Name
: Agus Nugraha
Reg.
: 1020206024480
Title
:
This paper has been defended before the Examination Committee of Adab and
Humanities Faculty on August 30, 2010. It has been accepted as a partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Degree of Strata One (S1).
Jakarta, August 30, 2010
The Examination Committee
Signature
Date
1. Dr. H. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd
19650919 200003 1 002
(Chair Person)
________
________
2. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd
19640710 199303 1 006
(Secretary)
________
________
3. Danti Pudjianti S.Pd.MM
197312201999032004
(Advisor)
________
________
4. Elve Oktafiyani M.Hum
197810032001122002
(Examiner I)
________
________
i
Agus Nugraha,
Political, Social, and Economical Condition of African
American in Maya Angelou Poems
.
Thesis. Jakarta: English Letters Department,
Letters and Humanities Faculty, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, August
2007.
The research concerns on extrinsic element of three Maya Angelou’s poems
that related to the social condition in America. For the object of research, he chooses
three Maya Angelou’s poems; they were
On Pulse Morning, Still I Rise,
and
Preacher Don’t Send Me.
The writer uses descriptive analytic method. The research is started by
explicating the poems and correlating the poems with history. The correlation is
focused on the race discrimination and struggle issue which occur on these poems,
and history of America at 19th century. The writer uses the sociology of literature
theory to analyze the social condition in the poems.
As the conclusion, the writer found the correlation between the poems and
its historical background. The poems describe the discrimination and struggle in
America at 19
thcentury. There is also correlation between the discrimination and the
poet background as African-American who lived in America.
A Thesis
Submitted to Letter and Humanities Faculty
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
Strata 1 Degree
AGUS NUGRAHA Reg. 12026024480
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
ADAB AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
I here by that this submission is my original work and that, to the best my
knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by
another person nor material which to substantial extent has been accepted for the
award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher
learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in text.
Jakarta, August 23
th, 2010
ABSTRACT... i
APPROVEMENT ... ii
LEGALIZATION ... iii
DECLARATION ... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... v
TABLE OF CONTENT ... vi
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION……….. A. The Background of Study ... 1
B. The Focus of Study ... 5
C. The Statement of Problems ... 5
D. The Significance of Study ... 6
E. The Method of Study ... 6
1. The Method of Research ... 6
2. The Technique of Data Analysis ... 7
3. The Research Instrument ... 7
4. The Unit Analysis ... 7
A. Understanding The Poem ... 10
1. Definition of Poem ... 9
B. Sociology of Literature ………. 11
C. Racism ………. 13
1. The Definition of Racism ... 14
2. The Forms of Discriminations ... 17
CHAPTER III THE RESEARCH FINDING
1.
Data Description
...
18
1. Preacher Don’t Send me ... 18
2. Still I Rise ... ... 20
3. Equality……….. ... 22
2. The Analysis of Data ... 23
1. Preacher Don’t Send me ... 23
2. Still I Rise……… ... 27
3. Equality………... ... 31
CHAPTER IV CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions……….. ... 34
B. Suggestions……… 35
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... . 36
APPENDIX ... 48
In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.
First of all, the writer would like to thank to Allah SWT for his favor and guidance to
him in completing this paper he does believe there is nothing he could do without his help.
All praise belongs to Him, the creator of living things from being nothing to exist. May
solution and benediction be into the nobles of the prophet and messenger, Muhammad SAW.
On this occasion, the writer would like to thank his beloved parent for giving him
their full financial and spirit support during his study and the process of making the thesis.
Then the writer would like to thank Miss.Danti Pudjianti S.Pd MM. the advisor giving
guides him during the process of research. The writer realizes without her help, this research
will mean nothing.
Then the writer would like to thank some people who have contribute d much, while
this paper is in process until it becomes a complete work they are as follows:
Dr. Abdul Chair, MA, the dean of Adab and Humanitis Faculty, Dr. H. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd
1. the Head of English Letter Department and all staff of Adab and Humanities
Faculty.
2. All lecturers of English Departement for teaching precious knowledge ad
wonderful experience.
3. My big family
4. All my friends in KMF Kalacitra UIN, IKPM Banten, IKPM Tangerang
who always support me in in finishing this work.
Finally the writer hopes this study will be useful especially for the writer him self and
1
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literature can be divided into four types; there are Poetry, Prose, Non
Fiction and Drama. Laurence Perrine says that poetry is as universal language and
almost ancient.1 Like other daily language activity, poetry heads for conveying the
information, but the poets use language with their pattern.
