AN ANALYSIS OF FEMINISM IN MAYA ANGELOU’S
SELECTED POEMS
A THESIS
BY
DIAN BANIA PERSADA SEMBIRING
REG. NO. 070705039
UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA
FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
MEDAN
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION
I, Dian Bania Persada Sembiring, declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. Except where reference is made in the text of this thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a paper by which I have qualified for or awarded another degree.
No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgements in the main text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted in any tertiary education.
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COPYRIGHT DECLARATION
Name : Dian Bania Persada Sembiring
Title of this thesis : An Analysis of Feminism in Maya Angelou’s Selected Poems
Qualification : S-1 / Sarjana Sastra Department : English
I am willing that my thesis should be available for reproduction at the discretion on the librarian of the English Department, Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Sumatera Utara on the understanding that users are made aware of their obligation under law of the Republic of Indonesia.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to praise my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who always loves, helps, and gives me His wonderful blessings in my life. I would also like to thank Him for He has given me strength and knowledge to finish my thesis entitled ‘An Analysis of Feminism in Maya Angelou’s Selected Poems’.
I would like to thank the Dean of Faculty of Cultural Studies, Dr. Drs. Syahron Lubis, M. A.; the head of English Deparment, Dr. Drs. Muhizar Muchtar, M. S.; the secretary of English Department, Dr. Dra. Nurlela, M. Hum; and all the lecturers of English Department for all the opportunities and facilities that have been given to me and also for all of their attentions during my academic affairs.
I would also like to thank my supervisor, Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M. Hum, and my co-supervisor, Drs. Siamir Marulafau, M. Hum for their suggestions, advices, ideas, guidance, and all the corrections that they have given to me in the process of doing this thesis.
My unending gratitude is devoted to my beloved family. I would like to thank my dear parents who always support me mentally and financially and also my only oldest brother, Josia Suarta Sembiring, who always leads me to be a good son in the family.
I would also like to thank my friends in Risky-Net: Christopher StayMe Manurung, Satrya Ramadhan (Madon), Eka Lingga, Charles Sianturi (Bang Lord), Oja Victoria (Pengedar), Manuel Hadinata Purba (Pak Tartok), Elisa Sembiring, Bang Nangin, Bang Edo, and Bang Eka who always spend their times to play Dota with me when I feel bored. I love you all, guys.
And to all relatives and friends who can’t be mentioned, I just can say: thank you all. I could not have finished my thesis without you. Finally, I hope this thesis will always be beneficial for the readers.
May God bless us all, forever and ever.
Medan, 2011 The Writer
Dian Bania Persada Sembiring
ABSTRACT
ABBREVIATIONS
Poem A : Phenomenal Woman Poem B : Still I Rise
Poem C : Equality Poem D : Woman Work Poem E : Men
TABLE OF CONTENTS
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION...i
COPYRIGHT DECLARATION...ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...iii
ABSTRACT...v
ABBREVIATIONS...vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS...vii
CHAPTERI: INTRODUCTION...1
1.1 The Background of the Study...1
1.2 The Problems of the Study...4
1.3 The Objectives of the Study...4
1.4 The Scope of the Study...5
1.5 The Significances of the Study...5
1.6 The Review of Related Literature...6
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK...8
2.1 Feminism...8
2.2 Feminism and Literature...21
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH...38
3.1 Data Collecting Procedure...38
3.2 Data Selecting Procedure...39
3.3 Data Analyzing Procedure...39
CHAPTER IV: AN ANALYSIS OF FEMINISM IN MAYA ANGELOU’S SELECTED POEMS...41
4.1 The Struggle of Women...41
4.2 Bad Treatments over Women...55
4.3 The Superiority of Men...64
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS...67
5.1 Conclusions...67
5.2 Suggestions...68
BIBLIOGRAPHY...ix
APPENDIXES: APPENDIX A (MAYA ANGELOU’S SELECTED
POEMS)
APPENDIX B (BIOGRAPHY OF MAYA ANGELOU)
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1The Background of the Study
Literature comes from the Latin word ‘littera’ which means letter. It primarily refers to the written or printed words. Literature represents culture and tradition. But literature is more important than just a historical or cultural artifact. Literature introduces to new worlds of experience. Taylor (1981:1) states, “literature, like the other arts, is essentially an imaginative act of the writer’s imagination in selecting, ordering, and interpreting life-experience”. Also in Theory of Literature (Wellek and Warren, 1967:212), it is said, “literature must always be interesting; it must always have a structure and an aesthetic purpose, a total coherence and effect”. Thus, literature, in general, can be defined as the mirror of human life that portrays the human feeling, thought, imagination, and perception which can be viewed based on personal judgement.
In this thesis, poems which deal with feminism are going to be used as the source of data. Feminism is a kind of social changing which derives from women’s suffrage movements in the nineteenth century in Europe and America. It is closely related to the social changing of gender issues. Mary Wollstonecraft, the first feminist who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), encourages woman writers to insert feminism in their literary works. Finally, feminism has been widely spreading.
Awuy (2002:1) in his essay Feminisme di Persimpangan Jalan states:
Feminisme merupakan sebuah fenomena kultural...alasan kemunculannya ialah berdasarkan ketidakpuasan terhadap realitas yang dianggap sebagai konstruksi patriarkal.
(Feminism is a cultural phenomenon of unsatisfactory to the reality of patriarchal construction).
From this quotation, the reason of why feminism exists is because the patriarchal construction has subordinated and repressed the essence of women during the last decades. In a patriarchal society, men have the power, dominate social or cultural systems, and have authority over women and children.
Many feminist poets, especially those who concerned their poems on women’s issues, had started to spread their personal ideologies about feminism itself through their poems. And so did Maya Angelou in her poems. She stressed the importance of understanding the essence of women’s struggle in fighting against patriarchal society by criticizing the society itself for its unfairness to women as well as to children. Maya Angelou has also intended her poems to provide inspiration and strength to female readers, and give them pride in being themselves. Her most famous poem entitled Phenomenal Woman shows how it reflects the idea of liberation and how Angelou criticizes modern cultural ideas about female beauty. It also shows the woman's power over men and emphasizes the author's sexuality. All of her poems are also a kind of painful process of recalling and remembering her past which was broken and dismembered in fragments, and an effort to show the black women seeking to survive against masculine prejudice at social or psychological level.
