Week 2 - Still I Rise / Mother To Son

In "Still I Rise," what does Maya Angelou mean when she says "Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave"

• She means that her ancestors passed down pictures and jewelry for her to sell to her slave masters to buy her freedom.

• She means that she is the reason why her ancestors endured slavery. She is saying that her ancestors knew that if they just tolerated being slaves for a few hundred years, eventually things would change.

• She means that she is the physical embodiment of her ancestor's hopes and dreams. She is a free woman and she is living the life that her ancestors could only dream to live.

• All of the above.

"Still I Rise" and "Mother To Son" are similar in that

• They both have a female speaker

• They both deal with perseverance

• They are both a mother's advice to her son

• All of the above

In "Mother To Son" the "crystal stair" represents

• The son's beautiful, crystal blue eyes

• The idyllic life that the mother has not experienced

• The jewelry that her ancestors passed down to her for her to pass on to her son.

• Her life experiences.

In "Still I Rise" the speaker's audience is most likely

• white people, especially those wishing for her to fail

• her ancestors

• her children

• her husband

A ____________________ is a direct comparison that does not use "like" or "as"

• simile

• metaphor

• inference

• diction

______________________ is the author's word choice

• tone

• inference

• diction

• metaphor

Diction helps us understand the author's __________

• tone

• inference

• complex

• political beliefs

Understanding the tone and diction helps us

• make complex inferences to identify the main idea

• understand the author's purpose

• understand what the author might have been trying to teach us

• All of the above

In "Mother To Son", what would be the best way to describe the speaker's tone?

• Encouraging

• Pessimistic

• Neutral

• Discouraging

Which words from "Mother to Son" best demonstrate the mother's tone?

• "tacks, splinters, bare"

• "I'se still climbin'"

• "Don't you sit down on those steps 'cause you finds it's kinder hard"

• "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair"