Describe how techniques have been used in the text. Explain how these techniques have been used to create a particular effect.
In the poem ‘Still, I Rise’ the important idea and techniques that Maya Angelou is trying to show are rising above the attitude of others and the oppression you might be facing. she tried to show this by using Poetic comparisons with similes and metaphors, The historical links for this idea, and rhetorical questions.
The quote ‘you may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still like the air I rise.’ The techniques used in this are metaphors, repetition. The metaphors make it clear how violent, direct, and aggressive the oppression is which she faces every day. The similes stand out because of the begging of the first two lines. She is saying you may shoot….cut….kill me but in the last line, she does not repeat you may again because just like the air she rises. The repetition is shown in the first three lines with you may as the start of all of them making it stand out to the readers.
Maya Angelou is showing the historical link is that her ancestors were slaves and she wanted to fight for equal rights in the quote ’you may write me down in history’ she wants to remember she wants everyone to know that she fought for equal rights for African- Americans and anyone that is treated differently because of their skin colour. She also says how history should be ashamed of how they treated people of colour. ‘out of the huts of history’s shame’ she says that even though she has come from slavery she used this technique to show the oppressors that they should be ashamed but she will not be ashamed she is proud of where she has come from.
Angelou showed the rhetorical question by saying ‘Did you want to see me broken?’ She is saying that even though they want to see her broken she is not going to let them. The readers were waiting for a response but don’t get one, but then at the end of the poem, they understand that she is saying did you want to see me broken no they can’t see her broken she is going to rise over them and not let them upset her she might be sassy and show off her wealth but she can. She is successful and can do what even she wants to.
In conclusion, the poem by Maya Angelou shows how the different techniques have been used in the text to create a particular effect in the poem and by using these techniques have made this text so powerful and showed how Maya Angelou overcame the oppression around her.
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