1.2The Problems of the Study
Maya Angelou’s selected poems deal with feminism. In doing the process of analyzing this thesis in its relation to feminism, it is important to make the specification of problems that are going to be analyzed. The problems of the study of this thesis are:
a. How is the struggle of women to survive in a male-dominated society and fight against the superiority of men shown in Maya Angelou’s selected poems?
b. How are bad treatments over women in a male-dominated society seen in Maya Angelou’s selected poems?
c. How is the superiority of men actually reflected in Maya Angelou’s selected poems?
1.3The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study of this thesis are:
a. To find out how the struggle of women to survive in a male-dominated society and fight against the superiority of men is shown in Maya Angelou’s selected poems.
c. To find out how the superiority of men is actually reflected in Maya Angelou’s selected poems.
1.4The Scope of the Study
In order to avoid an over lapping explanation, this analysis of feminism should have a clear scope. Based on the social changing of women’s issues at that time, the analysis will be focused on the struggle of women, bad treatments over women in a male-dominated society, and the superiority of men as can be seen in Maya Angelou’s seven selected poems entitled Phenomenal Woman (poem A), Still I Rise (poem B), Equality (poem C), Woman Work (poem D), Men (poem E), Remembrance (poem F), and Caged Bird (poem G).
1.5The Significances of the Study
1.6The Review of Related Literature
In order to get further information, ideas, and other inputs dealing with the analysis of feminism, a book entitled A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory, Fifth Edition by Raman Selden is used as the main source to review the relationship between feminism and literature. This book is very useful and helpful because it provides much information about feminism and its relationship with literature. It also clearly explains how feminist theories, feminist criticism, kinds of feminism, and history of feminism are closely related to literature. What has been reviewed in this book, especially in chapter 6, is that feminism has sought to disturb the complacent certainties of a patriarchal culture, to assert a belief in sexual equality, and to eradicate sexist domination in transforming society. Within this book, it can also be seen that feminism itself cannot be separated from literature. Many woman writers have used feminist criticism to free themselves from naturalized patriarchal notions of the literary and the literary-critical. They have also used their writings as propoganda for the women’s suffrage movements.
In addition to that, this book is used as the main review to support the process of analyzing this thesis because it not only talks about feminism, but also gives more information in understanding literature, especially which deals with literary theories.
their masculinities as their sources of superiority. It is said that men quickly learn that they not only have to possess power, but they must also use it. Finally, men often misuse their superiority by committing bad treatments over women, especially in the form of violence. In this chapter 4.1, it is also said that the physical, psychological, and social harm done to the victim of violence is the consequence of the unequal distribution of power between the female victim and the male perpetrator. So, it is obvious that this becomes a strategy designed to maintain patriarchal power as a means of preventing women from escaping the subjugated status imposed upon them.
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1Feminism
Feminism is a phenomenon in the society. In discussing feminism, people will talk about women. Feminism is, indeed, identical with women, especially in their struggle to gain the equality with men. Ratna (2004:184) says:
Dalam pengertian yang paling luas, feminisme adalah gerakan kaum wanita untuk menolak segala sesuatu yang dimarginalisasikan, disubordinasikan, dan direndahkan oleh kebudayaan dominan, baik dalam bidang politik dan ekonomi maupun kehidupan social pada umumnya.
(In its broadest sense, feminism is a women’s movement which rejects the marginal, subordinated and underestimated things by the dominating culture either in politics, economics or social life in general).
Furthermore, feminism rejects the injustice as the result of patriarchal society. Feminism also rejects the history and philosophy as they are assumed as male-oriented disciplines. Through feminism, women claim to cultural consciousness that they will not be assumed as the marginal and that the dynamic balance will be achieved (Ratna 2004:186-188).
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, feminism is the belief and aim that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. It is about woman liberalization, sexual equality between woman and man that have the same responsibilities and privileges in society, against woman and children violence, rape, and pillage a woman’s body and emotion, also teaches woman to defend herself from improper condition, how to maximize her talents and side by side with man to make a better life. It is true that feminism wants to raise the essence of woman that has been regarded as an oppressed, weak, sensitive, gloomy, passive, instable, irritable, materialist, and confined person.
Feminism has finally changed traditional perspectives in a wide range of area in human’s life. Many feminist activists have campaigned for women’s legal rights such as rights of contract, property rights, and voting rights. Nowadays they are also promoting women’s rights to bodily integrity and autonomy, abortion rights, and reproductive rights. They have struggled to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape. On economic scopes, feminists have advocated for workplace rights, including maternity leave and equal pay. In addition to that, they also fight against other forms of gender-specific discrimination against women.
picked up by Alexandre Dumas Fils, a French writer, republican and antifeminist, who used it in a pamphlet published in 1872 entitled l’homme-femme, on the subject of adultery, to describe women behaving in a supposedly masculine way.
In the 1840s the women’s rights movements had started to emerge in the United States with the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 and the resulting Declaration of Sentiments, which claimed for women the principles of liberty and equality expounded in the American Declaration of Independence. This was followed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s founding of the National Woman Suffrage Association. In Britain, too, the 1840s onwards saw the emergence of women’s suffrage movements. But even before the emergence of organized suffrage movements, women had been writing about the inequalities and injustices in women’s social condition and campaigning to change it. In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft had published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and at the same time in France women such as Olympe de Gouges and Théroigne de Méricourt were fighting for the extension of the rights promised by the French Revolution to women. So, although the development of women’s rights movements can be traced from the midnineteenth century, this was not the starting point for women’s concern about their social and political conditions.
feminist movements at different moments as a series of ‘waves’, they are the first-wave feminism, the second-first-wave feminism, and the third-first-wave feminism as well.
The first-wave feminism is used to refer to the late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century feminist movements in the United Kingdom and the United States that are concerned (although not exclusively) with gaining equal rights for women, particularly the right of suffrage which focuses on the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands. Soon, it develops into gaining political power which is ended by the permission of house ownership by women over twenty-one in England, and the permission of voting in all states for women in the United States. Virginia Woolf is a writer who is associated with first-wave idea. In her books, she argues that women are simultaneously victims of themselves as well as victims of men and are upholders of society by acting as mirrors to men. She recognizes the social construct that restrict women in society and uses literature to contextualize it for other women.
