Still I Rise Essay

Still, I Rise
Describe an important idea in the text. Explain whether or not you think this idea is relevant to teenagers today.

“Still, I Rise”, by Maya Angelou is a poem that has a lot of meaning to the readers of it as it has a lot of metaphors and similes that Maya Angelou used to show how she feels about the people around her and herself, this has inspired big-time rappers like Kanye West and Tupac not only is this inspirational but the ideas from the text are great for the youth especially teens, in this essay I’ll be discussing the oppression that she has faced, some history of the text, or more so what caused her to write it.

The important ideas in still I rise is about not worrying about other’s expectations and judgments a line in the text that really sell this is “does my sassiness upset you?” showing that Maya Angelou is proud of herself and doesn’t look to please others she is looking after herself. This is a great example of someone that was dealt a bad hand in history and has spun themself around as now she’s an amazing influencer that advertises a positive mental attitude to the readers of the text.

Maya Angelou in “Still I Rise” crushes history in that she is rising up as a black woman 2 minorities that have been heavily oppressed in the past a part of the text that shows how she feels of her past is “out of the guts of history’s shame” which shows that she acknowledges how the blacks were shown as being weak during history how they were forced into slavery by the whites. Her breaking the stigmas of people who are discriminated against helped make our world better today because she can inspire anyone in the way of how well she uses her platform. As someone who is quite interested in history I really think that the way that people treated the blacks is terrible even today black people are still being discriminated towards and Maya Angelou even though she would have been discriminated towards in her past she hasn’t let herself be harmed by it because she is that strong of a person.

As a teenager myself I believe that Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” is a very inspirational piece of text and shows that everyone has within them the courage to do something amazing in life and to teenagers, this information can really help them because throughout our teenage years we really start to question stuff like morals and things like that whereas when we were children we didn’t really question things we didn’t see the grey area just red or green. Maya Angelou said, “up from a past that’s rooted in pain” says that even if as you were growing up you were a weird kid or as a child you had a poor upbringing you can turn your life around and change yourself to the person YOU want to be as knowing this is really empowering at least I think so personally and I’m sure others would agree with me.

Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou was one of the first poems that I have genuinely enjoyed working on and I really give the author prompts for that as this poem has historical roots to it that provide more context, a great meaning to teenagers showing that they can do anything which is very important. Some things you should’ve taken from the text is Maya Angelou’s great way of drawing people into the material and that you can go from rags to riches no matter who you are.