Symbolism and Allusion in Maya Angelous My Arkansas Essay

Symbolism and Allusion in Maya Angelous My Arkansasnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp; nbsp;There is a deep brooding/ in Arkansas. Arkansas is stuck in the past, its memories of hatred and crime from ante-bellum days hindering the progression towards Civil Rights. Maya Angelous poem of the struggle to a new wave of equality uses both general symbolism and historical allusion to make its theme clear to the reader. The poem uses general symbolism in nature, in time, and historical allusion to make the theme clear in a concise but vibrant poem. nbsp; The general symbolism relating to nature assumes a common base of knowledge from which symbolism can be built. The poem opens with a description†¦show more content†¦Secondly, the red earth can be associated with the desert, a place where no vegetation can grow. The red earth, whether stained with the blood of the past or a place where life cannot be sustained, continues to paint the picture of an unending struggle toward the future for the new and growing poplar tree. nbsp; The theme of new beginnings and the harness of the past in another natural setting is discussed again in the second stanza, but now with a focus on time. The visual image presented my the passage as the sun hesitating and losing its direction show allow the reader to observe the symbolism of the sun. The sun universally represents time, the rise and set of sun symbolizing the beginning and ending of each day, days leading into months, years, and lifetimes. The rise of the sun is a new beginning, but it seems to hesitate, and lose its/ incandescent aim. The new beginning brought on by the rising of the sun was held back and lost in that second. Hope and the fresh start were halted by the sun, who was not ready to let time pass and continue. The passage concludes with an affirmation of the symbolism, that the past is brighter yet than the sun who could not pull the new start cleanly into the future. nbsp; The poem is put into a clear context at the end by way of historical allusion. The phrase ante-bellum is a buzzword for