speaker is a steady, constant thing, resisting the onslaught represented by each question with replies that invalidate the assumptions inherent in them.

The impact of the questions is not derived from the questions themselves but from the nature of those replies. In each case, the speaker refuses to accept the role of victim that society imposes upon her.

The questions indicate that although the ones in power have made these assumptions about the speaker, it's they who, despite their power, are the dissatisfied, unhappy ones:

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

The implication is that when those in power try to deprive others of happiness, it's from a desire to compensate for their own deficiencies. The answers the speaker gives are joyful and fanciful:

. . . I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

And:

. . . I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

The meaning of these replies is that even if a people are pushed down, they create their own reality and thereby defeat their oppressors.

In her poem “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou uses questions as a literary device for a number of reasons including gaining the attention of the audience.

Maya Angelou uses a form of questioning known as hypophora as opposed to rhetorical questions. After she asks a question, she provides an answer. Some of her questions are asked and then answered with the speaker creating an unexpected, almost irreverent image for the reader. As she speaks to those who oppress her, and all women of color, she uses the question as a lead to her unexpected answer.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

She asks if her oppressors find her attitude offensive, before she shows a concern for their feelings, and then, she paints a picture of her air of prosperity even in the face of oppression. She wants to know why her oppressors are encumbered by "gloom" when she is still able to demonstrate her worthiness.

Therefore, Ms. Angelou uses the questions to include the reader, to set the tone, and to create a false sense of empathy for her oppressors.

By addressing her reader with questions, Angelou is hoping her reader will then begin to question their own feelings and emotions on how comfortable they are that a black woman has found her self-worth. The six main questions she asks her reader are:

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Does my sexiness upset you?

After years of misconceptions, racism, stereotyping, and lies that have been told about her and her ancestors, Angelou is ready to claim her value as a black woman.  Instead of being downtrodden and oppressed, Angelou expresses her “sassiness,” “haughtiness,” and “sexiness” throughout the poem. She says,

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

These words stress that Angelou has come from a past of pain, terror, and fear; however, she has risen above that history and now loves herself for the characteristics (like haughtiness) that she possesses. Now, she is asking you if you are upset by the fact that she is no longer “broken” or shows a “bowed head.” She is asking her audience to come to grips with the new woman she has become.