I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou And The Stone Carvers By Jane Urquhart

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

The theme of Sympathy is the oppressive treatment of both the narrator and the bird, and the imprisonment of the bird and how the narrator sympathizes with it. This is shown through the diction choices which create dark images of mistreatment and sorrow, and imagery that is strengthened in repetition. An example of diction that supports the theme is “...its blood is red on the cruel bars;” this choice of words gives image of a dark, dirty cage with a wounded beaten bird and its cage that is blood red from his wounds; this image is very oppressive and gives characteristics of the prisonization of the bird. The next example of the poem’s theme is shown by imagery and repetition, which come together convey strong flashing images of the imprisonment of the bird and its oppressive feeling. “When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, -- When he beats his bars and he would be free;”, this quote gives imagery to the reader to see a bruised, tired, and dirty bird beating against his cage for freedom. The repetition of the word “when” in the quote gives off the effect to the reader of flashing images one after the other. While the use of the words “bars”, “bruised”, “sore”, and “he beats”, give off the specific imagery characteristic of oppression to the reader’s developing images.

Deep in the forest of Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the caged bird sings on. The singing slaves in Douglass’s narrative are the caged birds of Maya Angelou’s famous poem, filling the air around them with desire: desire for a freedom so far out of reach—for “things unknown but longed for still.”

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.

The poems “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou are both poems that speak on the issues of the mistreatment of African Americans, and how these challenges were created simply by the color of one’s skin and overcome. While the poems “Mother To Son” and “ Dreams” by Langston Hughes refer to the hopes of African Americans for a better standard of living, and the consequences of departing from these dreams of bettering themselves. This comparison of these four poems is important because all four aim to better society for African Americans, and inform the population struggles that they maybe be able to relate, and provide them with the inspiration to keep pushing forward. These poems explain why the desire for equality was so important to African americans at this time, and what they had to go through to get it. I believe that these poems are all used as methods of expression, information, as well as rebellion against the racial in injustice that was suffered for so long.

The speaker is describing the desperation and loneliness of a caged bird in the first stanza, though in an unconventional way. He describes the beauty and wonder of the circumstance, of the events that are happening around the caged bird; the bright sunrise, the light breeze, a calm river, and an overall picturesque scene. However, the poor caged bird is detained in his cage and cannot go out to enjoy these sumptuous wonders, for he is barred from it. Reading this,

The theme of social injustice in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird carries through to other literature, such as Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird”. She eloquently writes that “a free bird leaps on the back of the wind, [...] but [a caged bird] stalks down his narrow cage [and] can seldom see through the bars of his rage [...] his wings are clipped and his feet are tied” (Angelou). Angelou’s poem indirectly describes the divide in every society, with the bars of the cage being a metaphor for the inevitable isolation that occurs between the types of people, and the ominous words like “rage” and “stalks” are disturbing compared with the joyful ease of the free bird. Her poem connects to Harper Lee's novel in a way that only literature can. A

Maya Angelou conveys the theme of how jealousy may overcome the euphoria of freedom. Angelou incorporates the use of an oxymoron “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream” (line 26-27). An oxymoron is proposed “graves of dreams” by contrasting to opposite ideas (line 26). By describing the sensory details presented in the diction “graves” it compels the reader to envision of death and glum feelings. When arranging dark visual imagery, Angelou paints a picture for the readers that the caged bird realizes his dreams face the terms of discontinuing. The vocable “dreams” brings a warm and hopeful tone of goals one may want to accomplish in life. She discusses light visual imagery to connect the freedom

In I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, Maya learns just how critical books are to everyone and learns to be dependent on them over other people because while everything around her is changing, books, writing and literature are always there to be her friend. Everything Maya was dependent on, before she discovered books, (her mother, Momma, Bailey, her family, her educators and her home) are so unstable throughout the whole book that she can not depend on them. However, through all of that, books are always there and they are critical to her. Maya Angelou writes “As quickly as I had not reached my home, I sneaked away to Robin Hood’s forest and the caves of Ally Oop where all reality was unreal and even that changed everyday” (Angelou, 70) which states that, as Maya arrives to her house, she realizes it’s not her home.