Suffragette is a term originally coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for the more militant members of the late 19th and 20th century movement for women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom. ‘Suffrage’ itself means ‘the right to vote’ which in the first-wave feminism was used pejoratively as a movement of women demanding their rights to vote.
discrimination and also on cultural, social, and political issues. In this second wave, five main foci are also involved in most discussions of sexual difference: biology, experience, discourse, the unconscious, and social and economic conditions.
Arguments which treat biology as fundamental and which play down socialization have been used mainly by men to keep women ‘in their place’. It is obvious that men and women are definitely different biologically and this is what the men use to discriminate the women. Selden (2005:115) says, “in pre-Mendelian days men regarded their sperm as the active seeds which give form to the waiting ovum, which lacks identity till it receives the male’s impress”. This is what the patriarchal notion assumes. On the other hand, Mary Ellman in Thinking about Women (1968) states her opinion which prefers to regard the ovum as daring, independent, and individualistic (rather than ‘apathetic’) and the sperm as conforming and sheeplike (rather than ‘enthusiastic’). This has explained that the identity of women is not defined by anybody. In a radical way, Ellman wants to convey that women can actually live without having to depend on men. She also celebrates women’s biological attributes as sources of superiority rather than inferiority.
experience gives much contribution to literary works from which we can see the sexual differences through women’s writing.
The third focus, discourse, has received a great deal of attention by feminists. It is about women who have been fundamentally oppressed by a male dominated language. What is ‘true’ depends on who controls the discourse, and since men have been dominating the discourse, women have been trapped inside a male ‘truth’ (Selden 2005:121). Men prefer to call the female utterances as ‘feminine’ discourse which still belongs to male discourse rather than a separated creation of language. Men assume the feminine discourse as something inferior, since it contains the patterns of weakness and uncertainty, focuses on the trivial, the frivolous, the unserious, and stresses personal responses, while male discourse is stronger. They also assume that women should adopt their utterances if they wish to achieve social equality with men.
In the first-wave feminism, Virginia Woolf was the first woman critic to include a sociological dimension in her analysis of women’s writing. Since then, what have been mentioned in the previous that the patriarchal notion brings losses to women can be proven by noticing the social and economic conditions (the fifth focus) that the women experienced in the past. Socially, women are always viewed as the secondary creatures and properties of men. The law also prohibits women to work. Their possessions are really limited. In England, for example, women were banned to own a house before 1918. Finally, the influence of Marxist theory, which denies the existence of class in social life, has changed the social and economic conditions and balanced the power between the sexes. The Marxism analysis of class has been extended into women’s history of their material and economic oppression, especially of how the family and women’s domestic labor are constructed by and reproduce the sexual division of labor. This extension is then called the Marxist feminism. And it became a powerful strand of the second wave during the late 1960s and 1970s, in Britain in particular.
Lesbianism is considered as one of the results of the second-wave feminism. The dissatisfaction of women towards the men makes the women to search for the fulfillment in women. The beginning of lesbianism was in World-War II where many of women participated in the army. They used man’s clothing, acted like man and fell in love with women. The lesbians assume the heterosexuality as a part of patriarchy. Lesbian ethics is not just a sexual orientation; it is a refusal to be defined either sexually or morally by men.
Liberal feminism is a kind of feminism which focuses on women’s ability to show and maintain their equality through their own actions and choices. The important issues on liberal feminism include reproductive and abortion rights, sexual harassment, voting, education, equality of wage, affordable childcare, affordable health care, and the reduction of sexual and domestic violence against women. Liberal feminists believe that personal ‘rights’ should predominate over concerns for the social good. This political view goes back to the early feminism of John Stuart Mill, who believed that government should stay out of the private affairs of its citizens. The liberal feminists also want to free women from oppressive gender roles. And this focus bears a similarity to the existentialist position which seeks equality of rights and freedoms between women and men.
finding someone who will make everything worthwhile. Anti-man is rejected by post-feminism.
The post-structural feminism combines various epistemological movements, including psychoanalysis and political theory (Marxist), which maintains that difference is one of the most powerful tools that females posses in their struggle with patriarchal domination, and that the definition of equality is still defined from the masculine or patriarchal perspective.
Ecofeminism draws from and links together both the women's movement and the environmental movement. Ecofeminism draws parallels between the domination and exploitation of both women and nature. It evaluates the patriarchal systems, where men own and control the land which is seen as an oppression of women and destruction of the natural environment because of the exploitation for men’s own profit and success.
Social feminism aims to create the same social status to everybody, man and woman. It appears to adopt some of the same tenets of Marxism. Social feminism evaluates the unequal standing in both the workplace and the domestic sphere which holds women down. Social feminism sees prostitution, domestic work, childcare and marriage as ways in which women are exploited by a patriarchal system that devalues women and the substantial work they do. Socialist feminists gain their power so that the effect of the movement will spread out to the whole of society rather than to individual basis.
definitions of femininity, which (according to them) over-emphasize the experience of upper middle-class white women. The third wave feminists often focus on ‘micro-politics’ and challenge the second wave’s paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for females. Third-wave feminism also contains internal debates between difference feminists whether there are important differences between the sexes or there is no inherent difference between the sexes because gender roles are due to social conditioning.
Feminism also has a close relationship with two significant things, they are superiority of men in a patriarchal society and bad treatments over women. For centuries, the differences between men and women were socially defined and distorted through a lens of sexism in which men assumed superiority over women and maintained it through domination.
Tong (1998:72-73) says, “patriarchal society uses a rigid gender role to ensure that women are passive (affectionate, obedient, responsive and sympathetic, cheerful, kind, friendly) and men are active (strong, aggressive, curious, ambitious, full of plans, responsible, competitive)”. And Simone de Beauvoir also states that in a patriarchal society, women are placed as Liyan, as second-class humans that are lower in level.
Oppression is a type of injustice. Oppression is the inequitable use of authority, law, or physical force to prevent others from being free or equal. The verb oppress can mean to keep someone down in a social sense. It can also mean to mentally burden someone, such as with the psychological weight of an oppression idea. Men (either consciously or unconsciously) have oppressed women, allowing them little or no voice in the political, social, or economic issues of their society. James (2000:576) says, “feminism is grounded on the belief that women are oppressed or disadvantaged by comparison with men, and that their oppression is in some way illegitimate or unjustified”. Therefore, oppression over women becomes a fundamental claim of feminism and feminists fight against this kind of oppression.
recognized and understood as an important pillar of patriarchy and emphasizes that rape is not dangerous or detrimental to women.
