Being Free : The Road To Be Free?

Angelou was born in Missouri in 1928. She spent most of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, pre Civil Rights Movement with her grandmother and her older brother. Angelou is most known for writing the poem Caged Bird. In the first stanza about the caged bird, Angelou declares that the bird, “can seldom see through/ his bars of rage/ his wings are clipped and/ his feet are tied/ so he opens his throat to sing”(Caged Bird). Angelou uses the bird as a metaphor for oppressed African Americans during this time period; the bird is held back by a barrier, just like African Americans were held back by unjust laws, a corrupt legal system, and their white peers who saw them as inferior. Similar to the bird, Angelou felt held back by others, but she did not let the “bars of rage” hold her back from her potential so, like the bird, she “opened her throat to sing” and used her voice to protest for herself and those who could not advocate for themselves.

What is Freedom; does it really mean to be “free?” According to several dictionaries, freedom is described as being free of confinement or physical restraint. The United States of America is one of the freest countries in the world. Freedom isn’t just prone, though. Millions fought and perished for our rights and delivered us the freedom that citizens of the United States possess now. It is truly sublime to have these rights, is it not? Having human rights that enable us to do whatever we prefer is enlightening, yes? Ah, but is that what we actually maintain? We accomplished the aspect of freedom, but we are never really “free” until everyone is on the identical page.

Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, author, and poet. She wrote many books and poems that conveyed the vivid experiences in her life. Maya Angelou’s works are well known and she is an eminent writer. One poem in particular that is well known is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” written in 1969. In this work she described racial inequality, and the lack of freedom African Americans experienced in the 1930’s and 40’s. Maya Angelou uses many Rhetorical strategies and literary devices to describe the lack of racial freedom in the world at this time.

Maya Angelou’s use of symbolism in the book is used to describe her displacement in society and how difficult it is to find self-identity, revealing the form of being a “Caged bird.” Maya is a caged bird because she is aware of the displacement of blacks in America and the entitlement and freedom of whites. “if growing up is as painful for the southern girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat” (Angelou 4). Angelou is aware because of the color of her skin, she is living in a society that does not want her or anyone who looks like her. With her awareness Angelou, “...escapes stasis to become a subject in the perpetual process of forming and emerging. It is a dynamic subjectivity that emerges out

True freedom is not something that can be given. It is something that every single person must discover for themselves. If a person were set free, though still thought of themselves as a slave, they are a slave. America is a country that thrives on freedom. Though numerous people throughout the United States take this privilege for granted.

“The free bird thinks of another breeze….a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams…” The two literary works “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” can be seen as mockingbirds that have flown over fields of prejudice and repeat what they have seen for all to hear. Jem Finch, a young boy and lawyer’s son from “To Kill a Mockingbird” clearly symbolizes a mockingbird because of his youth and innocence, and because of his innocence he cannot fully understand the racism in the story. Jem also has many similarities to the caged and free birds in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, whether it be Jem’s

Through the poems “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou it is evident freedom is a desire for all beings, and this is conveyed through symbolism and juxtaposition.. “Sympathy” is a poem that expresses a caged bird’s desire to be free and it’s pain, as well as the poet’s connections to the bird. The poet writes, “I know why the caged bird beats his wing/Till its blood is red on the cruel bars/For he must fly back to his perch and cling/When he fain would be on the bough a-swing” (Dunbar 8-11). The bird symbolizes freedom is a desire for all beings. The bird is a symbol for being trapped, confined, or restricted. The bird tries to escape so desperately to the point where there is blood on the bars. This is an urgent

In the poem, “Sympathy” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and the response to the literature, “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou are structured around the symbol of a caged bird. As the caged bird is the symbol of the African American race during that time, both have similar and different meanings in their responses.

This poem contains another literary device called juxtaposition. The free bird is juxtaposed with the caged bird, both are described but they are very different. Adults need to think about how they use their power over children. Helicopter parenting; is using power that causes children to be restricted and to shrivel up inside rather than flourish just like the caged and free bird in the poem. Angelou’s free bird is a free child, someone who has the freedom to pursue their ambitions no matter how questionably they become.

The power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. A word created by man to escape the bonds of tyranny to express the idea of what it means to persist one's own ambitions. Freedom. Freedom is not the absence of confinement but the will to achieve freedom when imprisoned. After carefully concluding the reading done over this semester one is able to clearly understand the confinement these early Americans felt and their decision to achieve a form of freedom. Freedom has always existed but it is the history of this nation that will define what actions freedom takes.

In Maya Angelou’s poem, “Caged Bird”, She explains how a bird is trapped inside of a cage and can not escape from thick metal bars that hold it back. It imagines and signs of having freedom. People believe this is about a bird, but what if it isn’t. I believe that this is talking about a person who can’t make the decision if they want to keep fighting to do free.The bird can’t decide if it wants to fight to soon wear the bars of the cage down so it can finally fly away aswell or to give up and use its voice and

The authors message in this poem is that never ever give up in whatever situation we are in and to express ourselves even though the stronger wants to suppress the weaker. This poem can be considered as the poet’s personal expression. Maya Angelou can be symbolised as the caged bird in the poem. The poet feels like a caged bird because she had no freedom when the African Americans were fighting for equality during the civil rights movement. Maya Angelou is said to have a strong personality as she overcame many adversities and became the famous figure she is

The poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou tells the story of two birds: one bird has the luxury of freedom and the second bird lives its life caged and maltreated by an unknown tyrant. Maya Angelou wrote this poem during the Civil Rights Era, the period when black activists in the 1950’s and 1960’s fought for desegregation of African Americans. This poem parallels the oppression that African Americans were fighting during this time period. In “Caged Bird”, Angelou builds a strong contrast that shows the historical context of discrimination and segregation through the use of mood, symbolism, and theme.

its joys of being able to do what it wants, but this is short lived

However, in the poem “Caged Bird” Maya Angelou characterizes the free and caged bird as, one bird symbolizing imprisonment and limitations while the other symbolizes freedom, which further develops the theme of inequality. The line “And dares to claim the sky” shows how unaware the free bird is and further develops the idea of its freedom. This piece of evidence shows how unaware the free bird is by exaggerating the extent of its freedom compared to the caged bird. In