Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” is an iconic poem that portrays the importance of self confidence and self-esteem. By using sarcastic diction, personification, similes, and repetition Angelou conveys that with self confidence, she can overcome everything.
In the sixth stanza Angelou says, “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still like air I rise.”. She uses personification to present how the things people say, look, and do can negatively affect one another. This stanza is very important for developing the overall theme of the poem because she is saying how no matter what you do or say to her nothing can hurt her. Her confidence and self-esteem is shining through in these lines by expressing that when she gets knocked down, she will always get back up again.
Throughout the poem, Angelou uses repetition for the word “you”and creates a pattern in her poem with rhetorical question at the beginning of every other stanza. For examples, “Does my sassiness upset you?” “Did you want to see me broken?” and “Does my …show more content…
As a black women in the 1960’s she was seen as the minority. When she says, “Cause I walk like I have oil wells pumping in my living room”, she is implying that she has a lot of confidence when she walks as if she was rich. Later in the poem she continues to mock rich people by saying, “Cause I laugh like I have gold mines diggin in my backyard.” The last example is when Angelou says, “That I dance like I have diamonds at the meeting of my thighs.” Not only does this symbolize a wealthy women, as the others do, but also shows how her sexualtiy is still valuable even though she is a black women. By adding in these important similes, Angelou expresses her confidence and self image by telling the reader how she views herself in her own eyes. Her beliefs were not only women's rights but also in all African
In the sixth stanza Angelou says, “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still like air I rise.”. She uses personification to present how the things people say, look, and do can negatively affect one another. This stanza is very important for developing the overall theme of the poem because she is saying how no matter what you do or say to her nothing can hurt her. Her confidence and self-esteem is shining through in these lines by expressing that when she gets knocked down, she will always get back up again.
Throughout the poem, Angelou uses repetition for the word “you”and creates a pattern in her poem with rhetorical question at the beginning of every other stanza. For examples, “Does my sassiness upset you?” “Did you want to see me broken?” and “Does my …show more content…
As a black women in the 1960’s she was seen as the minority. When she says, “Cause I walk like I have oil wells pumping in my living room”, she is implying that she has a lot of confidence when she walks as if she was rich. Later in the poem she continues to mock rich people by saying, “Cause I laugh like I have gold mines diggin in my backyard.” The last example is when Angelou says, “That I dance like I have diamonds at the meeting of my thighs.” Not only does this symbolize a wealthy women, as the others do, but also shows how her sexualtiy is still valuable even though she is a black women. By adding in these important similes, Angelou expresses her confidence and self image by telling the reader how she views herself in her own eyes. Her beliefs were not only women's rights but also in all African