Nevertheless, feminism generally brings about the world in which people of all ages and both sexes embrace full responsibility for their action. It teaches that women are not slaves to men. Our bodies are our most precious material possession and we will only have one body. We deserve to have that body respected by others. This means that bad treatments, which are often committed toward women, such as oppression, rape, and other forms of sexual harassment, are unacceptable.
In analyzing this thesis, feminist theory has an important role. Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It also examines women’s social roles and life experiences.
Actually, some feminists have not wished to embrace theory at all, precisely because, in academic institutions, ‘theory’ is often male, even macho – the hard, abstract, avant-gardism of intellectual work (Selden 2005:116). Therefore, they believe that the term feminist criticism may better than just a theory. Feminist criticism itself, in all its many and various manifestations, has also attempted to free itself from naturalized patriarchal notions of the literary and the literary-critical.
Feminist criticism has become a wide-ranging exploration of the construction of gender and identity, the role of women in culture and society, and the possibilities of women’s creative expression.
In addition to Elaine Showalter, there is also another famous feminist named Mary Wollstonecraft. She is regarded as the first feminist or mother of feminism. In her book-length essay entitled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she makes clear her position:
Only when woman and man are equally free, and woman and man are equally dutiful in exercise of their responsibilities to family and state, can there be true freedom and female writers can insert and explore issues of women’s education, women’s equality, women’s status, women’s rights and the role of public or private, political or domestic life in their literary works.
From this quotation, it is clear that Wollstonecraft talks about women’s rights, especially on women’s education, and argues that women are not naturally inferior to men. She believes that women should enjoy social, legal, and intellectual equality with men. She also belives that women should take the lead and articulate who they are and what role they will play in society. It is obvious that with the same abilities, women can manage the same bussinesses that men do. Wollstonecraft is sure that women can even excel in politics if they are given the chance. In addition to that, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman also talks a great deal about women’s power in terms of the status quo, in regards to their position in society, and so on. But what Wollstonecraft ultimately shows within this book-length essay is that women have power not over men but over themselves.
Feminist criticism may be said to have four specific tasks: the identification of women’s works that are out of print or have been neglected or misunderstood; analyses of the image of woman as she appears in the existing literature; the examination and reinterpretation of the existing criticism of women writers’ books; and the creation of a body of new work, imaginative as well as critical, based upon the egalitarian vision of humanity that is the fundamental basis of feminist thought.
Based on Sharon Spencer’s ideas, the second specific task which analyzes the image of woman as she appears in the existing literature will be more applicable in analyzing this thesis.
2.2Feminism and Literature
Feminism cannot be separated from literature. This means that feminism has a close relationship with literary works. Some of them talk about women’s stereotypes and the other talk about the struggle of women in the past.
Ratna (2004:186-187) says:
Dalam teori-teori sastra kontemporer, feminisme merupakan gerakan perempuan yang terjadi hampir di seluruh dunia. Gerakan ini dipicu oleh adanya kesadaran bahwa bahwa hak-hak kaum perempuan sama dengan kaum laki-laki. Seperti di ketahui, sejak berabad-abad, perempuan berada di bawah dominasi laki-laki, perempuan sebagai pelengkap, perempuan sebagai mahluk kelas dua.
(In contemporary literary theories, feminism is the women’s movement that occurs almost in all over the world. This movement was triggered by the consciousness that women’s rights are equal to men’s rights. For centuries, women have always been under male domination, women as complements, and women as second-class beings).
women’s writing. There are many contemporary or modern woman writers who have brought a new image on literature. Those writers are vocal and social power of solidarity to bring social reality to their works. It is not astonished that they have the same theme, topic, and image in order to put the forefront of the essence of women, their capacity and intellectuality.
But before those modern writers, there were many woman writers who concerned their works on the existence of women. Many of them used their writings as propoganda for the women’s suffrage movements. They also wrote about the women’s lives which are said to be different from men’s writing in language, idea and sense. Elaine Showalter’s A Literature of Their Own (1977) has focused on the literary representation of sexual differences in women’s writing. Showalter attempts to relate woman writers with woman readers. Based on women’s writing from time to time, Showalter divides what she calls female tradition into three phases.
The second phase is called ‘feminist’ phase that happened in 1880-1920. The women’s writing in this phase protested against the male standards and values, and demanded that women’s rights and sovereignity be recognized. In this phase, women’s literature also had varying angels of attack. Some women wrote social commentaries, translating their own sufferings to those of the poor, the laboring class, slaves, and prostitutes, thereby venting their sense of injustice in an acceptable manner. This phase includes a famous radical feminist writer named Elizabeth Robins and other woman writers, such as Olive Schreiner, Francis Trallope, etc. Elizabeth Robins’ play Vote for Women, that was later written into a form of novel entitled The Convert, showed how a man sexually exploited a woman. The heroine in the story, Vida Levering, a millitant suffragette, finally rejected men in her life because her former lover, Geoffrey Stoner, ever forced her into having an abortion because he feared he would lose his inheritance. Through this writing, Robins further understood the suffrage campaign that needed a new literature of female psychology to raise the middle-class woman’s consciousness through the reality, fighting for discredit on woman’s right as individual.
The third phase is called ‘female’ phase which was started in 1920 onwards. In this phase, the woman writers inherited the characteristics of the former periods and developed the idea of female writing’s own style and standards. This phase is also called a phase of ‘self-discovery’. The writers included are Dorothy Richardson, Rebecca West, and Katherine Mansfield.
observed from feminists’ critiques as long as there is a woman character, or it will be simpler if there is woman figure related with man figure.
2.3Poetry
Poetry is a part of literature. Poetry derives etymologically from the Greek word ‘poiesis’ which means ‘a making, forming, creating (in words), or the art of poetry, or a poem’. Poetry as a literay work is also one of the oldest genres in literary history. William Wordsworth in Understanding Poetry (2009:5) says, “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”. This tradition is based on the expressive theory about literature. On the other hand, McRae (1998:1) says that poetry is words with a frame around and also the words inside birthday cards. Therefore, it is quite difficult to make an exact definition of poetry. Poetry is not just the creation of meaningful arrangements of words. Besides, poetry can never be fully explained. It can be felt. There is no use to talk about poetry if the readers do not feel it. There is always mystery about poetry. As a result, it can be finally concluded that poetry is a spontaneous expression of human’s feeling or imagination which has best words in the best order.
can understand what the writer feels or thinks about the subject matter and his/her opinion about it. Tone is the attitude of the writer towards the readers. It is about whether the writer is in a good mood or bad mood, optimist or pessimist, happy or sad, etc. The readers understand it by giving their attention to the words (diction) that the poet uses in his/her poem. And the last is intention. Undoubtedly, the poet writes a certain poem for he/she has a special intention, at least for he himself/she herself, to express his/her feeling. But what the readers have to know is that good poems are written because they have to be, not because their authors want them to be.
