By+Maya+Angelou

I think Maya Angelou is pondering the word "bad." She wants the readers to ask themselves 'is that really bad?" I think her idea is to get people not to listen to the voice of crowd but to form their own opinions based on what they themselves think. I think the highest point in the poem is when she says:

"Bad as the storm that leaps raging from the heavens Bringing the welcome rain"

Here is this storm that is portrayed as bad and scary, but if we really think about it or think of it in a different way, it could really just be a welcome from the heavens. It doesn't have to be bad just because people make it out to be. It could be very good.

And aren't all these people she mentions really good? Like Jesse Jackson. Jackson is a black politician, but isn't he brilliant? Isn't he a smart revolutionary? By asking, "isn't he bad," she is trying to challenge society.

However, at the end of the poem, she is still wondering, "ain't they black, ain't they bad?" This is part of the reason I said this is a poem about searching. Angelou is successful in challenging society and making people think of things in a different light, but she is doing it with a question mark.