Summary:
In Nikki Giovanni's poem "Woman," a female struggles with society's notion that she needs a man in her life for her to achieve self-fulfillment. As the poem progresses and the struggle plays out, the woman realizes that she can and must act on her own and empower herself, enabling her to achieve her goals as a separate entity who does not require a man.
The poem "Woman" by Nikki Giovanni tells a story of a female who straggles to fuse together her need for self actualization and empowerment, with the socially instilled in her notion about her role as a female, and with the notion that she needs to have a man in her life to achieve what she wants. At the end of her struggles she instead chooses to be a "Woman" - a separate entity who does not require a man, - and she discovers that that is "all / right"(22,23). Through the act of becoming a "Woman", a wholly independent opposite to a man, yet his equal, she relinquishes her notions regarding her role as a mare female, and empowers herself to achieve her goals without a man.
Except for the title the entire poem is written.....
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