Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool and Maya Angelous Phenomenal Woman - Assignment Example

Gwendolyn Brooks and Maya Angelou are African-American women with strong personalities. The most dominant theme in Brooks works is the impact of ethnicity and life experiences on one's view of life. Angelou's, on the other hand, usually center on the themes of courage, perseverance, self-acceptance, and realization of one's full potential. "We Real Cool" depicts the climactic end of the battle of seven school dropouts and their struggles with personal identity. In this poem, Brooks speaks and feels for the seven school dropouts and sees the world through their eyes.

The unfettered young men, though seemingly not concerned of their situation, as described in the first seven lines eventually turned out to have known the consequence of their actions. "At first, it seems like it is inadvertent, even an unguarded revelation but I think that both the poet and her hooligan narrator realize that the threat of death in the streets is an ever-present part of what makes life on the streets worthwhile. It's what gives that life vitality."1 There is no separation in the part of the writer and the characters.

The writer speaks on behalf of the seven school dropouts. Perhaps, even feeling the uncertainties in their actions camouflaged by being "cool." Emphasizing it's tragic effect in the last line, "Die Soon.""Phenomenal Woman," on the other hand, describes a self-assured woman who has fully realized her self-worth that both sexes: "pretty women and men" did not fail to notice her existence. The words Maya Angelou uses show that the character is conscious of her actions and is in total control of the situation.

There are no hesitancies on the part portrayed by the "phenomenal woman" in the poem. Only a self-assured "person". Notice the emphasis on the word "person." The character becomes phenomenal not because she IS a woman but simply because she has a full grasp of what she is and what she is not. A person created with equal importance with the man. Not of lesser quality that she should worship him nor above him that she should lord over him, but a person that would complete the all of creation. For what is a woman, without a man and a man without a woman.

In conclusion, these works present the following: 1) male-female differences through the eyes of a woman; 2) employed rhythmic rhyming scheme with 3) pleasant tone ( lyrical: a feeling of dancing: Angelou's smooth, brooks' short but strong) in the use of 4) informal language (simple, crisp and powerful) which 5) appeals to the emotion (both are written based on what the writers feel) portraying the characters linked with a woman.