The work of art is a historic fact, an art cannot be separated from his own
history when and why it is created, because an art was created at specific
circumstance and many factors will influence the artist. Literary cannot be
separated from its writer. Many things influence the writer when creates a work
such as the sociology of writer, her and his circumstance or the society where the
writer lives and writer communities’ history. The poet as a woman – or a man- is
affected by the wisdom, the attitude, the occurrences and the issues of the world
about the poet.
Literary works became the media to socialize the opinion, the ideas and
experiences, as values to the society. So that, the literary may have big
contribution in influence and deliver the value to the reader. Even the literary is
written by his creator as individual or as individual work but the theme he or she
writes is the problem of his society. In this case the poems themselves as the
representative of the society. The poet is trans-individual construction and not
1
only the representation of his or her self.2
Racism issue is interesting, as if racism is never ending issue, we can find
the historical fact and earlier fact in any states, when racism became basic reason
of conflict, abuse, violence, and genocide and many discussions, books, and some
organizations talk and concern about racism. In other hand, racism issue also
become main theme in much art works such movies, drama, literary and others. In
America many literary works talk about racism, mostly created by African
American.
Over the years, so many students was interested in racism discourse even
in literary work. This issue became big attention in this context the writer has big
attention especially in the literature. The writer chooses the Maya Angelou3
poems because most of her literary work themes are about the discrimination and
the life experience of African American. And the most important thing is she is an
important figure in the American civil right movement.
Based on the reasons above the writer is interested in Maya Angelou
works, she is an author, poet, historian, stage and screen producer. Angelou is the
first women who write and delivers her poem, at the inauguration for president at
his request.
According to Angelou the art cannot be apart from the people and whole
2
Nyoman Kutha Ratna, Teori Metode dan Teknik Penulisan Sastra, (Yogyakarta : Penerbit Pustaka Pelajar, 2004) Cet ke-1,h.124.
3
art works just for the people. Angelou was born as African American and she had
big attention and participation for civil right movement, in 1959, at the request of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Maya become the northern coordinator for the
southern Christian leadership conference.4
In Maya Angelou poems, the writer sees the relation between the poems
and her society as her background where she lived. Maya Angelou herself was
African American and most of her poems tell about African American miseries,
torture, abuse, poverty, segregation, violence, and discrimination.
Actually, Americans treatment toward African American was
contradictive with their concept about American dreams, American concept about
freedom; equality of opportunity which it’s mean, every American has equal
chance for enter the race and win. In other words the race for success is affair one
and that person cannot win just because he or she was born into African American
family or lose because she as African American.
One of Maya Angelou’s poems Preacher Don’t Send Me told about the
wornness of African American to live in the same life after his death. The persona
assumes that his life today like living in the hell. The persona describes the ghetto
as hell which there is no prosperity inside this world. This description can be
founded by the reader in first stanza Preacher don’t send me /When I die /To some
big Ghetto /In the sky/Where rats eat cats/Of the leopard type/And Sunday branch
/Is grits and tripe
This poem told about African American worries, the African American
was worrying to live in the same life after his death. The Ghetto was imagined as
the hell, where the whole experiences in ghetto as the horrible experiences. The
African American had no chance for competition, good position in job, equality
treatment at public area, life in ghetto was hard, many violence, prostitute,
because of their less education and jobless, the superior ( the white) kept the
African American in such condition for keeping them in stupidity, poverty, and
misery. Ghetto areas were economically disadvantaged areas as the location of the
areas were often isolated from its outer world.
The meaning of Ghetto in the Oxford dictionary is:
"An area of a city where many people of the same race or background
live, separately from the rest population".5 Ghetto is an area where people from a
specific racial or ethnic background are united in a given culture or religion lives
as a group, voluntarily or involuntarily, in milder or stricter seclusion. The term
Ghetto is referring to racist, elitist and culturally insensitive, and the mention of
such a word to describe a working-class ethnic community is considered a
generalization or an insult6
The other Maya Angelou poem is Still I Rise, this poem also told about
segregation and discrimination of African American, this is example of her poem:
You may shoot me with your words/You may cut me with your eyes/You may kill
me with your hatefulness.../. This poem discussed clearly about the discrimination
5
A.S Horn By, Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary,(Newyork ; Oxford University Press) Sixth Edition,2000, p.19
and conditions of their life. The chosen words, shoot, cut, kill gave us the
information how terrible the discrimination to African American at the time.
The Equality also discussed about discrimination and segregation in
America. In this poem, the African American became invisible human I stand
before you boldly, Trim in rank ‘they dehumanized by the superior. The white
hatefulness imaged as the sight of white as if in deem even the African American
was in front of the white eyes.
B. The Focus of Study
The research focused on the three Maya Angelou poems:
Equality, Preacher Don't Send Me, Still I Rise. From these three poems
the writer will analyze the words which were chosen by Angelou and the
sociological background of poems.
