“Phenomenal Woman” is a motivational poem that gives the message of confidence and how important it is for women to know that the stereotype of a "perfect woman" is not what makes a phenomenal woman. The poem explains that no matter the standards that women are held to in society, it should not determine her worth. A phenomenal woman believes in herself and is self-confident no matter how she appears to society. Maya Angelou did not always love to write, or even know how. Maya, at the age of seven, went mute for five years because her uncles killed a man who raped her which caused her to feel guilty about his death. While she was mute, she developed a love for writing and got her influence from other black authors such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois, and William Shakespeare. Due to the circumstances of her childhood, this became her motivation to become the assertive woman who grabbed the attention of all the men even if she was not a supermodel. Angelou published the poem in 1978, but she actually wrote it during the times after the Civil Right 's Movement when women did not have equal rights. In the 1950s she became a part of the Harlem Writers Guild, a group of African-American writers, where she met Martin Luther King, Jr. along with many other influential writers. The Harlem Writers Guild resulted in Maya joining the struggle for civil rights and became the northern coordinator for Dr. King. Maya, being African American struggled with her rights more than white women
Other than that she was An author, poet , screenwriter, etc. With being African American, Maya had experience with first hand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas, where
Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 and passed away on May 28, 2014. Throughout her lifetime, Angelou faced obstacles as an African American woman. Her first obstacle occurred when Angelou was eight year old and was raped by her mother’s boyfriend Freeman. After this experience with her mother’s boyfriend, she later on told her brother who then told the family. Freeman faced 1 day in jail for his punishment.
Angelou, later on, became a writer, dancer, and poet. She went on to prove that no matter what skin color you may be, you can still go on to be successful. Throughout life, you should never judge a person because of how they look on the outside. You never know, that person could go on to be beyond than what you believed.
Her life was not an easy one but she overcame adversity and created some of the most beautiful pieces of literature, as well as poetry, of the 20th century. Her works prove that you may come from a horrible background but you are able to become someone worth something in the eyes of society. Maya Angelou wanted equality for all and therefor fought alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Right Movement of the 60’s.
When thinking of a historical figure, many imagine a president, king, or general that lead a country to greatness, but never realized some could be the ones who influence the minds of society. Although not thought of as anything, writers and poets hold the key to shaping the society’s mindset without even knowing it. Being a civil rights activist, social activist, and role model for women makes Maya Angelou a historical figure who has made a huge impact in American society and in American history. Born poor and black, she was a childhood victim of rape, shamed into silence. She was a young single mother who had to work at strip clubs for a living.
Maya Angelou philosophy and teachings are timeless. There is a lesson to be learned in her more than 30 published works and her lessons taught as a professor and lecturer. More important she lived what she preached. She had a strong belief in humanity as a whole, in the human spirit and in the African American community. She fought tirelessly to change extinguish racism, prejudice and discrimination during a time when she herself as a black woman experienced its effects.
Maya Angelou was a strong African-American women who made an influential impact on the Civil Rights Movement, in bother her actions, and her literature. Her life experiences and courage helped others, and made her work influential. During Maya’s early life, she experienced many hardships that shaped her into the person many remember her as. Born on April 4, 1928, she only lived in St. Louis, MO for three years before her parents got divorced, and Maya, along with her mother and brother, moved in with her grandparents in Arkansas. At the age of eight, raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Maya learned the power that words possess.
Annotated Bibliography: Maya Angelou Angelou, Maya. I know why the caged bird sings. New York: random house, 1970. Print. Maya Angelou's book describes in great detail the events of her forming years and her emotions throughout.
Life is a long journey in which we are forced to experience something new everyday. We have days of strength, days of weakness, days of honesty, and days of deceit. We are not fully in control of the what happens to us, but we have the power to choose where to go next. We have the option to be happy, to be sad, to be a leader, or to be a follower. Choice is powerful, without choice we would not have change-for better or for worse.
Revolution can manifest itself in many forms, through a person, an action, or even a piece of literature; what all these forms share is the recognition of what came before them is not enough. Often combated by those benefiting from the current state of affairs, the dark side of revolution must be considered when evaluating the risk a revolutionary takes in going against the crowd. Artists Ntozake Shange, Amiri Baraka, and Maya Angelou can all be considered revolutionaries in their own right for the marked changes they caused with their contributions. These African-American creators recognized that the world surrounding them did not fit the way each perceived it should be, and used their talents to comment on the injustice they observed
His poem Sympathy is just one example of how he felt trapped like a caged bird in his life. Even though the Civil War was over, African Americans still did not have as many privileges and opportunities as most White people had. Most of Dunbar’s writing showed his perspective of life and the struggles that came with it. Maya Angelou was born in 1928 and suffered a hard childhood that later on affected her writing. When she was eight years old, Maya was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend.
Maya Angelou worked as a professor at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 1991 to 2014. As an African American women, one whose life was full of racial discrimination and gender inequality, she had plenty of experience and wisdom to share with her students. During her time working at the university, she taught a variety of humanities courses such as “World Poetry in Dramatic Performance,” “Race, Politics and Literature,” “African Culture and Impact on U.S.,” and “Race in the Southern Experience” (Wake Forest University,
Being of African American origin and having a very difficult background full of discrimination and racial prejudice, Maya Angelou was then acting to protect and defend rights of other. All the set of activities she carried out just proves how important she was in terms of development of the America society. Where was
“Phenomenal Woman” Phenomenal Woman, by Maya Angelou is an inspiring poem that encourages women, including myself to be confident and to love themselves just the way they are. It encourages women to be independent and confident despite what others think about them, especially men. In “Phenomenal Woman”, there are various literary devices used, some of which include repetition, parallelism, metaphors and personification. The obvious repetition in the poem is at the end of every stanza, through the phrases” I am a woman, phenomenally, phenomenal woman, that’s me”.
The poems in this essay both talk about being a woman. “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou is about more of a confident woman while “Woman” by Nikki Giovanni is about a woman who wants a man to change for her. The poems though very different, are also similar because they both talk about confidence as a woman. By the end of both poems the narrators both know that they are women who are strong and do not need anyone else 's acceptance but their own. They know their own self worth and that is enough for them.