Maya Angelou Research Paper

Troubled past. Equal rights. Impoverished family. Many poets have either written a poem or novels that spoke to many of their readers. Authors around the world have written poems and books about extreme events that happened in their life. An example of one of those poets is Maya Angelou. Angelou was one of the many poets that wrote about very rough experiences in her childhood. Although Angelou is now known for being a civil rights activist and an amazing poet throughout her life she had faced troubles like no other (Overview of Maya Angelou). Angelou wrote the raw literature that led many to ask what obstacles did Angelou have to overcome that influenced her to write her poetry. The life of Maya Angelou was a very hectic life, but from these …show more content…
When Angelou was younger, living in Stamps, Arizona, she had experienced the reality of what it was like being a black girl in the boundaries that white people had set (Overview of Maya Angelou). From these memories Angelou had written poems that African Americans could relate in the time of the Civil Rights movement. From facing these experiences Angelou had written the poem “Phenomenal Women” which many related to many African American women at the time. The meaning of Phenomenal Women was feeling confident with being a women, regardless of what any men or race may say. Angelou writes in her last stanza line fifty “When you see me passing, -I It ought make you proud.” An analysis of what Angelou was saying many people may pass her that may discriminate her for her race or gender but she does not care because when she has accomplished something in her life that she met her goal leaving you to be amazed. Angelou seemed to have been sending this message to her female readers during the Civil Rights movement because her deep meaning behind these lines are trying to accomplish on having the same rights as white people. Another way on how Angelou shows that this poem was intended to be directed towards her female African American readers, in the last stanza line fifty six “The need for my care. - ‘Cause I'm a woman - Phenomenally. - Phenomenal woman, - That’s me.” Angelou was trying to send the message that she was a remarkable woman and was proud of who she has become and defining herself as a “Phenomenal Women.” Throughout Angelou’s life she had been through some rough times from white folks setting boundaries in her life, due to her skin color (Overview of Maya Angelou). But that did not stop Angelou into becoming stronger and a powerful women that many admire due to her written works. Although Angelou had came from a very inferior community she produced some of her best work because of

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