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I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Tone

Decent Essays

The poem, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou’s purpose is to inspire discussion of the past and modern inequality of African Americans and to show the world progress has been made towards equality. This is clearly shown by the tone of the poem. In her poem, Angelou uses contrasting tones to describe a free bird and a caged bird, analogous to a free man and an oppressed man. She writes that the free bird “names the sky his own” (Line 26) and that “a free bird leaps/on the back of wind/and floats downstream” (Lines 1-3). Angelou sets up her analogy by portraying the idyllic life the free bird lives, as it floats from one breeze to another, and has near-infinite resources. When discussing the free bird, Angelou uses terms

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