In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou uses the settings and people of her childhood to illustrate the development of her moral and social outlook on life. During this time in her life, she is moved from place to place and from family to...

As much as we like to think we forge our own identities, much of who we are is determined by outside forces. Oppression is a powerful force in shaping the identities in Maya Angelou’s memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and in her poems “When I...

In Frantz Fanon’s psychological non-fiction book, Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon criticizes the acculturation of the African American community to become much more caucasian to gain the perspective of superficial status. Fanon brings to the...

Poetry can be a powerful medium in expressing an opinion which is then left to the reader’s interpretation. Maya Angelou’s poetry does not merely ‘remind’ us of our conscience but challenges our sense of right and wrong to protest against...

‘Phenomenal woman’, being semiotic of a woman’s stability and security in herself is particularly important in Angelou’s collection given that the one of the recurring themes projected consistently throughout her poems is the idea of confidence,...

“On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in her strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself--on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of...

Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" can be understood as the narrative of a woman who was discarded and hampered by the world and its cruel definition of beauty and success. You can discern the story of a young girl who once felt ashamed to appear in...

Maya Angelou was an acclaimed writer and civil rights activist who reached a broad audience through her works. While she is perhaps best known for her autobiographical prose, her poetry has changed the landscape of feminist writing, bringing in a...

As much as we like to think we forge our own identities, much of who we are is determined by outside forces. Oppression is a powerful force in shaping the identities in Maya Angelou’s memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and in her poems “When I...

Feminist ideas were already at large when Maya Angelou published her poetry anthology “And Still I Rise” in 1984. The 1900s saw many significant changes in terms of women’s rights: women were given the right to vote in 1920, the 1960s saw the rise...

Poetry can be a powerful medium in expressing an opinion which is then left to the reader’s interpretation. Maya Angelou’s poetry does not merely ‘remind’ us of our conscience but challenges our sense of right and wrong to protest against...

Both Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” (1978) and Solange’s song “Don’t Touch my Hair” (2016) illustrate different stages in the African-American struggle with otherization of their identity. “Still I Rise” iterates many examples of how...

Maya Angelou’s series of seven autobiographies collectively captures the various sections of her enthralling and turbulent life. The Heart of a Woman (1981), as her fourth autobiography is an account of the beginning of her writing career, her...

‘Phenomenal woman’, being semiotic of a woman’s stability and security in herself is particularly important in Angelou’s collection given that the one of the recurring themes projected consistently throughout her poems is the idea of confidence,...

Poetry can be a powerful medium in expressing an opinion which is then left to the reader’s interpretation. Maya Angelou’s poetry does not merely ‘remind’ us of our conscience but challenges our sense of right and wrong to protest against...