Maya Angelou I Aint Mad At Cha Analysis

The aim of this essay is to do a comparison on two poems, woman work by Maya angelou and I aint mad at cha by tupac shakur.

Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose lies Angelou's unique power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race and Angelou captivates audiences through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics. In 1981, Dr. Angelou was appointed to a lifetime position as the first Reynolds
Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. In January 1993, she became only the second poet in U.S. History to have the honour of writing and reciting original work at the Presidential Inauguration. Dr. Angelou has been nominated for two Grammy Awards for "Best Spoken Word or Non Musical Album" for On The Pulse Of Morning (1993) and Phenomenal Woman (1995). In 2004, she received a Grammy Award nomination in the "Best Spoken Word Album" category for Hallelujah! The Welcome Table. Dr. Angelou has garnered over 50 honorary degrees from colleges and universities worldwide. Woman work is written about woman slavery in the 19th century. "Woman Work" is a regular 5 stanza, rhyming poem, It is set in southern USA. We know this because of the way she talkes

"The cane to be cut" Cane is grown in southern USA, "I gotta clean up this hut"

Hut is what she calls her house

"And the cotton to Pick"

cotton also grows in USA. It's about this woman who's either single or doesn't get any help from her partner/husband. She's always doing something, looking after the children –

"I've got the children to tend", housework –

"I gotta clean up this hut", shopping –

"The food to shop" or farm work,

"The cane to be cut", "And the cotton to pick".

There are several themes in "Woman work", one of them being Work. We can see this in the first stanza . She lists all the things she's got to do. Another theme being loneliness. We can see this by the fact that she only mentions her children there, she may want someone to talk to her or help her with all her work. Mainly she just wants a rest, In "Woman Work" the poet Maya Angelou has made it so the reader can see a woman doing all this work in the reader's head, and how life must have been like for her. There are no similes in this poem. None of the 5 stanza's are used to evoke reactions in the poem either. "Woman Work" has a long forst stanza and all the other stanza's are 4 lines ones, The message that the poet is trying to get through to the reader in "Woman Work" is how horrible life can be and the things you have to do to live. The second poem I will be analysing is I ain’t mad at cha by Tupac Shakur.
Tupac Shakur was born on the 16th June 1971 in Manhattan, Nyc. At age 12, Shakur enrolled in Harlem's famous "127th Street Ensemble." His first major role with this acting troupe was as Travis in A Raisin in the Sun. In 1984, his family relocated to Baltimore, [8] After completing his sophomore year at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, and jazz. He performed in Shakespeare plays and in the role of the Mouse King in The Nutcracker.[9] Tupac, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beat box, won most of the many rap competitions that he participated in and was considered to be the best rapper in his school.[10] Although he lacked trendy clothing, he was one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humour, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix in with all crowds.[11] He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until Shakur's death. In the documentary Tupac: Resurrection, Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life," and Smith calls Shakur "one of my best friends. He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a
lifetime
Tupac Shakur was a member of the hip-hop group Digital Underground, whose 1990 album featured the hits "Humpty Dance" and "Doo wut chya like." In 1992 he began his solo career, and his debut album 2Pacalypse Now propelled him to stardom and made him one of the more prominent practitioners of gangsta rap. His other albums and appearances in movies such as Juice (1992) and Poetic Justice (1993) helped him to become a mainstream pop artist. Shakur made headlines over a string of run-ins with the law, and in 1994 he was robbed and shot five times. He recovered and in the next year released the successful albums Me Against The World and All Eyez on Me. Embroiled in a complicated feud with fellow gangsta rappers, Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas in 1996. In the poem I aint mad at cha Personally I feel Tupac was addressing some of the people who might have been involved in his disappearance or "death".

At the beginning of the song he starts by saying:

"Change, sh*t

I guess change is good for any of us
Whatever it take for any of y'all niggaz to get up out the hood
Shit, I'm wit cha, I ain't mad at cha
Got nuttin but love for ya, do your thing boy"
I believe that the message embedded within this is that he has no intention on criticising the ways of those who are doing what they have to do to get out of the ghetto.

"Yeah, all the homies that I ain't talk to in a while"

I believe this is where he takes the song to its main course where he addresses possibly someone he knew from his past. I think the rest of the song kind of cues in on someone he knew from his past but now criticizes Tupac for the way he lives his life and eventually turns on him. I think the message behind the song has to do with how Tupac wanted to live his life making rap songs for money rather than dealing drugs for money. We know that Tupac's death has been attributed to speculation about him creating his own label under the name "Makaveli" and possibly this was the reasoning behind:

"So many questions, and they ask me if I'm still down
I moved up out of the ghetto, so I ain't real now?"

meaning he felt as if he had grown up and wasnt interested in dealing anymore but more focused on his music.

This song's music video came out after his death and has Tupac dressed as an angel in it so maybe there is a personal message within the lyrics we aren’t seeing.