C. The Statement of Problems
Based on the background of the study above and the focus on the study,
the writer formulated the statement of the problems dealing with sociology of
literature in poetry:
1. What is the African American’s condition in the three Maya Angelou
D. The Significance of Study
By analyzing the intrinsic element in three of Maya Angelou poems:
Preacher Don’t Send Me, Still I Rise, and Equality, the writer wishes to find the
social condition of African American; social, politic, economy, which described
in those poems.
E. The Method of Study
1. The Method of The Research
The method that the writer uses in this research is descriptive
qualitative. The researcher concerned to scientific data, and correlated
the data with context. In the analysis the researcher explains the
description and image that exist in the poems by relating them with
the race discrimination and struggle of African American at nineteenth
century in America. The writer also uses content analysis. It means the
writer tries to analyze the poems by finding out and interpreting the
content, the meaning, and the message that exist in data.
2. The Technique of Data Analysis
In this study, the writer uses the sociology of literature theory to
analyze the data, and uses the textual-analytical as the technique of
data analysis. The collected data will be analyzed and discussed in
order to answer the research questions above by using qualitative
3. The Research Instrument
The instrument in this research is the writer himself by reading
and analyzing the whole text in the three Maya Angelou’s poems. The
poems will be analyzed carefully by underlining the stanzas, lines,
sentences or words that related to visual imagery. Besides analyzing
the data, the writer also puts it as the evidence in this research.
4. Unit Analysis
The unit analysis used the three Maya Angelou poems:
Equality (P.232), Preacher Don't Send Me (P.257), Still I Rise
(P.163). Taken from the book "The Complete Collected Poems of
Maya Angelou published by Random House, Inc. New York: 1994.
5. Place and Time
This research is accomplished in State Islamic University Syarif
CHAPTER II
THE THEORITICAL REVIEW
A poem is one of literary works, and what is literary works? Jakob
Sumardjo and Saini define literary works as “sastra adalah ungkapan pribadi
manusia yang berupa pengalaman, pemikiran, perasaan, ide, semangat, keyakinan
dalam suatu bentuk gambaran kongkret yang membangkitkan pesona dengan alat
bahasa”.1
The poem works are created by the people. Poets use their works to
express their idea, feeling, experience, or the description of something. A poem is
one of literary works which influenced by their cities and giving influences to
their cities.
The artists have potential to make social construct of the people or the
society. Literary works can be used as an intellectual movement and
entertainment. The poem is also created by an artist, which lived and write in
specific time and under specific circumstance which inevitably account for some
the qualities of his art, based on this reason we cannot avoid deliberately many
question of a historical biographical facts about the poet, speculation about the
circumstances under which the poem was written, inquiries many factors which
could have influenced the substance and the language chosen by a particular poet
at particular time.
Terry Eagleton said “There are two main ways in which an interesting the
1
sociology of literature can be justified. The first from of justification is (in the
epistemological sense of term) realist: is in fact deeply conditioned by its social
context and any critical account of it which omits this fact is therefore
automatically deficient. The second way is pragmatist: literature is in fact shaped
by all kinds of factors and readable in all sorts’ contexts, but highlighting its
social determinants is useful and desirable from particular political stand point”.2
The Sociological critic assert that since all men are the product of a
particular of time and place, we can never truly understand a work without some
understanding of social forces that molded the author and all that he did and
thought.3
Many art works are used as a media to socialize the idea and opinion, one
of art works is poem. Many poets use this media, in this context as media to
reflect the history and condition as approach to reduce prejudice, show the
freedom, and to show the right of individual that whole people are equal and the
people should not be discriminated based on their ethnic or race.
A. Understanding The Poem
1. Definition of Poem
Word “poetry” comes from Greece “Poeima”, means “make” or” Poeisis”
means “making”. Poetry is meant as “make” or “making”, because the poet
2
Terry eagleton, Literature and Social Practice,ed.Philippe desan,Priscilla Parkhust Fergusson and Wendy Griswold,(Chicago: The University Of Chicago Press, 1995),p.90
3
actually achieved “making” a new world with his own couplet which can realized
through the certain messages and atmosphere, even internal and external4. Poetry
may be defined as the medium to convey poet’s ideas or experiences. Through
poems the poet can express his internal feeling to the world in response to the
problem around him
A poem is a verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or
emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language
chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques
such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.5
Poetry might define as a kind of language that say more and says intensely
and does ordinary language.6
William Wordsworth defines poem as the spontaneous of powerful
feeling, it take origin feeling from emotion recollected in tranquility.7
Leight Hunt defines a poem as "the utterance of passion for truth, beauty,
and power embodying and illustrating its conceptions by imagination and fancy,
and modulating its language on the principle of variety in unity”.8
Macaulay defines a poem as “the art of employing words in such manner
4
Aminuddin, Pengantar Apresiasi Karya Sastra, (Bandung, Penerbit Angkasa, 1987)p.134
5
http;// www.thefreedictionary.com/poem.(9/19/2007 8;02 PM)
6
Perrine Laurence (1969),Loc Cit p.3
7
Drury John, Creating Poetry; How to begin A poem, Use Word Combination And view Form: Apply the Lessons From Master Poets to Individual Poems to Individual Poems , Choose and uses Images and Words carefully and much more, (New York; F& W publications Inc, 1991). p.5.
as to produce as illusion on the imagination.
