Still I Rise

Maya Angelou, a presence in United States society, has risen against formidable odds. After being raped at age eight and after withdrawing for a couple years, with the help and inspiration of a grade school teacher, Angelou rose to revert herself. Eventually, she became the first African-American street car conductors in San Francisco. She traveled to Africa and asserted herself in dance. Despite the shortening of a brief marriage, Angelou continued to assert herself, drawing inspiration as the mother of her son. Her presentation to the American public-at-large happened with the publication of her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The purpose of this research is to focus on the poem, "Still I Rise" to analyze the significance of Angelou's twofold strategy: the impact of the question she poses to the public; and her assertion of her heritage as a foundation for her perpetual advancement.

The impact of the question that she poses to the public can be applied in two ways. The first way that Angelou used it was as a woman, for instance she wrote, "Does my sexiness upset you?", and in a stanza prior to that, she wrote, "Does my sassiness upset you?", she used the fact that she was a woman as a way to let men know sensuality and sexiness was okay and at the same time she demanded respect from them. She also posed the question, "Did you want to see my broken? Bowed head and lowered eye?" which to me sounded like a question posed to the white race from the black race. As a black, educated woman in the United States in 1978 when this poem was

written, she was posing questions like as these to let the white race that black people can in fact excel and be successful, despite our history of slavery and oppression.

In this poem it appeared as if Angelou was tried to show that despite all the trials and tribulations she had been through all those years, she still managed to prevail in many different ways. Angelou was raped at the young age of eight, and lived in silence for four year, and became a mother at the age of seventeen. She has been through much more, but she also has written many poems, books, traveled worldwide, and used her previous experiences to help others live a better