“We do not fear the unknown. We fear about what we think we know about the unknown.” -Teal Swan. Fear is an ordinary feeling in human nature, and humans can become scared for countless reasons. Occasionally we feel as if our lives are in danger, or something from the past bubbling to the surface, or maybe you truly did something wrong. Perhaps the fear of failing or a haunting memory that have buried themselves deep inside your self-conscious, causing you to forget about the trauma. But the scar is still there. It holds you back. Latching onto you like an unwanted parasite. It holds you in a cage.
‘Caged Bird’ is a poem about a bird being held back in its cage as it watches another bird fly freely through the sky. This poem could mean numerous things, but I believe this poem is about someone fearing the unknown. Of what would happen if they left their cage, their safe place. But they can’t help by being curious what their freedom could be. So, they’re tied back by their own fears. Too scared to open their wings and fly away. Perhaps from past experiences, or anxiety building up over their time in the cage. “but a bird stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage, his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat”. They let the unknown tie their feet and clip their wings, but their envy of freedom still drifts along with their fears, so they open their throat to sing. Even how angry they get with their fits of rage, they’re too scared and too damaged to overcome their fears of what they don’t know. Perhaps someone can change their fears. Warn them so they can morph and overcome them.
‘Mother to Son’, is a poem about a mother explaining to her child, that even though her life has been difficult, she’ll overcome it and keep climbing. She was kept in her own cage that held her back, but she broke free from what held her back in her early life. Her life was delayed because she was too scared to break free from her bonds and fly. Her life was filled with her staying on that one step. Her crystal stairs were fogged by her dread. She warns her child so he doesn’t make the same mistakes as she did. That even if she kept herself in her cage, she broke free and kept climbing.
Imagine that your life started getting harder, harder, and you kept conquering the problems one by one. The poems “ Mother to Son” and “ The rose that grew from concrete” will show you how to rise above your challenges. The poem “Mother to Son” is about how you have to persevere to rise above your problems in life. And the poem “The rose that grew from concrete” is about how this rose came out of concrete showing us that anything is possible if you keep trying. The poems “ Mother to Son” and “ The rose that grew from concrete” both share the theme of rising above challenges but they do so in similar and different ways.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Specifically it will discuss the themes of racism and segregation, and how these strong themes are woven throughout this moving autobiography. Maya Angelou recounts the story of her early life, including the racism and segregation she experiences throughout her formative years. With wit, sincerity, and remarkable talent, Angelou portrays racism as a product of ignorance and prejudice. However, she finds the strength to rise above this crippling condition.
And the poem “Mother to Son” is about how a mother is telling her son that she had to go through rough times like her son.She says she also keeps going no matter how difficult life gets.Both poems share the theme of overcoming obstacles in life. Both authors use figurative language for example,Tupac uses a Rose and Langston Hughes uses stairs to compare them to how hard life can be to develop the theme.
In the poem, “Mother to Son” harlem renaissance Langston Hughes writes of a mother’s heartbreaking journey through a never ending cycle of life through the use of figurative language and complex structure. The reader is able to fully receive the message the author has provided.
In “The Great Scarf of Birds” by John Updike, he describes the power of nature to impact people by using structure, diction, figurative language, and imagery. By incorporating all of these literary devices, Updike constructs an authentic poem and a great read. The author is truly able to chronicle all the emotions that come with having a change of heart. Every literary device he uses is equally important in construction of the poem and the meaning behind it.
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” depicts two birds which are used as metaphors to express the state in which the two classes of people live. In one description the poem describes the standard of living of a bird of privilege which alludes to the lives of whites. Then it describes caged birds whom of which are crying out for freedom, and are meant to represent African Americans during this time. It describes the feeling of being trapped and calling out for
Another cause for people having fear is the past experiences they have had. Generally, if something bad has happened to somebody, they try to forget about it and/or they try to make sure it never happens again. However, in doing so, they still have a subconscious fear that something similar to the terrible event they’ve experienced may somehow manage to happen again, especially if there are a few similarities between the past event and the current situation. For example, if a man had surgery for his heart to perform better and he nearly died, he may be very reluctant to ever have surgery to his heart or any other body part(s) again.
Judith Wright’s poem “Mother to Child” is about a woman’s emotions during the different stages of motherhood. It tells the audience that the bond between a mother and her child is very powerful and that it changes as the child grows. Wright shows us this through her use of imagery, symbolism and the structure of her poem. The use of those three elements of literature help communicate the love the woman has for her child and how their connection grows stronger as time goes on.
its joys of being able to do what it wants, but this is short lived
The poem, “Birdsong” by Nickole Brown, explains what Brown’s grandmother Fanny felt about birds. She explains a birds tune or how they chirp. She explains her relations to the bird and how they impacted her life which connected back to Aunt Lonni.
Storytelling helps other people to emotionally connect themselves to the author so that they know they are not the only ones who are experiencing a painful or exciting experience, and are able to share the same emotions. It often helps other people to know what they should do in order to get over it when it comes to a painful experience. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings explores the life of Maya Angelou and the struggles she has been throughout her childhood to her adulthood. Richard Wagemese’s Indian Horse explores the life of Saul Indian Horse and the struggles he has been through after departing from his family. The power of storytelling can unfold questions which ask the audience of how and why are the events are unfold the
The mood of “Caged Bird” changes drastically from stanza to stanza. Angelou’s specific diction choices help to reflect the change from being positive to negative with some elements of hope involved. The parts of the poem involving the free bird provide the reader with a feeling of self government.In contrast, the mood associated with the caged bird is confinment. Despite the negative mood tied to the caged bird there are still elements of hope woven into these stanzas.
The poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes is the story of a mother speaking of life’s hardships to her son. The poem starts off with the protagonist’s haunting words about the difficulty of life; however, as the story goes on, her words of despair become words of wisdom to her son on never giving up. Hughes organizes this poem by transitioning the tone from hopelessness to encouragement to convey the raw message that although life can be hard, anyone can reach their goals with effort.
In the last stanza, the caged bird’s song symbolises the emotions and cries of freedom. The combination of the two represents that there is a need for every child to reach their full potential. Something that cannot be achieved with helicopter parenting and the barriers placed upon them.
In both the pieces the writers are expressing the character of the slaves implicitly within the caged bird. In both the poems, the cage represents the inescapable hold of slavery on the bird and its suffering that came with it. “But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.” “The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing tree and the fat worm waiting on a dawn bright lawn and he names the sky his own.” In this article the writer uses an extended metaphor and successfully transfers his feeling of pity and sympathy towards the caged bird onto the reader by the comparison of the two birds’ difference in freedom and life as whole. In the second poem “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” the writer injects the readers with this sense