Essay about When I Think about Myself by Maya Angelou

Every person have born, grow, do activities, married, have a child, become old and old following the time, and then die. It is a common life is everyone knows. We, however, have different ways to think of our life. Maya Angelo through her poem entitle â€Å"When I Think about Myself† has shared the voice of her people and result of the process of thinking or musing life. It is a very interesting poem because we need to read it twice or more to catch the real tone and story. When the first you read the poem, you will not recognize the Maya’s mean and then be extremely curious to read it again carefully until you get the real story from the poem. The poem has contrasting word â€Å"laugh† with some words, which have an opposite meaning such as†¦show more content†¦The person shows a good spirit through laugh at all ironic that happens in his or her life. In another word, it shows the spirit of people to survive against all good and bad things that happens in their life. The second and third line of the first stanza can indicate as the attitude of the person. I almost laugh myself to death, My life has been one great big joke, The person keeps laughing, although she or he thinks that her or his life is just like a joke. The line â€Å"my life has been one great big joke† indicate something that is not very good happens in her or his life. It has made the person thought the life is joke. Something funny, however, we can feel the irony in the sentence. The second stanza also emphasizes the tone, a little sad and ironic, and the attitude of the person. Sixty years in this folks’ world The child I work for calls me girl I say â€Å"Yes ma’am† for working’s sake. Too proud to bend Too poor to break, I laugh until my stomach ache, When I think about myself. The tone is increasingly felt in this stanza. It is depicting a sixty years old person who could be as a symbolical time of a community or a person should be in the lower classes. To continue with his or her boss is a young girl and she or he should call her â€Å"ma’am†. The person keeps laughing, but now the laugh is not only for his or her self. The laugh is in the system that make the person’s life become in irony for a longShow MoreRelatedThe Time Period Of Transcendentalism1278 Words   |  6 PagesThese tenets I am going to focus on is: confidence, self-reliance, free thought, nonconformity, and the importance of nature. Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement in the 1800’s where people responded to the strict rules back then. They declared that they didn’t have to follow all of the rules and decided to go off of independent tenets. 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