I am the dream and the hope of the slave

The subject’s explicit claim of being the “the hope and the dream of the slave” indicated that his poem can be placed in the time of slavery in the United States.

This quote is from Still I Rise, written by Maya Angelou (1978). It deals with the oppression of an individual. The lyrical subject in the poem speaks to someone telling him that regardless of the oppression, the lies, the disregard and the maltreatment received, the lyrics find the ability to do against this and to strive.

The content of the poem can, however, be put into another context. Perhaps we are dealing with an African American woman during a time when racial discrimination was prominent and explicit hence the Civil Rights Movement (Bella & Nkomo, 1998).