Poem is the art of doing by means of words what the colors”.9
B. Sociology of Literature
Society is a place where human nature live and do many things, and
sociology is a ‘tool’ to see and analyze the relationship between human (either as
individual or group) and society. Sociology is scientific study about human on
society; the study of institute and social process. By seeing the social structures
and all issues of economic, politic, religion and so on, we will get picture of the
ways of human being in adapting themselves to their environment, the mechanism
of socialization, and cultural process.
Like sociology, literature also deals with human being in society: human’s
effort to adapt him or herself and to change the society. Literary work contains the
relation of human with his world and its problem; economic, politic, social, and so
on. Sociology of literature is a way or tool to see and analyze the relationship
between literature and society; the author, the literary works, and the society. The
poet is a member of society, so the poet can make the social condition as his/her
inspiration.
Damono divides the object of sociology of literature research into three
clasification:
1. The social context of author. Analyzing the relationship between author
and his/her position in society; .
2. Literature as mirror of society. Analyzing the literature as reflection of
social condition.
3. Social function of literature. Analyzing the literary value and its
relationship to social value, and how far literature is functioned as consoler
and media of social education to the readers.10
From the clasification above, the sociology of literature can be applied
through three perspectives; first literary text perspective, second biography
perspective, and the last is receptive perspective. Literature is one of social
documents which reflect the situation in society. Literature can record what
occure in society, and can be used to explore the social history. The research gets
literary work as a mirror of the writer’s social condition, and as a manifestation of
historical event and socio-cultural condition.
According to Warren and Wellek, since every writer is a member of
society, he can be studied as a social being. Though his biography is the main
source, such a study can easily widen into one of the whole milieu from which he
came and in which he lived. It will be possible to accumulate information about
the social provenience, the family background, the economic position of writers.11
It means the author has important role in producing a literary work, he or she
writes what he or she see and feel.
By using this approach, the writer tries analyze three Maya Angelou
10
Damono, Sapardi Djoko, Sosiologi Sastra: Sebuah Pengantar Ringkas, (Jakarta: Pusat Pengembangan Bahasa Dan Departemen Pendidikan Dan Kebudayaan, 1984). p. 4-5.
11
poems to see the social condition in America, especially which relates to
Afro-America. The writer hopes to find real condition in the past; in economic, politic,
social, culture.
C. Racism
Over the centuries ago racism existed in their form. Long time ago racism
existed in slavery system. In this system the slave had to serve their master.
They had no self decision and fate, their fate in their hand master. In this
system the slave as cursed human as if they cursed to always become inferior
human.
The idea of racism was supported by the growth of social Darwinism and
his concept of survival for the fittest. According to Darwin that people struggle
to survive and the superior (powerful and the rich) must be the fittest in
evolutionary scheme.
Other sciences supported the racism; such Anthropology supported this by
the argument of polygenesis. According to Morton in his theory of polygenesis
“black and Caucasians were already distinct 3,000 years ago, and Noah’s sons
couldn’t account for all the racial variation. Morton scientifically proved that
Caucasians were intellectually, superior by measuring skull capacity.
Caucasians had brains with an average size of eighty seven cubic inches,
Indians fells in the middle and the black had smallest brain size.12
Racism has been a motivating factor in social discrimination, racial
12
segregation, hate speech and violence.
Anthropology also supports the idea of racism, an anthropologist, Henry
leis Morgan, Supporting the idea by his work when creating a “scientific” rank
of human group that ranged from savagery to barbarism to civilization.
Western societies achieved the rank of civilization, while new groups
encountered though exploration and imperialism were placed in other two
categories.
These theories supported the idea that the God had ruled and classified his
creator (Human) in categories, Such superior and inferior, the whites became
the superior human and outside of the whites were inferior and the inferiors
had to obey and serve their master (the whites).
Racism is a belief system or doctrine which postulates a hierarchy among
various human races or ethnic groups. It may be based on an assumption of
inherent biological differences between different ethnic groups that purport to
determine cultural or individual behavior.
1. The Definition of Racism
The meaning of racism in Oxford dictionary is: "The unfair treatment of
people who belong to a different race; violent, behavior toward them”.13 It
means the belief that some races of people are better than others.
