Analysis

. Maya Angelou is a well-known poet and author who often writes about struggles in the black community and beauty in the faces of African Americans.  In Maya Angelou’s poem, Still I Rise, she introduces us into her world as a confident, independent, & Strong woman. In the poem, she writes about her constant encounters with racism, hateful comments, and sexism. Throughout the poem Maya teaches us to keep our heads up, and keep on overcoming your struggles.

A lot of Maya Angelou’s poems, she speaks of self-assurance, African American ancestry, and striving on. She lived among the time in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive. She was inspired by his speech and his fight for African American rights. Maya soon began her first well known autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The book soon published in nineteen sixty nine. Angelou wrote many more good books talking about controversies over race, sexual abuse and violence. Maya also published her first poet books in nineteen sixty nine which often spoke of black beauty, love, and her admiration of the human spirit.

            In the beginning of Maya’s poem, she is constantly questioning herself about the criticism she is receiving from other people but as the poem continues, she reflects on the ways she overcomes these things. Then in the final part of the poem she uses a lot of imagery to describe the way she overcomes the struggles of life. She also describes herself in many ways such as the dream and the hope of her African American ancestors. In Still I Rise, Maya Angelou displays her confidence throughout the poem. She is constantly questioning others by asking questions like: Does my sexiness upset you or does my sassiness upset you? Given the confidence remarks she speaks of her that were once broken down and used as slaves to individuals. She uses these as ways of showing that despite how this breaks her heart she still overcomes her feelings. Still I Rise repeatedly uses the words “I Rise” as a way of saying she can do anything despite the hateful world that she has to face up against

            Maya Angelou’s poem, Phenomenal Woman, talked of her problem with sexism. She had constant reminders that she had to deal with this. In Still I Rise she shows this as well. In one stanza she writes “Does my sexiness upset you / Does it come as a surprise/ That I dance like I’ve got diamonds/ At the meetings of my things.” She speaks of the way someone is surprised of her standing up for herself. In her time, not a lot of women were able to do a lot of things like that back then and yet she faced sexism with pride and grace.

The main symbol in this poem is the dust and the way it rises with wind pushing it along. It also shows that wind also does some damage causing the dust to become unsettled and causing immaculate amount of dust floating around. The dust must form this dust cloud to float and rise above her struggle. It can be an example of Angelou’s way of overcoming her oppressors in life and defeating them.

            I chose Still I Rise because I loved the way Maya talked about her struggles without saying she was actually having a bad time. She also talks about her views on slavery. She talks about she sees her African American heritage as a way of showing how she should overcome her trouble. The other things I like about the poem were that it was written by a woman and just how strong she is. I liked the way she shows just how much happiness you can get from just not caring what other people think. As in her other poem, Phenomenal Woman, she also displays this self-assurance for herself and it was always truly inspirational to read just as was Still I Rise. Although the things about Still I Rise I could truly connect to were the way she brought in her ancestors struggles into a way of helping her describe her overcoming. I could connect because as an American Indian my ancestors struggled with Americans and even in today’s society we still have struggles. In other ways I could connect were also because I received remarks of racism from other people. This caused problems for me as a kid. I was ashamed of who I was and of my heritage. It was complicating being a “minority”. Maya helped me realized that I must be proud of myself.

            Angelou taught me many things from just one poem. She taught me about confidence in oneself and in your culture. The way Angelou presented herself in the poem and showed her pride gave me the insight on what a strong woman is. Poems were not one of my favorite things to read but Angelou’s poems have always caught my attention and brought more ways of thinking about imagery and figurative language. Angelou has been one of my favorite artists for years and can always relate to her which has made it better for me to understand. Still I Rise has definitely been one of my favorite poems. 

Response

            

             Beauty is everywhere. There is no doubt about that. We define beauty in many different ways in America be it from the size of our bodies, how tall we are, to the clothes on our backs. In CNN’s article, “What is Beauty and who has it?” states that beauty is in fact changing in American society.  They want to see more diversity. Diversity has a broad meaning. In my sense, it means the uniqueness of one person from their culture to even body modifications

            In the article, beauty is defined as the physical attributes of a person but as the article goes on it questions the standards of beauty in America like the way women choose to change who they are to make society think they are beautiful or even try to make them see themselves as beautiful. American women everywhere are starving themselves, applying tons of makeup, and even the extremity of plastic surgery. Women know the risks of what these things can do to you, yet they still push through to get to where they want to be and that is to meet the standards of beauty.

            As a young girl I never seemed to understand what the definition of beauty was but then as I grew older I started to think there was only one way to be beautiful and that was to be white, blond, blue eyed, and skinny. The reason I believed this was because that was all I saw on television, commercials, and advertisements. In more recent years I have noticed a difference in what people are seeing to be beautiful. A couple of weeks ago we had the Miss America competition and guess who won, a woman of Indian descent. America was appalled by this choice. And why? I have no clue. She matched what the judges wanted for Miss America. She was talented, beautiful, and had a kind way about herself.  She was the ideal candidate for diversity.

             Although, Culture is not what is seen as beauty often-in America but why not? We are such a huge country there is so many different cultures in America. Beauty is seen in the Native Americans, Mexicans, and African cultures. In the natives we see many different languages that haven’t even been written down. We see hand made pottery and the different style of clothes that they wear. In the native culture, they don’t think about the physical attributes of a person but the way people hold themselves is what makes them beautiful.  Mexicans have their own type of beauty. From the way that there language rolls off their tongues, to the food they cook, and to the way they are strongly connected to their families. It means more to them than anything. They are always together and to me that’s beauty.  Culture may not be beautiful for everyone else but this is what made America. Culture is beauty.

            Body modifications can mean many different things like tattoos, piercings, stretching, and branding. Many people do not see how in any way possible that this form of modifying of the body is beautiful. In today’s generation, many people are also taking a liking to this change. Americans in the early 1900’s did not understand the concept of body modifying so they thought it was weird or abnormal. They often called people who did so “freaks” which was normal for their time. However, in many other tribes throughout history, modifications were used to signify a person’s tribe or their importance within the tribe.

            In more recent years, people have been getting tattoos of different images that represent themselves.  Tattoos give the satisfaction of being an individual in today’s world. I myself have received many tattoos in which I consider a big part of who I am, considering that all of my tattoos represent my Navajo heritage. The idea behind my tattoos came from me missing home. As a young child, my parents divorced and not too soon afterward, my mom remarried again to a military man who took my family and I out of the reservation when I was five. I would not return to the Navajo reservation until I became eleven years old.  Then, I lived on the Navajo reservation until I was fourteen. It wasn’t until then I started to realize the significance of my heritage. Although the ideas of my Navajo related tattoos did not come to mind until I was seventeen the thought of tattoos were always beautiful to me. The beauty behind this permanent form of art on oneself deemed to be the most unique of all.

            My definition of diversity is the acceptance of all races, cultures, and perspectives. I never really knew how many different things in society could bring beauty to one person.  Everyone is different and in today’s society we are learning to accept that different is good. If I could recall every time someone has made good comments on my tattoos or even my many piercings, I would say that it has been nice to notice this change in people. I would never want to change the beauty in anyone else’s culture or what they do to their bodies as far as modifying it. America has definitely given the chance for the option of change in many different aspects and this is one I truly admire. This is how it always should be, accepting the beauty of being different. We may not fit into America’s standard of being beautiful but we will always be ourselves, no matter what anyone says.