Phenomenal Woman questions

1) How does "Phenomenal Woman" not subscribe/substantiate the perfectionism for females lauded in society?

  In our society we have a clouded judgement of what makes a women beautiful and phenomenal. We think size and looks are what makes a person beautiful just like the models in the magazines. In this Poem by Maya Angelou she doesn't talk about how beautiful she is but in fact the opposite as we see in line # 2 she says "I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size" this line is talking about how she is not beautiful or skinny like a model but it's who she is as a person and whats inside that makes her truly a phenomenal women.




2) The repetition is apparent with each stanza. How does Angelou create self-assurance in both "Still I Rise" and Phenomenal Woman"?

  In Still I rise Maya Angelou creates repetition at the end of each stanza with the words "still I rise" or "I'll rise" This creates a sense of her self-assurance to be able to over come and rise up from adversity. furthermore, we also see repetition at the end of each stanza in Phenomenal Woman. Angelou finishes each sentence with "Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me." This also
ties in with the trend of self-assurance that we saw in Still I Rise. We definitely see a lot of self-admiration and almost a bit of conceit in her wording.


3) What would you say the crux/main focus of this poem is? Why?
          

The main focus in the poem Phenomenal Woman is to show that it's not the way you look on the outside but the things that you do,the attitude that you have,and the little individual things about you that add up and truly make you phenomenal.


4) Charisma, charm and self-confidence cannot be shown or described to someone else. Even if it is somewhat determined, one person's allure doesn't fit another. What literary techniques do you see contributing to a certain theme of individuality?

 Angelou uses different literary techniques to contribute to her theme of individuality. She used tone to show her perspective on what makes a woman phenomenal. Overall this poem has a confident and prideful tone. Angelou also uses a lot of personification showing how inanimate individual to her come to life in her character.