Innocence can be attributed to ignorance in the sense that one is untainted by certain knowledge, especially during their early years of life. Authoritative figures withhold powerful information from children for the sake of preserving their innocence, for fear that it will affect them negatively. This knowledge is reserved for the time of appropriate maturity, when it can be of significant use. The well-known author and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, perseveres through many unfortunate events as well as favourable ones amidst her childhood, constantly changing and shaping her. Sadly, as a child, Maya Angelou dangerously explores the gap between innocence and experience prematurely many times. She experiences situations that, due to her innocence, she is oblivious to their meaning and effects. As a result, she grows up rather quickly as she acquires more knowledge, the dividing line between childhood and adulthood. In Maya Angelou’s memoir I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, her childhood innocence is abandoned as she undergoes many trials which consequently

Hate and prejudice. Are they justifiable? The memoir of Maya Angelou, titled, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, attempts to answer this question and many others. This novel focuses on the life of Marguerite Annie Johnson, a girl who lives in Arkansas with her brother, Bailey, their grandmother who goes by Momma, and Uncle Willie. Throughout her life, she struggles with many issues.

Religion is the backbone for stability when things are going wrong. It can be used as comfort for the future and can be a moral way of living life. In the novel “I know why the caged bird sings” by Maya Angelou, in this autobiography, it reveals the childhood or Maya Angelou and the hardships of growing up. She was abandoned by her parents when they had sent here and her brother to stamps Arkansas to live with their grandmother. From the beginning to end we see a growth in her character and this essay will explain how religion help shaped her into the person she became. In this paper, you will see the various places where religion is brought up and explained the significance of the event to the growth of Maya Angelou and her environment. This

The poetry written in World War I was mostly dark and told of the terrible conditions of the war. The poetry shows how the soldiers suffered and struggled through unimaginable conditions. The conditions of the weather and battle were often brutal and uninhabitable; yet the soldiers endured these conditions. Nature was often a slow and painful killer. War is a constant in an ever changing world. It is easy to see that fighting is an almost futile attempt to conquer and prevail. The poetry from the war can express the pain of war in a beautiful manner. Through writing the authors can share the pain of what they experienced at war. The difficulty of war is viewed differently through the eyes of these two narrators, and while one views nature as the true enemy, the other sees the loss of people back home as the hardship.

The feeling of displacement leaves a painful hole in one's heart. Whether a person is a male or female, white or black, lives in the North or South, or young or old, displacement takes a toll on their character and personality. Maya Angelou creates a theme of displacement in her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou's novel has been critiqued by many notable scholars for being a classic autobiography. The critics note the importance of the setting to show universal displacement and the use of characterization to display the influences in Angelou's life. The critics also note that Angelou's diction and tone allow her pain and suffering to be evident throughout her novel and into her life. Angelou's use of setting shows how she was personally affected by displacement. She also uses characterization and tone to personalize her childhood experiences. Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is critiqued to have a theme of displacement based on the setting, characterization, and tone.

The caged bird has been trapped inside of its cage for a long time now, and recognizes its cage as, “a nightmare.” It still however seeks freedom, by using its voice. The final stanza is a repeat of the third stanza. The tone that is used in the poem stays the same throughout. Angelou would reference the free bird in order for the reader to really comprehend the pain that the caged bird was going through. This would then create tension in the poem. The tension in the poem is caused by the changes of perspectives, which overall deals with an external conflict. This conflict includes the struggle between the caged bird and the barrier that is keeping it hostage. The bird in the cage has a voice, which is being ignored. The free bird also attracts tension by, being the exact opposite from the caged bird. The free bird is very “joyous,” while on the other-hand the caged bird is completely “miserable.”