Racism may define as a belief system or doctrine which postulates a
hierarchy among various human races or ethnic groups. It may be based on an
assumption of inherent biological differences between different ethnic groups
that purport to determine cultural or individual behavior. Racism may be
described as a strong form of ethnocentrism, including traits such as xenophobia
(fear and hate of foreigners), views against interracial relationships
(anti-miscegenation), ethnic nationalism, and ethnic stereotypes.
Racism commonly is defined as believe or doctrine which inherent
biological differences among the various human races determine cultural or
individual achievement, with corollary that one's own race is superior and has
the right to rule others.
The prejudice or the judgment of members of particular group and
discrimination were created by several conditions:
1. Colour
Discrimination of white to darker skinned such to the Italian, Asians, and
African American.
2. Cultural Differences
Shared cultural values, such language and religion, guarantee more tolerance,
such protestant more tolerant to the Christians than Jews. In cultural values,
such in America, black, Indians, Asian American, have difficult than other
group in dealing with whites in the America.
3. Economic Interest
When one group is economically dependent upon exploiting a minority,
prejudice will be more intense, slavery is an example.
This case occurred, when whites prohibited African American from learning
new skills that would allow them to compete with white for industrial jobs.
Therefore, with the aid of northern industrialist and southern agriculturalist
depend on black labor to produce cotton, African American return to the field
as tenant farmers and sharecroppers.14
5. Demography
If an ethnic group small and scattered, prejudice is less intense, but if the
ethnic group is large and concentrated, the sense of in security is much greater
in the larger society. Such in Ante Bellum, South Carolina and Mississippi,
slaves out numbered whites, and white create hard discipline to control the
black.
6. Geographic Mobility
When one group encroaches on the territory of another, Confrontation is
inevitable. Such the migration of black families to northern cities during word
war II this migration led to several racial clashes, the most serious which took
place in Detroit.15
2. The Forms of Discrimination
James Stuart Olson said in his book, The Ethnic Dimension in American
History that discrimination assumes in many forms such as:
a. Verbal abuse: the example of verbal abuse is such the Ethnic Jokes.
14
Paul A.Shackle (2003),p.8
15
b. Avoidance: in restaurants and public places Americans may congregate
racially, the white flight to the suburbs in America.
c. Segregation: unfair treatment of others, through either private or legal means.
This form is formal discrimination, whether sanctioned by private custom or
legal authority.
d. De-jure segregation: this exclusion of certain group was sanctioned by law.16
From the 1880’s through the early 1960’s, southern African American
were subject to “Jim Crow” law in schools, housing hospitals, jobs, theaters,
parks, restaurants and transportation lines and depot.
e. Discrimination becomes violent:
This form is such as vandalism Nazi when doing genocide to the Jews in
German. Or Ku Klux Klan when bums a cross in the yard of a black family.
The African American were excluded in many cities and towns in
America, African Americans were not allowed to share a taxi with whites,
enter a building through the same entrance, the bus system in Montgomery,
Alabama, the law required the black to ride at the back of the bus, or the
African American had to drink from separate water fountains from white, use
separate restrooms and attend separate schools.17
16
Ibid
17
18
A. DATA DESCRIPTION
1. Preacher, Don't Send Me
The writer takes this poem from the book "The Complete Collected Poems
of Maya Angelou published by Random House, Inc. New York: 1994. This poem
is divided into thirty two lines which are written in four stanzas. Angelou used
figurative imagery, visual imagery and metaphor.
This poem told about the African American who asked to the preacher not
to send him after his death to the same life, condition and same place (Ghetto), the
African American was excluded and isolated in this ghetto area, they had to stay
at this place voluntary or involuntary, they were treated badly by the whites,
segregation, discrimination, and inequality happened to them. Commonly, this
poem described about the condition of African American in America that always
feel suffer, and jazz became description his paradise. The paradise was like the
beautiful music, the music which always accompanied him.
Preacher in this poem assumed as the theologians who used the religion as
their tool to create several conditions to support the discriminations.
In the last stanza the African American expressed his trauma from the
1. Preacher, Don't Send Me
Preacher don't send me 1
When I die
To some big Ghetto In the sky
Where rats eat cats 5
Of the leopard type And Sunday brunch Is grits and tripe
I've known those rats
I `ve seen them kill 10
And the grits I've had Would make a hill Or may be a mountain,
So what I need
From you on Sunday 15
Is different creed
Preacher, please don't Promise me
Streets of gold
and milk for free 20
I stopped all milk At four years old And once I'm dead I wont need gold
I `d call a place 25
Pure paradise
Where families are loyal And stranger are nice Where the music is jazz
And the season is fall 30
2. Still I Rise
“Still I Rise” taken from the book "The Complete Collected Poems of
Maya Angelou published by Random House, Inc. New York: 1994. This poem is
divided into eight stanzas and forty four lines. Angelou used figurative imagery,
visual imagery and metaphor.
