Read the extract given below and answer the questions (Q. Nos. 106–111) that follow :
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that is wondrously clear

I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Which of the following describes the theme of the poem correctly?

The correct option is Oppression.

Step-by-step Explanation:

1. Analyze the tone and imagery of the poem: The lines "You may shoot me with your words", "You may cut me with your eyes", and "You may kill me with your hatefulness" explicitly depict acts of hostility, cruelty, and systemic violence directed at the speaker. These expressions represent various forms of social and psychological persecution.

2. Identify the historical context: References to "huts of history’s shame", "a past that’s rooted in pain", and being "the dream and the hope of the slave" point directly to historical injustices, slavery, and systemic subjugation based on race.

3. Define the central theme: The poem (Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise") focuses on enduring and rising above historical and ongoing racial subjugation, cruelty, and injustice. The overarching theme that captures these experiences of systemic cruelty and injustice is oppression, against which the speaker declares resilience and triumph.