3. Maya Angelou- "Still I Rise"
             Analysis: Through jargon, diction, imagery and imagery, Angelou expresses that she will overcome racism; despite her race, she color, she will not feel inferior to any race. In the first stanza, Angelou refers to racism-and how she will overcome it. The image coveyed by her statement, "You may trod me in the dirt" figurately illustrates how the white man puts down the black race with his dirty, disgusting racist words. Yet despite such racism, she will rise. In the second stanza, Angelou's use of rhetorical questions reflect her confidence-she feels powerful in her dark skin-as she passionately speaks to the white man about how she is not inferior. The image that she can walk like she's "got oil wells" depicts her pride in being an African American. In the fourth stanza, the rhetorical questions refer, once again, to the racism which Angelou suffers. In the fifth stanza, Angelou responds to such racism by expressing her stregth in being a colored. By stating that "I laugh like I've got gold mines/ diggin' in my own backyard." figuratively expresses that she has found wealth, she has found joy in being an Afrcan American. In the sixth stanza, she encourages the white man to "shoot me with your words", to "cut me with your eyes", to even "kill me with your hatefulness." The repetition of "You may" and her violent diction dramatize that despite any type of racist action against her, Angelou "like air" will rise. Nothing wil pull her down. Her confidence continues to be seen in the seventh stanza. She asks, "Does my sexiness upset you?" She is obviously proud to be in her colred skin. In the eigth stanza, the details that she will rise from the past, which is "rooted in pain, thats she is "a black ocean, leaping and wide,/ Welling and swealing I bear in the tide" furthe...