Pardede (2009:15-17) in her teaching materials Understanding Poetry mentions some technical terms of versification, they are:
1. Verse
Verse is single line of poetry or regular metric line. There are two kinds of verse, they are blank verse and free verse. Blank verse is unrhymed verse, especially the unrhymed iambic pentameter most frequently used in English dramatic, epic, and reflective verse. Free verse is the verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern.
2. Line
3. Stanza
Stanza is a recurrent grouping of two or more verse, lines in term of length, metrical form, and often rhymed scheme. A stanza is an arbitrary and regular division of poetry containing feet number of lines. Types of stanza are:
• Couplet is the shortest usual stanza which consists of two lines. • Tercet is a three lines stanza.
• Quatrain is a four lines stanza. • Quintet is a five lines stanza. • Sestet is a six lines stanza. • Septet is a seven lines stanza. • Octave is a eight lines stanza.
4. Syntax
The syntax of a poem is likely to be important. In other words, more familiar ways, unusual word order can give a special poetic effect. Inversion is the placing of a sentence element out of its normal position. Probably the most offensive common use of inversion is the noun, in such expression as ‘house beautiful’ or ‘lady fair’ of the several varieties of inversion.
1. Structural Devices • Repetition
A poet often repeats single lines or whole stanza at intervals to emphasize a particular idea. Repetition is found in poetry which is aiming a special musical effects or when a poet wants to pay very close intention to something.
Example of repetition is the word ‘water’ in these lines from a poem titled Ancient Mariner:
Water, water, everywhere And all these boards did shrink Water, water, everywhere Not any drop to drink • Contrast
This is one of the most common of all structural devices. It occurs when the readers find two completely opposite pictures side by side. Sometimes the contrast is immediate obvious and sometimes implied. • Illustration
This is an example which usually takes the form of a vivid picture by which a poet may make an idea clear.
2. Sense Devices • Imagery
using specific details that appeal to the sense and make a dominant impression. The ability to uses imagery stems from being a good observer of the world.
• Symbol
Symbol is a trope that combines a literal and sensuous quality with a abstract or suggestive aspect but it is not literal meaning but uses that meaning to suggest another.
A symbol is something that is itself and also stands for something else as the letters.
• Figures of Speech
Figures of speech are phrases or words that compare one thing to another unlike thing. Figures of speech can enhance style and make ideas distinct. There are some kinds of figures of speech, they are: Simile is generally the comparison of two things essentially unlike,
on the basis of a resemblance in one aspect. It is a figure in which a similarity between two subjects is directly expressed. Most simile are introduced by as or like or even by such a word as compare, liken, or resemble.
Example: - My luve is the rose of my heart - You are a beast
Metaphor is an analogy identifying one object with another and
ascribing to the first object one more of the quality of the second. Metaphor refers to one thing as if it were another unlike thing.
A material to signify a thing made of material. - She was wearing cotton.
A container to represent the thing contained.
Personification is the arbitrary of human qualities to inanimate
object. It refers to a special kind of metaphor in which nonhuman things or qualities (such as animals, ideals, abstraction and other inaminate objects) are described as if they were human.
Example: The little dog laughs as if it were a person.
Metonymy refers to a thing, person, or place by the name of
something closely associated with it. So when the readers speak of the statement ‘coming from the White House’, they are using metonymy.
Antithesis is a device for placing opposing ideas in grammatical
parallel.
Example: - To err is human, to forgive divine - Speech is silver, silence is golden
Irony is a verbal device which implies an attitude quite different
(and often opposite to) literary expressed.
Example: No doubt – but you are the people, and wisdom shall be with you.
Allegory is a figure of speech consisting an exaggerated statement
Example: Then we came to a tavern with vine – leaves over the lintel.
Six hands at a door dicing for pieces of silver And feet kicking the empty wine – skins
Euphemism is a figure of speech in which a mild or vogue
expression is substituted for a harsh or blunt one. Example: The old man passed away (.i.e.die)
Exclamation is a figure of speech easily recognized by means of
the final exclamation marks, and only used to give expression to an emotion, mild or other wise.
Example: How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank !
Climax is a figure speech in which ideas are arranged in ascending
order of importance.
Example: Came, / saw, / conquered.
Anti climax is a figure speech in which words or ideas are arranged
in descending order of importance.
Example: He lost his wife, his reputation and his fortune.
Transferred of epithet is a figure of speech in which a personal
quality is transferred to an inaminate object. Example: He slept on sleepless pillow.
Rhetorical question is a figure of speech in which statement of fact,
for the sake emphasis, is expressed in the form of a question to which no answer is necessary as it is implied in the question.
- Or Flattery soothers the dull ear of Death.
Antonomasia is a figure of speech in which a proper name is used
to indicate the class of people to which the person belongs because he or she possesses similar qualities.
Example: “Alas, my son, your father is not Rothshild”
Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which the poet addresses an
exclamatory fashion with a person, an inanimate object, or a personalified abstraction.
Example: Milton, thou shouldn’t be living at this hour England hath need of thee
Oxymoron is a conjunction of two words or expression that are in
an apparent contradiction.
Example: Revenge is a kind of wild justice
Epigram is a short, witty saying, sometimes involving an apparent
contradiction.
Example: Our enemies are of ten truest friend
3. Sound Devices • Rhythm
Another repetition which is also a part of prosody is the repetition of sounds. The most familiar version of this device is rhyme. The most familiar rhyme is that which occurs at the end of a poetic line.
In defining terminal rhyme, the readers use letter to indicate a sound that is repeated abcd. Rhyme can point up certain words and make these key terms strike, as in these concluding lines by Shakespeare: For I have sworn thee fair, an though thee bright who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
Here the crucial terms, bright and night are in precise contrast with each other, a fact that is ironically heightened by their sounding like each other.
