Maya Angelou Essay, Research Paper

To face life s challenges one must look to the past for success in the future. Two main qualities I feel must be nurtured and developed are a positive attitude for life and persistence. By recalling the values, ethics and influences of my family, as well as my own experiences, I can step into a situation knowing that I am not alone; but am carrying the support of others. No matter how hard a problem may seem, I can work through it and even succeed if I persevere. Since I am an avid reader, I delight in reading a variety of different authors from different backgrounds and cultures to observe what shapes the values in their lives. One of my favorite poets, Maya Angelou, writes her poetry so that the reader feels a certain emotion or is inspired to overcome barriers. In And Still I Rise , Angelou stresses the importance of persistence and attitude over giving up and backing off. I try to base my life on this poem whenever I am in a dispirited point in my life. Angelou s childhood was the driving force of her angst-ridden poetry. Angelou was raised in poverty, raped at an early age, became a teenage mother, and was in the middle of her parent s divorce. However, true to her character, Angelou overcame all the impediments she was faced with; and consequently used her poetry to tell her story to the world. Each time I read a new Angelou poem, the fire and emotion that she writes with engulfs me and allows me to have a different outlook on life. While one of her poems can leave me pumped up and ready to conquer the world, the next could leave me in tears contemplating our nation s never-ending problems. Maya Angelou once said, I hope that whoever reads my books knows him or herself better afterwards. Obviously, Angelou s thesis was right. My life is modeled in part by Angelou s valuable advice and her ever-fearless outlook on society. I now believe that I will succeed because I choose to succeed.