Still I rise – analysis
- powerful statement against anti-black racism in America
- insistence on their ultimate, inevitable triumph over violence and hate
Themes:
1. Defiance in the face of Oppression
- Society tries to humiliate the speaker, who has little power to fight back (“bitter, twisted lies”)
- refusal to bend to the speaker’s will
- acts associated with traditional signs of wealth: “oil,” “gold,” and “diamonds.”
- repeatedly rises above violent prejudice and hatred, living and thriving
- rise of “dust” to “air,” → located physically above the earth
- rise of “moon and…suns,’’ → speaker’s rise in inevitable and unstoppable; her dignity and
strength are qualities that society can’t touch
2. Power and Beauty of Blackness
- associates her body with symbols of value “oil wells’’, “gold mines’’, “diamonds” → critique
racist and sexist assumptions of beauty and power as being tied only to whiteness and
masculinity
- Biblical allusion: “like dust” → God created humans from “dust,” and humans return to “dust”
once they die. By stating that she is “like dust,” the speaker asserts her full humanity; she is as
much a creation of God as anyone else.
Symbols:
1. Valuable objects
- “Oil wells” “Gold mines” “Diamonds” → highly desired by human society and/or considered
beautiful.
→ symbolically associated with the oppressed speaker, indicating the inherent beauty and
value of her body no matter how society may humiliate and look down on her
2. The Ocean
- Symbolises power: a force that cannot be inhibited by human efforts
- Waves may fall, but will always rise again → represents the speaker’s inevitability to rise
above oppression
Metaphor
- “shoot me” “cut me” “kill me” → emphasises how painful it is to be surrounded by racism in
society
- “I am the dream and the hope of the slave” → escalation of the previous similes, contributes
to a definitive, powerful conclusion
[ @twilightxcafee notes – Reserved for customers only ]
- powerful statement against anti-black racism in America
- insistence on their ultimate, inevitable triumph over violence and hate
Themes:
1. Defiance in the face of Oppression
- Society tries to humiliate the speaker, who has little power to fight back (“bitter, twisted lies”)
- refusal to bend to the speaker’s will
- acts associated with traditional signs of wealth: “oil,” “gold,” and “diamonds.”
- repeatedly rises above violent prejudice and hatred, living and thriving
- rise of “dust” to “air,” → located physically above the earth
- rise of “moon and…suns,’’ → speaker’s rise in inevitable and unstoppable; her dignity and
strength are qualities that society can’t touch
2. Power and Beauty of Blackness
- associates her body with symbols of value “oil wells’’, “gold mines’’, “diamonds” → critique
racist and sexist assumptions of beauty and power as being tied only to whiteness and
masculinity
- Biblical allusion: “like dust” → God created humans from “dust,” and humans return to “dust”
once they die. By stating that she is “like dust,” the speaker asserts her full humanity; she is as
much a creation of God as anyone else.
Symbols:
1. Valuable objects
- “Oil wells” “Gold mines” “Diamonds” → highly desired by human society and/or considered
beautiful.
→ symbolically associated with the oppressed speaker, indicating the inherent beauty and
value of her body no matter how society may humiliate and look down on her
2. The Ocean
- Symbolises power: a force that cannot be inhibited by human efforts
- Waves may fall, but will always rise again → represents the speaker’s inevitability to rise
above oppression
Metaphor
- “shoot me” “cut me” “kill me” → emphasises how painful it is to be surrounded by racism in
society
- “I am the dream and the hope of the slave” → escalation of the previous similes, contributes
to a definitive, powerful conclusion
[ @twilightxcafee notes – Reserved for customers only ]