In this poem the African American expressed his deep pride in his race,
despite all the twisted lies scripted in history, he was as a black person will rise.
He even thought that the black “haughtiness” offends the whites who want to see
the black race broken and weakened. “Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t
you take it awful hard ‘cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines diggin’ in my own
back yard.” he is honored by his history that is rooted in slavery, abuse, and pain.
“Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise. Up from a past that’s rooted in shame I
rise.” The black race was as vast as an ocean vibrating with the richness of its
heritage. It is rising above all the terror and fear that has haunted it. “Into a
daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave.
I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.”
In this poem, Angelou told about the African American struggle for
equality, the African American in this poem resisted their fate, destiny and unfair
treatment toward them. At the nineteenth century the African American
segregated in many forms. Such as through the history of America, the white
purposes to create them always inferior, the truth was twisted by their lies, they
wrote the lies in their history.
2. Still I Rise
Still I Rise
you may write me down in history 1
With your bitter twisted lies You may trod me in the very dirt But Still, like dust, I'll rise
Does my sassiness upset you ? 5
Why are you beset with gloom Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room
Just like moon and like the suns 10
With certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing highs, Still I'll rise
Did you want see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes ? 15
Shoulder falling down like teardrops Weakened by my soulful cries
Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard
Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines 20 Diggin' in my own back yard
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 25
Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my tight
Out of huts of history's shame 30
I rise
I rise
I'm black ocean, leaping and wide
Welling and swelling I bear in the title 35
Leaving behind night of terror and fear I rise
Into a day break that's wondrously clear 1 rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestor gave 40 I am the dream and the hope of the slave
I rise I rise I rise
3. Equality
“Equality”taken from the book "The Complete Collected Poems of Maya
Angelou published by Random House, Inc. New York: 1994. This poem divided
into two stanzas and twenty nine lines. Angelou used figurative imagery, visual
imagery auditory imagery and metaphor.
In this poem, Angelou told about, the African American becomes invisible
human. The speaker said the white always saw him in dimly which never shine.
Even, he stood in front of his eyes. The whites saw them dimly or in other mean
the whites looked they down as human.
The African American tried to let people saw how that he was no different
from them. The whites saw him as a human who had loose morals. Society tries
not to see him or hear him. he speaks his message loudly and clearly and his
rhythm was never changes. But, society stood deaf and blind to anything he said
3. Equality
Equality
You declare you see me dimly 1
Through a glass which will not shine, Though I stand before you boldly, Trim in rank and making time.
You do own to hear me faintly 5
As a whisper out of range
While my drums beat out the message As the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free. 10
You announce my ways are wanton, That I fly from man to man
But if I'm just a shadow to you, Could you ever understand?
We have lived a painful history. 15
But I keep on marching forward, And you keep on coming last. Equality, and I will be free. Equality, and I will be free.
Take the blinder from your vision, 20
Take the padding from your ears, And confess you've heard me crying, And admit you've seen me tears, Hear the tempo so compelling,
Hear the blood throb through the veins. 25 Yes my drums are beating nightly,
And the rhythms never change. Equality, and I will be free. Equality, and I will be free.
A. ANALYSIS OF DATA
1. Preacher, Don't Send Me
a. Line 1 – 4 Stanza 1
Preacher don't send me When I die
The idea of race discrimination was reflected by the first persona, the word
I and me indicated this reflections. At the first line the persona asked to the
preacher not to send him after his die to the same life, condition and same place
(Ghetto), the word me is the African American.
The word Preacher in first line was symbol of theologians who was used
the religion as their tool to create several conditions to support the
discriminations. According to the theologians -in this type- whites people were
chosen people, African American was cursed to be servant, and God supported
racial segregation. The religion at nineteenth century was often used by the whites
as their shield and supported their superiority.
At many ritual and religion ceremonials the white preachers told the
themes obedience, patient, submission and gratitude, as a tool of social control
and to support racism system.
In third line the word of ghetto refers to the African American ghetto, the
term Ghetto is referred to racist, elitist and culturally insensitive, and the mention
of such a word to describe a working-class ethnic community is considered a
generalization or an insult.1
Actually, the African American was excluded and isolated in this ghetto
area, they had to stay at this place voluntary or involuntary, they were treated
badly by the whites, segregation, discrimination, and inequality happened to them.