• Masculine Ending
Masculine ending is a line which has a final stressed syllable. • Feminine Ending
Feminine ending is a line which has a final unstressed syllable. • Alliteration
Alliteration means that the repetition of initial consonant in another word is the repetition of the same sound at frequent intervals.
One of the most obvious examples is found in a poem titled Ancient Mariner:
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew The furrow followed free
• Assonance
An obvious example is Tennyson lyric from The Lotus Easter: Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes
• Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia imitates actual sounds being described. Example: Moon of doves in immemorial claims
And murmuring of innumerable bees • Euphony
Euphony is a pleasantness of sound which describes light and graceful. • Cacophony
Cacophony is a sounding language that reads easily, referring to another sound effect that describes a harsh and heavy praising.
There are also several kinds of poetry, they are:
1. Ode
Ode is a lyric adopted from the Greek but altered greatly in form by various English poets. It tends to be rather formal and elevated and is often to a prominent person.
2. Epic
Epic is the most ambitious kind of poetry which deals with great heroes whose action determines the fate of their nation or of mankind.
3. Elegy
4. Pastoral
Pastoral uses the fiction that all the characters concerned shepherds and shepherdess.
5. Satire
Satire is a form of ridicule and criticism. It can be directed against many different objects of universal human vices of follies, social evils, or political short coming.
6. Epigram
Epigram is the brief form of all poems. It is maybe a short as two lines, indeed the shorter the more effective.
As a part of literature, there are some theories that can be used in approaching and analyzing poetry. Selden (2005:5) says, “one simple way of demonstrating the effect of theorizing literature is to see how different theories raise different questions about it from different foci of interest”. The following diagram of linguistic communication, devised by Roman Jakobson, helps to distinguish some possible starting-points:
CONTEXT
ADDRESSER > MESSAGE > ADDRESSEE CONTACT
CODE
‘referent’) and is transmitted through a contact (a medium such as live speech, the telephone or writing). For the purposes of discussing literature, the ‘contact’ is usually now the printed word (except, say, in drama or performance-poetry); and so the diagram can be described as below:
CONTEXT
WRITER > WRITING > READER CODE
From the diagram, Selden (2005:5) then states:
If we adopt the addresser’s viewpoint, we draw attention to the
writer andhis or her ‘emotive’ or ‘expressive’ use of language; if
we focus on the ‘context’, we isolate the ‘referential’ use of language and invoke its historical dimension at the point of the work’s production; if we are principally interested in the addressee, we study the reader’s reception of the ‘message’, hence introducing a different historical context (no longer the moment of a text’sproduction but of its reproduction), and so on.
knowledge and external factors such as biography, history, culture, psychology, sociology, and so on.
While M. H. Abrams in his book The Mirror and the Lamp in 1953 (quoted from www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/intr_crit_rdg_lit_081400.htm) divides critical theory of literature into four kinds, they are mimetic theory, pragmatic theory, expressive theory, and objective theory.
Mimetic theory (the theory of imitation) defines literature in relation to life, seeing it as a way of reproducing or recreating the experiences of man’s life in words. Abrams (1976:8-9) stated that mimetic theory is the most primitive aesthetic approach. The idea was developed through Plato’s vision that the literary work itself cannot represent the real life, but is only the imitation of what happened in our surroundings. Aristotle, on the other hand, declined Plato’s argument by stated that literary work as an art aims to purify the emotion (the Latin word ‘catharsis’).
Pragmatic theory relates literary work to its readers. It is called pragmatic because literature may give the practical result to its readers, and is sometimes also called affective since literature may give emotional effect to its readers. Pragmatic theory is used to reveal the functions of literary work in the middle of society, the spread, and the development. Pragmatic theory deals with the competence of the readers.
expression and the emotion of its writer which are influenced by the background and the experience of the writer.
Objective theory focuses on the literary work itself, its language, forms, and devices. This kind of theory declines the relation among literary work, historical aspects, sociological aspects, cultural aspects, and biographical aspects.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
3.1Data Collecting Procedure
The first procedure in doing this thesis is collecting the data. In this first procedure, library research is used. As quoted from Nawawi (1993:30):
Penelitian kepustakaan dilakukan dengan cara menghimpun data dari berbagai literature baik di perpustakaan maupun tempat-tempat lain.
(Library research is done by collecting the data from any kinds of source in the library or any other places).
3.2Data Selecting Procedure
The second procedure is selecting the data. There are also two steps in applying this procedure. The first step is selecting the most related poems which will support the analysis of this thesis. There are seven selected poems of Maya Angelou that are going to be analyzed from the view of feminism, they are Phenomenal Woman (poem A), Still I Rise (poem B), Equality (poem C), Woman Work (poem D), Men (poem E), Remembrance (poem F), and Caged Bird (poem G). And the second step is choosing the poems’ most related lines that will be later quoted to support the analysis of the thesis.
3.3Data Analyzing Procedure
The last procedure in doing this thesis is analyzing the data. In analyzing the data, the descriptive analysis method is used. According to Ratna (2004:53), the descriptive analysis method is a method which describes facts which are followed by analysis. This method is not only to describe the facts, but also to give adequate understandings and explanations towards the facts.
Therefore, this last procedure is the process of describing the collected data and analyzing them. The data included are the significant things which are related to feminism as portrayed in Maya Angelou’s selected poems, such as the struggle of women against the superiority of men, bad treatments over women in a male-dominated society, and the superiority of men itself.
CHAPTER IV
AN ANALYSIS OF FEMINISM IN MAYA ANGELOU’S SELECTED POEMS
4.1The Struggle of Women
As stated in the theoretical framework, feminism deals with the struggle of women to survive in a male-dominated society. However, women do not show their struggle by committing harassment just like men always do to show their strength. Women can struggle by showing men that they have intriguing elements inside themselves that can make them superior.
In line 1 of poem A, it can be seen that women spend most of their time
comparing themselves to other women because they feel that they are more
superior, beautiful, and fashionable if compared with those other women. But the
second line of this poem shows how the first person speaker, who is according to this thesis’ analysis is a woman, uses imagery ‘I’m not cute or built to fit a fashion model’s size’ to give the readers a sense of what she looks like. The speaker herself wants to convey that she is not beautiful and fashionable. But using the word ‘secret’, she wants to show that she has an intrigung thing inside herself. And the word ‘secret’ itself is closely related to lines 5-13 of this poem.
Pretty woman wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to fit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies.
