“Still I Rise” by the African-American poet Maya Angelou, written almost 40 years after the Harlem renaissance ceased, displays a variety of emotions and poetic devices. Maya Angelou incorporates her personal struggles gives the audience a sense of the determination she felt to reach equality. The reader can see her anger towards the discrimination she faced at the time.…
1. Louise is the first of the two main characters shown, at the snack bar. It is noisy, crowded and fast paced. The cameraman follows her from point to point , in this way making her the center of attention and also serving to give the viewer a good view of the snack bar. On the other hand, Thelma's kitchen is quiet and she is alone. From the onset, the viewer gets an insight into the loneliness and boredom in Thelmas life. This is further confirmed when her husband comes into the scene, acting rude and unappreciative of her. Louise is the free-spirited one - this is depicted by how she is shot in different parts of the snack bar. The viewer gets the sense that she is independent. Thelma, on the other hand is in the small kitchen and her movement are limited by that space - her kitchen. Ken, her husband, comes in, and the kitchen looks even smaller - suggesting that he overwhelms her.…
How can someone pursue a personal desire if they spent their life trying to conform? Alden Nowlan’s short story, “The Glass Roses” explores this through the protagonist, Stephen. Stephen’s personal desire to feel accepted conflicts with his feeling of having to become like the pulp cutters because he is not mentally or physically ready to fit in with grown men. This results in Chris finding a way to become his own person. Stephen’s journey to pursue his personal desire is shown through setting, character development, and symbolism.…
“Then I met, or rather got to know, the lady who threw me my first life line.”…
Smelstor, Marjorie, and Mary Hanford Bruce. "Maya Angelou." Magill’s Survey Of American Literature, Revised Edition. 2006. Literary Reference Center. Web. 28 April 2012.…
This essay I read called Graduation told a story about a young Middle School African American girl named Maya Angelou, who was graduating and was moving on to High School back in 1940. She was from a small town in Arkansas and was extremely excited to be graduating. She had high hopes for the future and right before the graduation ceremony, she felt like she was the birthday girl, the center of attention. She had done well for herself throughout the school year with very good academic grades and no tardiness and no absence. Her mom was proud and couldn't wait to see her daughter graduate, her mom even made her a nice dress. They had a guest speaker at the graduation ceremony his name was Mr. Donleavy. His introduction speech to the graduates had put the black race down while he praised the white kids and said they were going to be doing much better. that speech by Mr. Donleavy had really upset her. It made her feel really low about being black. Right after the speech one of her classmates went up to speak, his name was Henry Reed. He was the valedictorian. He read a poem that gave her hope and brought her back up in good spirits. She once again felt good about the color of her skin. The graduating class was happy and was encouraged by Henry Reed's speech, they felt like the black race was on top again.…
Everyday people experience racism in the world. Like the quote by poet and author Maya Angelou once said, “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. ” People need to change their way of thinking about others. People need to start understanding others feelings.…
“Sister Flowers” by Maya Angelou is a descriptive essay taken from her memoir “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” The essay is from the viewpoint of a young lady named Marguerite and the influence her neighbor, Sister Flowers, has on her during that specific time in her childhood. Throughout the essay, it is evident that Sister Flowers has an impact on Marguerite by the intense details the author gives when referring to her. As a result of Sister Flowers’s influence, Marguerite expresses the positive effects of education on communication and respect.…
The story of Mrs. Flowers by Maya Angelou is about a nice, intelligent, and elegant lady who shows a special interest on a young girl that had never been appreciated by anyone before. Marguerite is a young girl who feels lonely and sad; one example is where she states at the beginning “for nearly a year I sopped around the house, the store, the school, and the church like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible”. (Maya Angelou, pg. 390 of grassroots). Then she met Mrs. Flowers, the women that would change her life completely. Mrs. Flower’s personality and attitude made Marguerite feel very happy and important for who she was. Definitely even though she was Mrs. Henderson’s granddaughter and Bailey’s sister she was appreciated by Mrs. Flowers for being Marguerite Johnson.…
“Sisters” by Pat Mora, the poem is about strong and special feelings for family, in special brothers and sisters because they represent love, hate, friendship, sadness, memories, etc., it is a poem about a girl that is the younger sister and she tells the positive benefits of having an older sister, all the memories and good moments that they went together, the poem teach you that brothers and sisters are your first best friends, they help you and teach you new things every day since the first day, so that’s why they mean so much to us and they are really important in our life. To begin with, the narrator of the poem “Sisters” is the younger sister and it is like a way to say how much she loves her old sister, all the good things they have…
With money you can do a lot, people with lots of money tend to wind up with lots of power or fame. Money can buy a lot of things, but longevity is not one of them. The theme of ‘Masque of the red death’ was “no amount of money will enable you to cheat death”. The author conveyed this by giving an example of a unique situation where a wealthy person tries to cheat death, but ends up dying anyways. He gives us the theme with three different literary techniques: Symbolism, Point of view and Irony.…
With that basic idea of where Maya Angelou is going with this poem, the literary techniques and writing style can be analyzed a little further and applied to the main idea and message of the poem. The tone and diction of the poem, used in conjunction, is one of the more noticeable techniques that Angelou uses to strengthen the poem. The tone of the poem shows the somewhat fear and deep concern that arises in people…
“Flowers”, a subtle story that begins with the presence of a lighthearted little girl named Myop, however, it all takes a twisted turn as a desolate event creeps up upon her life. During the 1970s, many black Americans have been viewed as outsiders who are different from everyone else. Unfortunately, this is known as discrimination. Black Americans had to go through this tough time for 14 years straight dealing with the pain and suffering of feeling excluded. Alice Walker has experienced this civil rights movement when she was around 20 years old, so this short story was able to help her explain how life was like during those times.…
“Sister Flowers” gives the instant expectation of sadness to the reader. Nevertheless, by the end of the second paragraph the reader is drawn into the resilient world of a child. The characters are magically real, and the reader can relate with all of them at some level. Future generations will read Maya Angelou admirable works, continuing to learn from them. Important points of the story to remember are:…
Dance Of The Women In Scarlet Masked maiden fair and slender walked among the hall of Lear, dressed in scarlet with skin of ivory splendor, paused beneath the light of bright chandelier. A man of aristocracy, plump and draped with gold wore a mask of a swinish sort, suddenly caught a glimpse of beauty untold. A women in scarlet among the court. He embraced her and all her charms of death, he could not resist the final dance.…