Africa by Maya Angelou describes the country Africa from the point of view of African Americans. In the first stanza Angelou uses the geographical make up of the land to give humanizing features to the continetnt. She describes the mountains of Africa as her breast and her hair is the deserts. Line six‚ "two Niles her tears" describes the Nile river as flowing tears and reflects her pain. "Thus she has lain" in this stanza describes an African American woman’s struggle in Africa. This phrase is mentioned
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Sujet Maya Angelou‚ an African American writer‚ is visiting Ghana‚ in Africa‚ for the first time. After a few seconds of studying me‚ the woman lifted both arms and lacing her fingers together clasped her hands and put them on the top of her head. She rocked a little from side to side and issued a pitiful little moan. In Arkansas‚ when I was a child‚ if my brother or I put our hands on our heads as the woman before me was doing‚ my grandmother would stop in her work and come to remove
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“Momma convinced us that cleanliness was next to Godliness.” Throughout “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”‚ Maya Angelou expresses motif of cleanliness both figuratively and literally. By definition‚ the word Literally is an adjective that means “actually‚ without exaggeration.” In best usage‚ it is used when you are speaking about something that actually happened or when you are speaking about something in an exact sense. Figuratively is also an adjective‚ but its meaning is quite different from
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inspiration from experience and use their life stories to inspire their works. Amy Tan is no different. Amy Tan is a world renowned author known for her short stories and portrayal of the Asian-American lifestyle. She writes about many things considered violent and sad due to her unusual life circumstances that she has endured. The utilization of her own experiences helps her writings to appear authentic and soulful. Amy Tan has led an intriguing life‚ incredible literary works‚ has been awarded many
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The article “My Mother’s English” by Amy Tan is mainly about the author’s thoughts and judgments on her mother broken English in comparison to “Standard English”. Tan is a fictional writer who is “fascinated by language in daily life” (Tan 1) and uses language as everyday part of her work as a writer. Tan’s point in this article is to prove that even if her mother is speaking English! Others should not use that to judge your intelligence. Tan’s mother did not speak perfect English‚ but the points
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Racism was a huge issue in the 1900’s. The blacks and the whites were greatly segregated from each other. In the book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”‚ Maya Angelou explains how she experienced racism through her lifetime. As Maya was growing up‚ she was never around white people‚ but as she got older she experienced more racism; by the end of the book Maya has friendships with all different types of people‚ including white people‚ and as a result she starts believing in herself and that not all
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since colonial times. In her essay “Graduation‚” Maya Angelou recollects the experience of her eighth grade graduation in the 1930s to examine the personal growth of humans caught in the adversity of racial discrimination. Through narrative structure‚ selection of detail‚ and use of imagery‚ Angelou encourages young blacks to follow their ambitions with pride‚ despite what the “white man” thinks of them. Through her narrative structure‚ Angelou aspires for young black students to maintain “Negro”
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speaker is Amy Tan she is a best-selling author and her popular novels The Joy Luck Club‚ The Kitchen God’s Wife‚ and many more. She represents mother-daughter relationships and her heritage. Amy realized that mother was in the room when she was talking about her writing to a group. It made difference on her because she never talked in forms of Standard English with her mom. Furthermore‚ she has noticed how different her English is with her mother and showed an example of how her mother speaks. Amy thought
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Maya Angelou is a woman of many lives‚ a big city girl‚ a victim‚ a actor‚ singer‚ author‚ cable car conductor‚ mentor‚ civil rights leader‚ and so much more in only 86 years. She has lived through World War Ⅱ‚ the Great Depression‚ and just her day-to-day life‚ which has instilled an aura of great wisdom. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said‚ people will forget what you did‚ but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou states in an exclusive interview with CBS
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language. From Amy tan’s “Mother tongue” it is evident that language has an effect on our lives. “Mother tongue” by Amy tan tell us how the writer can develop her English well even though she lives in the middle of family who speak broken English. All of it starts from her desired and her motivation to learn‚ make all of things around her become something that can be learned and take a positive side of it. In her essay she described a lot of problem she had faced to learn English. Tan and her mother
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