The speaker then asserts that the word ‘secret’ refers to a strong self-confidence that she possesses. What makes her confident is the inner and physical beauty that she has inside herself. ‘It’s in the reach of my arms’ which displays her ability to grasp things at her will, ‘The span of my hips’ which shows her
physical attraction, ‘The stride of my step’ which becomes the way she carries
herself around, and ‘The curl of my lips’ which means her eloquence are powerful
enough to show others that she is a woman who has strong self-confidence. These
things really exude pride in being a woman. At one point, the speaker also puts
‘I’m a woman / Phenomenally. / Phenomenal woman, / That’s me.’. This
statement means that she says she is a woman who is phenomenal because she is herself and does not try to be anyone else but herself. However, this statement is actually very broad. It is broad in the sense that she speaks to many women, not just herself. She wants to say that they can also be phenomenal like her.
I say,
wherever she walks, men always follow her to see how unique and exclusive she is. These lines 14-20 also show how others (men and women) act around her:
I walk into a room Just as cool as you please,
And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees.
They swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. (lines 14-20 in poem A)
In lines 21-29, the speaker proudly asserts that what makes men always follow her is the uniqueness and the quality inside herself. It appears in ‘It’s the fire in my eyes’ which displays her intense look which is full of spirit, ‘The flash of my teeth’ which shows her candour, ‘The swing in my waist’ which becomes her assertion of sexuality that makes her look attractive, and also ‘The joy in my feet’ which means her infectious elation. Wherever she goes, she truly shows and brings her happiness as a phenomenal woman.
I say,
tries to show her ‘inner mystery’ to them, they say that it still belies them. They also say that it is a ‘phenomenon’ that they cannot perceive through the senses of perception. This is indeed what renders the speaker phenomenal. Using her ‘inner mystery’, she teases the men out of thought. ‘Inner mystery’ itself is closely related to lines 37-45 of this poem.
Men themselves have wondered They say they still can't see.
(lines 30-36 in poem A)
The speaker then states some aspects of her ‘inner mystery’ that make her phenomenal. It appears in ‘It’s the arch of my back’ which displays the curve and shape of her body, ‘The sun in my smile’ which shows her friendly expression, ‘The ride of my breasts’ which displays her sensual movement, and also ‘The grace of my style’ which becomes her attractive style.
I say,
It's the arch of my back, The sun in my smile, The ride of my breasts,
The speaker wants to show others why her head is not bowed wherever she goes. It is because she is proud of herself as a phenomenal woman. She does not have to make loud statements just like men always do to show their superiority. Hill (2010) in her online article The Inner Beauty of a Woman argues, “a woman’s inner beauty needs to always be evident on the outside. Integrity, honesty, morals and values are traits that make up her character. No matter what the situation or circumstances, a woman that possesses inner beauty will conduct herself in matter that makes others take notice”. Thus, it is obvious that the speaker does not have to commit melodramatic antics to show who she is. It is because when she is passing, her inner beauty and good personality incite a feeling of pride in the spectators. And this is pictured in lines 46-51 of this poem:
Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing, I ought to make you proud.
(lines 46-51 in poem A)
I say,
As the conclusion, all of the intriguing elements above display the speaker’s struggle as a phenomenal woman to show that she also has superiority. She wants other women to keep thinking that they can be better than men. They have strength, inner beauty, good personality, confidence, and other abilities that can make them more superior and phenomenal than men.
The struggle of a woman is also shown in poem B. It is a poem of inspiration for women. It appeared in 1978 with a collection of Maya Angelou’s other poems. It is a fairly short poem consisting of 9 stanzas. It is also an inspirational narrative written from the standpoint of a victorious woman speaking directly to those, in this case men, who wish to oppress and defame her character.
its way. In other words, it can be said that the speaker has promised not to surrender. She is sure that she can still survive in a male-dominated society. And this is reflected in line 4 of this poem:
But still, like dust, I'll rise. (line 4 of in poem B)
Using ‘Does my sassiness upset you?’, it is clear that the speaker wants to make the men upset and feel annoyed by her sassiness because she still rises and has a confidence although she has ever experienced bad treatments committed by them. The men also seem to be beset with gloom because of the speaker’s over confidence. The speaker is free to do anything she wants and express her own feeling just like she has got oil wells and pumped in her living room. And this is pictured in lines 5-8 of this poem:
Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room. (lines 5-8 in poem B)
Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise. (lines 9-12 in poem B)
With a teasing tone, the speaker wants to make the men feel offended by her haughtiness. She then laughs at them just like she has goldmines in her backyard. So, it is obvious that she still shows her over confidence to them. And this is displayed in lines 17-20 of this poem:
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. (lines 17-20 in poem B)
In line 24, the speaker is depicted as the air. Air itself has freedom to fulfil all places on earth. Therefore, as a woman, the speaker absolutely has freedom to disengage herself from the men’s domination because as Sucharitha (2011) argues in her online article Women Empowerment and Freedom, “women need to free themsevels from their limitations and helplessness”. Finally, the speaker no more wants to be underestimated by men. She realizes that she can be free from the men’s domination. And she firstly starts showing her sense of freedom by expressing a strong self-confidence that she still has inside herself.
Confidence is what makes the speaker still strong. With her ‘sexiness’ which also symbolizes her confidence, she wants to upset and annoy those men’s feelings. Besides that, her confidence, which makes her unyielding and even brave to mock them, becomes a surprise and an unpredictable thing for the men. The speaker then shows her confidence by dancing just like she has got diamonds at the meeting of her thighs. And this is reflected in lines 25-28 of this poem:
Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs? (lines 25-28 in poem B)
The speaker, who is depicted as ‘a black ocean’ with her black and dark past, wants to change her life for the better. She shows how she rises from her shameful history because of having ever got bad treatments from the men. She also rises from the shadow of her past that used to become an unforgettable pain for her. And this is pictured in lines 29-34 of this poem:
Out of the huts of history's shame I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
(lines 29-34 in poem B)
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise
(lines 35-38 in poem B)
The last lines of poem B display how the speaker intends to run her new life, but still with bringing the ‘gifts’ that her ‘ancestors’ gave as an unforgettable experience that becomes the best teacher for her. The word ‘gifts’ here shows negative meaning that is used to describe men’s oppression and bad treatments that her ‘ancestors’ (other women before her) also ever experienced. Finally, the speaker starts making a change. She wants to become a dream and hope for ‘the slave’ (women in her era especially and the other women in the world generally). She strongly asks them to rise and struggle to disengage themselves from men’s domination.
