Maya Angelou Research Paper

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Maya Angelou: A Passionate Writer Maya Angelou was born in 1928 and died in 2014. She lived in St. Louis, Missouri until the age of three, when her parents got divorced. She then moved to the small town of Stamps, Arkansas where she experienced a lot of racism that later influenced most of Angelou’s famous works. Soon after, according to the Academy of Achievement, Maya Angelou was sexually molested by her mother’s boyfriend at age seven. She felt too ashamed to tell any adults in her life, until she finally confessed to her older brother. Word soon spread within the family, and she later found out that her uncle killed Angelou’s attacker. She felt that her words killed the man, so she stopped talking for 5 years. These experiences are what…show more content…
She constantly speaks about how she’ll be able to overcome anything life or society may bring upon her. “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.” This is one of Angelou’s more famous poems, and it is filled with some incredible writing. She shows her confidence and speaks about how she knows she won’t give up anything without putting up a fight. Aside that, she knows nothing will be able to stop her from doing what she does best. Anyone with confidence like that, is surely to succeed at anything they commit to. I believe that the reason Maya Angelou became such an amazing writer is because her mind-set was full of confidence and commitment. Her attitude in this poem is what sets it all off. She’s very straight-forward, serious, and she gets her point across quickly. She’s also very confident, and relaxed at the same time as if she knows no matter what happens, she will overcome her situation. She gets her message across pretty clearly by showing that you could put her down with words, actions, or negative headlines, but no matter what, she knows what kind of person she is. She’s been through too much to let something so little get in her way. She remains numb to those thoughts because she knows that she will continue to stand

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