Still I Rise (Paper 2)

Question 1

Key words

Question 2

Context

Answer 2

Growing up in 1930s America, Angelou experienced the segregation that occurred between the white and black population. Laws and rules aimed to limit the movement of the black community. The black community were controlled by the white laws: separate schools; separate buses and even separate restaurants. Black people also had no vote in America, despite their contribution to World War 2. The Civil Rights Movement aimed to gain equality.

Question 3

Themes and ideas

Answer 3

Angelou is discussing discrimination and the idea of being suppressed. She is declaring her determination to succeed in a world that puts her down. She is expressing her strength as a woman and her desires to succeed. She believes that the world is against her.

Question 4

Key quotations

Answer 4

• You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I rise
  -Does my sassiness upset you?
• Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room.
• Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides…
• I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Weilling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Question 5

You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I rise
(analysis)

Answer 5

• You –> Direct address - confrontal tone
• Anaphora reiterated power of opressor
• “dust” –> Link to nature - her resilience is deeply rooted in her very being/free spirited
• “like dust” –> Allusion to bible - created equally by god-asserts her humanity

Question 6

Does my sassiness upset you? (analysis)

Answer 6

• “Sassiness” –> Shows she is bold and confident
• ”?” –> Antagonistic, sarcastic tone

Question 7

Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. (analysis)

Answer 7

• “Oil wells” –> Symbol of inmense wealth. Her confidence is her wealth
• “My living room” –> Personal possessive pronoun = self-empowerment

Question 8

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides… (analysis)

Answer 8

Similies linked to nature- she is a force of nature-unstoppable

Question 9

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Weilling and swelling I bear in the tide. (analysis)