1
b. Line 4-10 Stanza 1 and 2
Where rats eat cats Of the leopard type And Sunday brunch Is grits and tripe
The poet uses the figurative language in the poet” rats eat cats” described
the people in ghetto area. The life was described in horrible description. The
speaker said his Sunday brunch only grits and tripe, Sunday brunch was the event
where the whole member of family meet at family event, at Sunday brunch. The
life in the black Ghetto is not worth for human life, many criminalities,
prostitution murderer and other bad acts.
The words of eat, kill, refer to their actions, and these words described the
situations above.
I've known those rats I've seen them kill.
In the tenth line the word of “I’ve seen them kill " described the torture
had been there for a long time, the persona had been living there, had been seen,
and had been felt how the ghetto situation. They had lived in ghetto for long time
to witness the whole acts, the people inside the ghetto prohibited by the laws to
live out the ghetto.
In South America the African Americans were discriminated legally ruled
by the laws for not allowed to get their own home outside Ghetto area, the laws
which were made by the government caused the agents of real estate unable to sell
c. Line 10-20 Stanza 2 and 3
Line 10-18 the speaker asked the preacher not to promise him the gold and
milk, this line discussed about the disappointment of African American, they were
tied by the superior lies, and the promise just become promises which never come
true, the promise of equality, freedom and treated as American.
Preacher, please don't Promise me
Streets of gold And milk, for free/..
Promise here can be the meaning of promises of whites which always were
betrayed by the themselves, promises had also other meaning, it was a description
of American dreams concept "freedom, equality" these dreams betrayed by the
whites people by their segregations and discriminations.
d. Line 21 – 24 Stanza 3 and 4
Line 21 – 24 still discussed the disappointment of African American about
the conditions and situations.
I stopped all milk At four years old And once I'm dead I wont need gold
They stopped to believe the preacher promises from his childhood, the
word of milk and gold were the symbol of dream and hope.
e. Line 25- 32
Line 25 the persona told about paradise in his perception Paradise as the
symbol of their hopes.
Line 27- 28 described the paradise which they mean was the place, where
the families loyal and the stranger were nice. The paradise was the place where
the people did not look down others, no segregation, violence, abuse,
discrimination, equal treatment, and fair competition.
f. Line 32
Line 32, the word of “or nothing at all” this line reflects the trauma that he faced
in his childhood and adolescence.
2. Still I Rise
a. Line 1- 3 Stanza 1
you may write me down in history With your bitter twisted lies
The idea of race discrimination was reflected by the first persona, the word
of I and me indicates these reflections, In the first line the poet used the word
“write me” for describing the discrimination in verbal abuse to African American
by the Whites American, in this line we find how the African American was
betrayed by his country, white historians wrote the African American down as
inferior, twisted the truth by their lies and hiding the fact from the national history
The African American segregated in many form. Such as through the
history of America, the white historians deliberately wrote the African American
twisted by their lies, they wrote the lies in their history. The white manipulated the
fact, through the science, history, anthropology and religion.
b. Line 4-5 Stanza 1
You may trod me in the very dirt But Still, like dust, I'll rise
The poet uses of figurative imagery described the white segregations.
Speaker said even the African American trod him in the dirt, he will rise like the
dust, can be defined as even the African American segregated and discriminated
he will resist and fight the whites’ segregation.
c. Line 5-8 Stanza 2
In the line 5-4 or second stanza the persona said that the whites was set in
gloom and upset because of jealousy to African American. In the nineteenth
century, after the abolition of slavery the African American life changed
gradually, some of them become the rich man, and success person. Economic
mobility and job competition became the source of jealousy between the whites
and African Americans and the segregation became crueler than before.
These words reflected the gradual changed life:
Does my haughtiness offend you... ... Did you want see me broken ... Does my sassiness upset you.
d. line 10-17 Stanza 3 and 4
The figurative imagery described the spirit of rebellions metaphoric by the
Like moon and like the suns With certainty of tides
Just like hopes springing highs
In the line 10-17 the persona discussed about the spirit rebellions and
resistance, when the acts of discrimination crueler and harder.
Their struggles were not in smooth way and had been many pressures
done to them. The race discrimination became harder and done vividly in front of
their eyes to them and the whole member of family, such the: child, woman, and
old man, they were segregated in public area, restaurants, Public Park, and in the
school.
In the fifth stanza is same as the second stanza, the content of this stanza is
the question of African American to the whites. Are they upset and be set in
gloom because their haughtiness now? This describes the jealousy and arrogance
of white.
e. Line 22 -25 Stanza 6
You may shoot me with your words You may cut me with your eyes. You may kill me with your hatefulness
Line 22-25 discussed about forms of discrimination to African American,
the word of shoot, cut, kill were the terror words. These visual imagery were
choosed by the poet to describe the African American segregations, the African
American abused in their American history, much of whites were written in
American history book as hero at the war, but the African American which follow
heroes at the war but the African American were not.
