Ego Tripping Poem Analysis

In the poem “Ego-Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni, she normalizes her worth by continuing to royalist herself as a black woman who is essential to mankind. Giovanni creates a vision throughout the poem, which leaves a thought in mind of how woman should look at themselves with much confidence as Giovanni does. “Ego Tripping” was written by Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni, Jr. who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943. G9iovanni is a writer, poet, activist, and educator whose work was influenced during the Black Power Movements and the Civil Rights Movement. The poem was released in 2002. Her work provided a strong, militant yet African-American feel that was manifested through her writing. Giovanni work includes variety of topics ranging from race and social issues to children literature. She is considered one of the world well-known poets, within the African-American community.

Even though a culture has gone through drastic time should society be ashamed or willing to embrace it? Nikki Giovanni, a poet and civil rights activist, wrote the poem Ego-Tripping which was published in 1972. The poem is about how the Nikki Giovanni speaks of her origin resembling as a female god for those who admire her remarkable strength and power to embrace the culture she holds. By making herself a goddess who holds all these accomplishments, she gives African-Americans hope that success will reign in their path. For example, creating the Nile from the tears of her birth pains bringing life to Egypt. Furthermore, she claims that she is as swift as a gazelle noting that those who see her as prey will not catch her. Nikki’s confidence and power give her admirers a chance in believing that anything is possible. The poem Ego-Tripping was written during the time of the Reconstruction Era guaranteeing African-American equal rights. One case being the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case which upheld separate but equal facilities for black and whites. In like manner, the 1954 Brown v. Board

In her speech, “For the Equal Rights Amendment” Shirley Chisholm addresses her views on securing women’s equality to ensure women have better opportunities. She is an American politician, educator and author that became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm supports her claims about equal rights for women by using examples of statistics to prove a point. Her purpose is to persuade her audience that women in America are neglected by equal rights and excluded from things that men are not. Throughout her deliverance she expressed an inspiring and informative tone to uplift her audience so that Congress can make a change for women.

In the poem “Ego Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni it is evident that it is difficult to fix a past filled with misogyny, and patriarchy that advance women as feeble vessels, whose words and activities put men at risk. Despite the fact that it implies battling a custom of subordinating women that stretches out back a large number of years, the women’s activist development has since the mid-1970s attempted to give a voice to ladies that offers trust, gives quality, and proposes approaches to battle for more equality. Nikki Giovanni fights for change for African American women in the form of present tense language that shows women’s strength, power, and beauty. Although she is speaking in present tense, she is alluding to the future she wants women

‘For What It’s Worth’ by Buffalo Springfield has a logical message because it is referring to the Sunset Strip Riots that took place in Hollywood during the 1960’s. People protested when they lost their civil rights due to a curfew law that was put into place. The song says, “Stop, children, what’s that sound. Everybody look- what’s going down?” Community members were angry at the young people going to clubs at night because they were “loud” and “disruptive”. The curfew law was put into place after the complaints and the youth became outraged. They believed their civil right were being taken away. There were riots along the sunset strip, where all these clubs were located, to protest the law. Police were at these riots and many people were handcuffed and hauled off to jail. They are referring to children because these protests were from the younger generation. Even though the overall message is logical, the support within this song is not as strong. ‘For What It’s Worth’ is often mistaken as an anti-war song since it was released during the Vietnam War era. When most people hear this song that is what they think of. The song can be heard in several war related movies. Some even believe it is about the Kent State Shootings although the song was released years before that event occurred. Even though there is not strong evidence to back up this song's true meaning, it

Power? Power is the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality. Many people have power like the President, parents, the law, but not as much power as of what happens in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” This story is about a great trial involving a man named Tom Robinson and a lady name Mayella. The story is based on a trial because the man Tom Robinson was accused of rape and the beating of Mayella. Mayella is going to be powerful and powerless.

Power is an important part of the world and how it runs, but those who possess it do not always see it this way. Power is an extremely abstract idea. One can find many different variations of the word when asking for a definition person to person. The dictionary simply puts it as, “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others…” which is a common theme that could be found between most people’s definitions of the word. We conceive power as a person’s ability to have others listen to him, and, most importantly agree with him.

Shirley Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress, and represented New York 's 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. On May 21, 1969 Washington D.C Shirley Chisholm delivered a speech to the United States House of Representatives about equal rights for women. Being an African American woman, Shirley personally was able to relate to the speech she gave. Based on her own personal proof and fueled by experience, her “Equal Rights for Women” speech was very persuasive.

In 1866 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the American Equal Rights Association (AERA). “According to its Constitution, it 's purpose was to secure equal rights to all American citizens, especially the rights of suffrage, irrespective race, color, and sex.” (Wikipedia.org) The two women who

In 1923, the ERA written by Alice, was introduced into Congress. The Amendment declared “equal rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the US or by any State on account of sex” (“Woman Suffrage”, 2014, para 1). The Amendment was introduced into every Congress through 1972, where it finally passed but failed ratification in 1982. Only 35 states ratified the Amendment by the 1982 deadline. After the failure, the Amendment was again presented to Congress every year, but still fails to get passed.

The concept of power can be discussed in tandem with that of the previous point. Power enables one to set rules, laws and regulations which protect their own interests. This effectively enables those with power to determine what is considered to be ‘deviant’ and a ‘crime’, which are usually actions which jeopardize these interests. The power also allows them to put into place social control agents. In the context of the government, the police force is one such example.

But first what is Power? When researching Power words such as authority, control, direct, command and influence all appear. These words all support the following statement “Power is the ability to influence and control the behaviour of others.” The problem with power is that it often leads to those in power abusing it. As Lord Acton famously quoted “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Conflict is a big theme and many poems and texts have been written on this topic, but two of the most well done and most expressive poems about this topics are “Out of the Blue” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. Even though the topic is the same the two authors, Simon Armitage and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, present the theme with different approaches, one about the innocent, one about the ones that chose to get involved In the conflict.

Power as conceptualized by critical theorists. Power is one of the words that holds great effect. It is defined by Webster (2015) as “the ability to control people or things; a person or organization that has a lot of control and influence over other people or organizations”. In general, a person or organization that holds power has authority over others. Thus, power is conceptualized in the organizational communication by critical theorists.

The poem A Step Away From Them by Frank O’Hara has five stanzas written in a free verse format with no distinguishable rhyme scheme or meter. The poem uses the following asymmetrical line structure “14-10-9-13-3” while using poetic devices such as enjambment, imagery, and allusion to create each stanza.