Skip to main content

How is Maya Angelou's poem, "Phenomenal Woman" a source of inspiration to all women?

This poem is a source of inspiration to all women because it creates an inclusive vision of womanhood. This is shown clearly in the first stanza when the speaker states that she does not adhere to society's typical view of beauty: she is not the same size as a "model," for instance, nor is she "cute." Instead, the speaker's beauty comes from the way she walks and behaves. We see this idea repeated in the next stanza when she  describes how men flock to her whenever she walks into a room, like bees around a hive. This is inspirational because it suggests that women do not have to look a particular way in order to be happy and beautiful—they are beautiful and inspirational in their own natural way.


Secondly, the speaker inspires women by using the word 'phenomenal,' a word which is defined as something extraordinary and remarkable. So, by using this word, the speaker creates an association between being a woman and being extraordinary and special. More importantly, she does not differentiate between different types of women: for the speaker, all women are special, regardless of their background. Such a positive message is both inspirational and uplifting to her female readers. Moreover, by repeating the word 'phenomenal' throughout every stanza of the poem, the speaker constantly reinforces this positive message and inspires women to believe in their inherent specialness.


Finally, the speaker uses language to create positive images of womanhood which are also inspirational. In stanza two, for example, she mentions the "swing in her waist" and the "joy in her feet," which suggests happiness while also demonstrating her confidence. Similarly, in the third and final stanzas, the speaker uses words like "grace," "sun" and "smile" to create a light and happy mood. This is inspirational because it tells women that just being a woman is enough to be happy, confident and beautiful. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more