Having been born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928 and moving to Arkansas at a young age, Maya Angelou knew discrimination and hardship all too well. The civil rights activist used her troubled childhood as inspiration for many of her award-winning pieces, including her 1969 memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and numerous works of poetry and essay collections.
The author, screenwriter, dancer, and poet dabbled in many fields but fell in love with activism when she was in Ghana for a short time. There, she worked alongside and grew closer to human rights activist and black nationalist, Malcolm X. Unlike Malcolm X, who was more of a vocal activist, Angelou used the pen as an outlet. When it came to the trauma she experienced firsthand, such as growing up from being mute for nearly five years after being sexually assaulted by a family member to being a child of divorced parents and being raised by her grandmother, Angelou uses her 1978 poem, “Still I Rise” to show just how strong she is.
Angelou uses this poem to show self-respect and confidence in not only her heritage but also her gender. Among being a strong advocate for the rights of the Black community, she uses her power to show the injustice that women face as well. The empowering words in “Still I Rise” show how through strong self-esteem, anyone can overcome hatred and conquer anything.
In this poem, Angelou uses strong words like “haughtiness” and “trod” to display her plea to allow women of color to have emotions and to stand up for themselves. In the first lines, she talks about how society is going to paint a picture of who she should be, and she uses her powerful words “Like dust, I’ll rise” to say that the image painted is wrong and she will still rise above all of it. Angelou asks the reader if her attitude and “sassiness” is offensive and this touches upon the stereotype that all women must remain quiet and not show power. Angelou uses metaphors like “Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high” and this is a nod to her ability to use words to describe a feeling most people know all too well.
In fact, this feeling of confidence is shown throughout this poem as Angelou explains how her sexiness shouldn’t be upsetting and that her strong womanhood and cultured mind should be celebrated. Angelou uses this piece of work to show her opinion on discrimination and she nods at her devotion to her past both historically and personally. The author uses her pen to display how proud she is to use her body and brain to assert her confidence and show her power because, above all the hatred and injustice, she still rises.