McGill 1

Hadassah McGill Professor Camargo English 2100-003 25 February 2013

Ive Got Diamonds: A Rhetorical Analysis of Maya Angelous Still I Rise America has not always been The Land of the Free! At least not everyone had the privilege in sharing that sense of pride and freedom that America portrayed. There was a time not very long ago where specific races of people were demeaned and treated harshly or less than equal. For example Jews and African-Americans and even women were mistreated in the past. In some areas around the world, this type of harsh treatment is still taking place. Most cultures have been treated so terribly that the thought of how their race was treated still lives on past the history books. In fact, a new history is being made. The kind of history that suggests that even through past oppressions, one is able to still find happiness and freedom. The great Maya Angelou, in her work entitled Still I Rise, provides, in her own way, a criticism of the established order by analyzing past oppressions and present liberations through use of rhetorical questioning, simile and metaphor, and allusions to the past and present situations she now faces. Angelou alludes to historical contents that have developed over the years; the poem itself is challenging these past orders and answers many of the questionable problems that oppressed people face. In addition to that, the use of similes, metaphors, and rhetorical questioning help to place emphasis on the idea that liberty and happiness can be attained. There are many allusions in the poem in which the history of the African American struggle is displayed throughout the poem. The acute attention to detail displays the tone of the

McGill 2

poem and the speaker as strong, independent, and confident. This is evident in the way the speaker seems to escape the feelings of oppression from black people being [written] down in history [and] trod in the very dirt and the speaker shares his/her feelings of stagnant growth even after all the many years of leaving behind nights of terror and fear. The tone in this piece exudes strength and confidence no matter what struggles one is faced with. The reader gets a view from the perspective of the life of an African-American and how it was transformed during and after the times of slavery. The speaker poses a variety of open ended rhetorical questions that seemingly have already been answered for the reader. The overwhelming sense of dignity the speaker possesses is confident, assuring, and uplifting to any male or female figure and race. With this confidence comes a sense of pride in ones culture, ones people, and ones self. The speaker begins to exude this confidence with the myriad of rhetorical questions in the poem: Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Does my haughtiness offend you? Dont you take it awful hard cause I laugh like Ive got gold mines diggin in my own back yard Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise that I dance like Ive got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs?

All of these rhetorical questions bring about a sense of pride that had long before been defeated in the African-American race. Not only are these questions a good example of pride but also, a good example of the oppression that many people wished for African Americans to remain in throughout history. With these questions, Angelou is showing that, in all the struggles of many people, you just cannot keep a good thing down. Anyone can get upset and offended because a situation has turned out differently than one has expected, but the speaker demonstrates that s/he possesses a quality or characteristic that s/he as a human being, African American, etcetera, was for the longest time forbidden to show.

McGill 3

The speaker seems strong: stronger than society wants him/her to feel since people are used to seeing him/her with their shoulders falling down like teardrop [and] weakened bysoulful cries. The speaker seems confident: more confident than society expects for them to feel. The speaker has been broken down, weakened, and hurt many times before, but no longer was this going to be the image portrayed. S/he seems driven to put his/her ancestors gifts and talents on display, since for so many years they were stifled and hidden. The African-American plight or the struggle of the black race was captured by people not wanting to see them fight or talk back or speak up for themselves. Superior races hated to see blacks happy and successful so the confidence possessed by the speaker was not taken lightly. The speaker asks, does my haughtiness offend you? This was probably because s/he was more intelligent than one would care to appreciate. The speaker then goes on to ask does my sexiness upset you? as if s/he is sure that no one is expecting them to consider themself as beautiful or sexy because it is clear they dont look like everyone else and also because their race was trodden in the very dirt. But still, like dust, Ill rise and from the ashes that formed from the broken and bruised backs of African-Americans, the black culture was able to rise to greatness. Her ancestors brought her dignity, gave her reason to fight for something (dreams, hopes, and more) and with these things [they] rise. The use of similes in the poem represent the view of African-Americans that was long suppressed and even the rights and riches that were stolen from them. Angelou uses all these metaphors and similes to express how the speaker has rise[n] from a dark, desolate, and barren place; where people, and specific races, were treated with such hatefulness. Yet still, out of the huts of historys shame I rise. The speaker says Im a black ocean, leaping and wide. This not only is representative of the skin color represented throughout the poem, but it could also be

McGill 4

a metaphor for the place dark place that oppressed people have arisen inn history. It can also be compared to the endless possibilities that life holds and the tide and currents that represent how struggles are widespread with every trial faced, but the speaker takes it and bear[s] the tide and still [they] rise. The poem alludes to a place and time in our history when African-Americans were thought to be an inferior race, and were treated as such. Out of the huts of historys shameIm a black ocean, leaping and wideup from a past thats rooted in pain bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. Through the use of rhetorical questioning, simile and metaphor, and allusions to historical oppressions, Angelou is able to create a situation demonstrative of struggles being overcome and displays an active voice in the hope that freedom, hope, liberty, and happiness can be attained for any oppressed persons in her poem Still I Rise.