Level 1 Toria Baker
Ego Tripping :
Theme : Discovering the beauty in Africa and African
American women.
Tone: The tone for this text is very sassy, and self assured. She sets herself on a high pedestal and makes it seem as if she’s the best at everything. That’s why she calls the poem Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why).
She does this because her ego is so self assuring and sassy that she would be considered as someone who is tripping over her ego because it’s so large. Audiences : This text is directed towards African American women, or women of African descent. Throughout the
poem, Giovanni refers herself to different Gods. “I sat on the throne drinking nectar with allah” (line 9). and then she refers herself to Jesus by using allusions. “I turned myself into myself and was jesus” (line 30). Her choice to refer heself to different gods broadens her audience by directing the attention towards specific religious groups. Features : Throughout the entire poem, she is uplifting and praising African American women. But she does this by using I statements, when it actually represents a “we” as in a unity of African American women. Context : In our society, men are placed at the top of the ladder. Men are looked at as superior to women, and in
this poem, Giovanni switches the ladder to put women at the top, and make them superior to men. “Men intone my loving name All praises All praises I am the one who would save (lines 3234).” She’s placing women over men and placing them on a high pedestal because she’s identifying the powers of African American women and their abilities to control the world. “I I caught a cold and blew My nose giving oil to the arab world” (4041). She also emphasises how perfect she is by declaring that she gave birth to Nefertiti. Which means a beautiful/perfect woman. She’s basically saying that only someone as perfect as her can give birth to such an amazing/ perfect woman. She also reinforces her importance by not capitalizing anyone else’s name within the poem. jesus,
noah, hannibal, or anyone else’s name. She only capitalizes “My” and “I” when she’s talking about herself.
She envies herself so much that she is literally tripping over her own ego. “I cannot be comprehended except by my permission” (line 4748). She can’t be comprehended because she is a woman, and woman are stereotyped as as complicated human beings, but she’s saying that she can only free herself from her comprehension.
Structure : She starts the poem off by saying “I was born in the congo” (line 1). She does this because she’s embracing her roots, her African American roots, and setting a theme for the poem that African American women are of importance. Giovanni doesn’t use punctuation throughout her whole poem, she does this to
make her list of achievements seem like they are never ending. It just goes on and on and on. She ends the poem by saying “I mean… I… can fly like a bird in the sky…”
(lines 5051). She does this because she’s so far hyped up on her own ego, that she can’t come down from the hype. She feels as if she’s able to do anything. She also does this because these are lyrics from a famous musical group named the Temptations. They use these lyrics in their song called “I can’t get next to you.” She does this because she’s relating the text back to African roots, since the Temptations is a African American group. They Clapped
Theme : Africa needs to be recognized and not forgotten about. Audience : The text is directed towards a group of African
Americans. Men and