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise I rise I rise.
(lines 39-43 in poem B)
In lines 3-4 of poem C, it is clear that the speaker does not surrender at all. She really keeps struggling. Using ‘though I stand before you boldly’, she is even brave to make her position the same with men. The speaker also uses ‘trim in rank and making time’ to show how she strives to keep making achievements to ensure the men that she is not different from them.
though I stand before you boldly, trim in rank and making time.
(lines 3-4 in poem C)
The speaker still insists on speaking her message loudly and clearly. Besides that, her ‘rhythms’, which symbolizes her passionate intention for freedom and equality, will never change. And this is displayed in lines 7-8 of this poem:
while my drums beat out the message and the rhythms never change.
(lines 7-8 in poem C)
In lines 17-18, it is obvious that the speaker does not want to live in pain anymore. She then keeps on ‘marching forward’ to rise from the shadow of her past. On the other hand, ‘you’ which symbolizes the other women who are now living together in a patriarchal society with her, are afraid of improving themselves. Using ‘but you keep on coming last’, the speaker wants to show how those women still feel oppressed by the superiority of men.
but I keep on marching forward, but you keep on coming last.
As usual, the speaker does not give up. This is reflected in lines 25-28 of this poem. Using ‘Hear the tempo so compelling, / hear the blood throb through my veins.’, it is clear that she still insists on struggling. She wants the men to see how her spirit makes her even stronger than the previous time. ‘Yes, my drums are beating nightly’ also displays how she has an unstoppable enthusiasm to gain equality, and her ‘rhythms’, which symbolizes her passionate intention for freedom, will never change.
Hear the tempo so compelling, hear the blood throb through my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly, and the rhythms never change.
(lines 25-28 in poem C)
Using the repetitions in lines 9-10, 19-20, and 29-30, it is obvious that the speaker wants to gain equality. She thinks that she deserves the same position with men. She is sure that she and they are not different. She feels that she can do what they can do. She is able to make many achievements. Besides that, these two lines also become the main idea of the poem because they show the first person speaker’s strong intention to have the same position with men. Therefore, she really keeps struggling. And when she is able to gain that equality, she will absolutely be free from the superioriy and domination of men.
The last poem that is related to the struggle of a woman is also revealed in poem D. Through this poem, Maya Angelou wants to show how a woman struggles and plays her role in her family and should do all of her responsibilities as a mother and housewife.
In lines 1-14 of this poem, Maya Angelou superbly highlights the burden of duties that the woman has to face. Like an ox, working from dawn till dusk, she has to follow a fixed schedule and has no time to enjoy. In an online article Mothers’ Role in Children’s Lives, it is said, “being a mother is to always be there even if it hurts. Because the unfathomable fact is, you can never stop being a mother”. Therefore, as a mother and housewife, the woman being talked about in this poem works very hard like a machine in and outside the house all day long. She has to take care of the children, go to shop, cook, clean the house, iron the clothes, work outside the house to make money, and so on.
I've got the children to tend The clothes to mend
The floor to mop The food to shop Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry I got company to feed
The garden to weed I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress The can to be cut I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick And the cotton to pick. (lines 1-14 in poem D)
because of being over tired. But although she has been exposed to such depressing duties, she sometimes thinks of forgetting all about her dull routine works and enjoys the beauties of nature. She then looks at the sun and wishes it would shine on her to give her enthusiasm to work again. She also wishes it would rain to cool her off.
Shine on me, sunshine Rain on me, rain Fall softly, dew drops And cool my brow again.
(lines 15-18 in poem D)
The woman looks at the strom and wishes it would bring her from her home which is full of a lot of works to finish. She also wishes the wind would take her to the sky. From these lines 19-22, it is clear that she wants to take a rest for a while before she has to struggle to finish her works again:
Storm, blow me from here With your fiercest wind Let me float across the sky
'Til I can rest again. (lines 19-22 in poem D)
Fall gently, snowflakes Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and Let me rest tonight. (lines 23-26 in poem D)
In the last lines of this poem, a series of natural images, such as sun, rain, sky, mountain, ocean, leaf, stone, star, and moon are put in the poem to give the spirit to the woman to run her life in doing and facing her routine works as a housewife. Maya Angelou certainly uses these natural images to regain the woman’s strength to enable her to handle the difficult and unpleasant conditions in her life.
Sun, rain, curving sky Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow You're all that I can call my own.
(lines 27-30 in poem D)
4.2Bad Treatments over Women
world. They have even had to feel bad treatments that are committed to them by men. And that is what Maya Angelou has ever experienced in her life.
In poem B, the first person speaker, who is according to this thesis’ analysis is a woman, presents her history which is full of bad treatments, such as being oppressed by her society. The first three lines in this poem show the speaker has ever been treated in really bad ways by ‘you’ which refers to the men. She is subject to bitter and twisted lies. She is also trampled in the dirt. In other words, it can be said that men have treated the speaker in improper ways. And what she has experienced is an unforgettable history that may become ‘a past pain’ for her.
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt
(lines 1-3 in poem B)
In lines 21-23, it can be seen that the men mock the speaker with their hurting words. Using ‘You may cut me with your eyes’, the speaker wants to convey that they also underestimate her because in their points of view, she is nothing and only a second-class human who has lower position. Overall, it is clear that the men really hate the speaker. They think that she is only a weak creature who cannot do anything at all.
You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness,
The next poem which is also related to bad treatments over a woman is poem C. In lines 1-2 of poem, the first person speaker, who is according to this thesis’ analysis is a woman, is regarded as a weak person by men. Freedman (2001:10) argues, “whereas women have been seen as closer to nature, men have been perceived as closer to culture, more suited for public roles and political association. For this reason, women have been relegated to a secondary status in society, often confined to roles in the home rather than able to accede to powerful public positions”. Thus, it is obvious that the two lines of this poem show how the speaker is placed as a second-class human in society. Her rights are absolutely restricted by the power of patriarchal culture. These two lines also show that the men underestimate the speaker for she will never be able to improve.
You declare you see me dimly through a glass which will not shine.
(lines 1-2 in poem C)
The men also stay deaf and blind to anything that the speaker says or does. They do not care at all. And this is reflected in lines 5-8 of this poem:
You do own to hear me faintly as a whisper out of range,
(lines 5-8 in poem C)