The inferior did not always accept their destiny, they wanted the freedom,
and then looked like the dust they would rise up to get their right. "The right as
human"
f. Line 30 Stanza 8
Out of huts of history's shame I rise
Up from a past that rooted in pain.
In line 30 the word of huts as figurative imagery described the slavery era
which was rooted in pain.
g. Line 36 Stanza 9
Leaving behind night of terror and fear
Line 35-50 discussed about the life of slavery era which was in pain, this
pain described in their live which was living behind night of fear and terror.
In the first, third, fifth and seventh stanza told about the resistance and
rebellion, the inferior (the persona) in this poem resisted their fate, destiny and
unfair treatment toward them. They were bored by the system, and they resisted
the system through their struggle and rebellions. "But still like dust I rise ", and to
they woke up and got up standing for their right, to make their ancestor dreams
3. Equality
a. Line 1-4 Stanza 1
You declare you see me dimly
Through a glass which will not shine, Though I stand before you boldly, Trim in rank and making time.
The poet used the visual imagery to describe the idea, “..dimly/… shine/…
boldly/… Trim in rank… “The speaker in this poem was the African American,
The speaker said the white always saw him in dimly which never shine. Even, he
stood in front of his eyes. The African American said that the whites in America
saw them dimly or in other mean the whites looked them down as human.
b. Line 3- 4 discussed about the African American became invisible human ´ I
stand before you boldly, Trim in rank ‘ they dehumanized by the superior. The
white hatefulness imaged as the sight of white as if in deem even the African
American was in front of the white eyes
The background of this poem was the social situation in America at
nineteenth century, at the time the segregations and discriminations were done
frankly and vividly on public area, at station, restaurants, water fountain and other
places.
c. Line 5-8 Stanza 1
You do own to hear me faintly As a whisper out of range
While my drums beat out the message As the rhythms never change.
The description of segregation was described in line 5-8. The poet used the
of white and the whites were described in huge hateness, the speaker said that
the whites never heard him even he beat the drums loudly.
The African American access was closed by the white America access
from many ways. They closed the access for get the job, career, the
accommodations, transportation and other public access and the white could not
hear the sound of adversity and grief of African American and the poet imaged it
as the whisper out of range even the African American drums beat out
d. Line 11-15 Stanza 2
I'm just a shadow to you
Line 11-15 still discussed the same idea, in the second stanza Angelou
used the imagery a shadow, for description of whites treatment. The assumption
of African American just a shadow for the white people is the chosen language for
describe the idea.
e. line 16-17 Stanza 2 and 3
Line 16-17 discussed about the treatment of whites, even though the
slavery was abolished at the nineteenth century, the whites created new
transformation of slavery system in Jim Crow laws, the idea of superior of white
became the main substance in these laws.
f. Line 20-27 Stanza 3
Take the blinder from your vision, Take the padding from your ears, And confess you've heard me crying, And admit you've seen me tears,
In this stanza, the poet used the visual imagery and auditory imagery to
Line 20-27 discussed about the haughtiness and the selfishness of whites,
the persona or the speaker asked the whites to open their eyes, ears, but the whites
did not want.
The auditory imagery strengthened the message of the poem word heard,
hear the tempo, drums beat and rhythm were the chosen words.
These words were chosen to express how horrible the discriminations,
hard of the struggles and efforts the African Americanes in the nineteenth century
for fighting back the whites in America.
From first stanza to the last, it can be found the repetition of words, the
poet wrote Equality, and I will be free. She repeated this word in each stanza,
these are to express the speaker‘s resistance, spirit of rebellion and the hope of the
34
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
The background of the three poems of Maya Angelou was the conditions
and situations of African American in America at the nineteenth century, at that
time so many discriminations and segregations to the African American,
conducted by the white American to create the African American in inferior
position.
Angelou described the discrimination and segregation to African
American by her word and perspective. Those were expressed by the horrible and
difficult life of African American in America. The first person in these poems also
can be as the representative of Maya Angelou’s community and group experience.
Maya was also born as African American and many of the problems encountered
her childhood from the prejudices of her white neighbors who treated her family
at blatant contempt.
Finally, the writer concludes that the three Maya Angelou’s poems talk
about African American experience. As the citizen of America, they set apart
from the other; in politic, economy and social life. Angelou wrote what she see
around her. Racial discrimination is a fact in America; at least we can see it in
B. Suggestions
Based on the study in this paper, it is clear that literary has important role
to development of human civilization. Through literary work it can give the
description about information of the way the author represents her mind, where as
at the time African American endured the great depression caused by the
discrimination and segregation, which changed the American social and political.
Finally, the writer hopes this thesis can give a positive contribution in
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