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Angelou Poem Analysis

In: English and Literature

Submitted By barbmasi123
Words 497
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English wk 3 angelou poem

The struggle for equality is still an issue in the United States. From the very first, European explorers discriminated against the Native Americans that lived in North America. With each generation, a new cultural group came to the US and each group has experienced discrimination by the dominant groups already present. Some were forced to the US by slavery: “the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare.” Today, some groups continue to experience significant discrimination in the US; African Americans and Hispanic Americans are treated especially poorly. In Maya Angelou’s poem, the writer points out to us that so many have come to the US and so many have acted with violence and have damaged one another and the land. In the poem, the Rock said, “Your armed struggles for profit Have left collars of waste upon My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.”
The importance of friendship and brotherhood is prevalent in American society in ways we do not expect. Many people, whether they are African American, Native American, White or whatever, have the same yearnings live a good life, to live in a nation where everyone has an equal chance to live up to their potential and to live in harmony with one another. Angelou points out in her poem that people are too busy and “desperate for gain, Starving for gold.” The Rock, the River and Tree call out to Americans to look around that and see the beauty of the world and of all people and try one more time for friendship and brotherhood since it is what people yearn for: “Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need For this bright morning dawning for you.”
An example of allegory used in Maya Angelou’s poem is the use of three “characters” of the Rock, the Tree and the River who speak to all humans about the history and current state of the world. For example, “the

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