. Maya knew this and made it clear in her writing. "It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense. We should be dead. I thought I should like to see us all dead, one on top of each other. A pyramid of flesh with the whit folks on the bottom, . . . and then the Negro's." (Angelou Caged Bird 153) "If growing up was painful for the Southern Black Girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat." (Angelou, Caged Bird)
“Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture”(www.mayaangelou.com, 2014).
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
Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture. Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
Maya Angelou effectively defends her dignity in the face of discrimination and prejudice in “Still I Rise”. Angelou took us in and showed us what it was to be her, this is one of the many reasons why she came to be the most important black female poets in America. In her poem, “Still I Rise”, not only does she targets her initial adulthood experiences but her encounters with sexism and racism as well. She strives to continue the legacy of her ancestors and tries to accomplish everything they were not able to at that time, she will no longer let the oppressor