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Life Amidst The Darkness By Maya Angelou Analysis

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Life Amidst the Darkness Melting wax from the flickering candle drips slowly onto the red velvet tablecloth illuminating the rushing night that blank eyes fail to perceive. The crimson blood drips from the slicing razor onto the glossy pearl bathtub staining it with the source of life which seems like a full wine cup spilling into a meaningless void. Shooting soldiers lay waste to an innocent country, to innocent people robbing them of their future that now seems like a tortured existence without the joys of life. John Milton, an extreme advocate for freedoms, Dorothy Parker, a witty critic that struggled with alcohol and depression, and Maya Angelou, a woman with many talents who became a civil rights activist, transcend time and subject to …show more content…

Africa is personified as a woman through the description of her natural resources, “Thus she had lain...deserts her hair...two Niles her tears...now she is striding/ although she has lain” (Arp 855). Despite the suffering and injury, people can become stronger than before, and Africa is a symbol for African Americans and their history. When the “white seas,” a symbol for colonizers, (Arp) reach the shore of Africa, they steal her children to sell them into forced labor, so the tears of the Nile represent the ruptured families and broken future of Africa. However, she will no longer be the victim as she strides toward a future where Africans are not …show more content…

"John Milton." Dictionary of World Biography: The 17Th & 18Th Centuries, January 1999, pp. 1-4. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=s4720966&db=lfh&AN=103331DWS10400250000140&site=ehost-live. Braxton, Joanne M. "Angelou, Maya 1928-." Modern American Women Writers, edited by Elaine Showalter, et al., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991, pp. 1-8. Scribner Writer Series, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX1385900010/GLS?u=txshrpub100100&sid=GLS&xid=f29012c5. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017. Francavilla, Joseph. "Dorothy Parker." Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition, September 2006, pp. 1-5. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=s4720966&db=lfh&AN=103331MSA12449830000243&site=ehost-live. Hackenbracht, Ryan. "Milton and the parable of the talents: nationalism and the prelacy controversy in revolutionary England." Philological Quarterly, vol. 94, no. 1-2, 2015, p. 71+. Literature Resource Center, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A436542101/GLS?u=txshrpub100100&sid=GLS&xid=040f0bfb. Accessed 14 Dec.

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