Literary Analysis Of The Caged Bird By Maya Angelou

African Americans suffered through oppression in the past. Many people were afraid to talk about the struggles they faced daily. They were afraid that their voice would not be heard or that it was a crime to speak on how they felt. Thankfully, two poets became that voice; Maya Angelou and Paul Laurence Dunbar in their extraordinary poems about the deserved freedom of African-Americans. In Sympathy by Paul Dubar and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, they both use the image of a bird in a cage to communicate their thoughts on life and freedom.

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

Maya Angelou is a leader by example, she sets the standard by her actions and the stories she tells teaches the audience a lesson. Majority of her work is to inform us of the past and she wants us to learn from her experiences in life; she is a life teacher. The purpose of this poem was to inform us of the history of our country. The poem is titled “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and her purpose of writing this is to teach the reader why the caged bird sings. Maya Angelou wants to put the reader in her shoes to get the ultimate experience of racial inequality but instead by taking the role of a caged bird or a free bird.

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.

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.

In Graduation, a chapter in her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, Maya Angelou talks vividly about her middle school graduation in the segregated South. Graduation is an important milestone in most people’s life, as they get a degree and move on to their next level, something better and more important, with the hope that they can use their new knowledge to achieve their life goals and ambitions. This is what the all black children of the graduating class of 1940 in the grammar school in Stamps, Arkansas, believed as well, including Maya Angelou. In this passage, the author persuasively uses ethos to expose, as an African American girl, how her graduation ceremony was another episode of the unfinished struggle for freedom and against racial segregation.

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

In Maya Angelou’s poem, “Caged Bird”, I interpret that it’s about a person that is limited by their past. In the first stanza, the author wrote, “... and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky”(Maya Angelou). The bird takes in the world's beauty, but is afraid to capture it. The limit is the sky for the bird. In the poem, it states, “..his wings are clipped and his feet are tied”(Maya Angelou). Limitations keep the bird standing in his cage of worry. He is worried about the unknown that could be the future. In the 5th stanza, Maya Angelou wrote, “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams”(Maya Angelou). Dead dreams are all the bird sees. It doesn’t let those dreams, come back to life because he limits the chance for those dreams to become a reality.

For example, Othello marries Desdemona even though her father disapproves. He is a general in the army even though he is black. He is well respected for his actions not the color of his skin. However because Iago considers himself above Othello, he thinks that he will be able to manipulate Othello easily. Iago succeeds in controlling Othello not because Othello is black, but because Iago is a master of deceit. Considering the how potent racism is, Othello does not let this racism stop him from achieving a high social status before he dies. Othello attains these things while African-Americans in the United States during the 1950’s could not even dream of mixed marriage. Angelou wrote “Caged Bird” in response to the Civil rights movement. Therefore it makes sense that the caged bird represents African- Americans. Angelou uses contrasting paragraphs between the free bird and the caged bird to show injustice. In the free bird’s stanzas, he is soaring in the gorgeous nature oblivious to the caged bird’s struggle. Angelou utilizes a vivid imagery and words with positive connotation s to show the luxury of being free i.e. white. In the caged bird’s stanzas, the caged bird does not know what freedom is like but he sings about it anyway. Angelou employs cacophony in “shadow shouts on a nightmare scream” (Angelou 28) to show how passionately the bird is pleading for justice. At the end of the poem the caged bird remains

In Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she highlights the struggles of segregation and oppression throughout her adolescent years. Maya Angelou’s metaphorical title represents all the black people, blackbirds, who society cages, but still trying to resist the odds that are against them. Though Angelou faces cruelty throughout her whole life, she always believes in her intelligence. When she and her father go to Mexico, her father becomes very drunk and unable to drive.

Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya shields herself against the confusion of St. Louis by reading fairy-tales and telling herself that she does not intend on staying there anyway. Vivian works in a gambling parlor at night. Maya pities Mr. Freeman because he spends his days at home waiting for Vivian to return. Maya begins sleeping at night with Vivian and Mr. Freeman because she suffers from nightmares. One morning after Vivian has left the bed and the house,

The Effects of Confinement on the Human Mind: Trapped Characters in Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird”, and Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie Confinement, and how it affects people, has always been a subject of debate for people around the world. The impacts on mental and psychological health and reactions to it have been arguments used against things such as solitary confinement in prison, in which there are multiple cases of such impacts occurring. Both poet Maya Angelou and playwright Tennessee Williams have approached the subject of confinement before, although in much broader terms than just physical confinement, and they have taken quite different approaches on the subject. Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird” blankets the entire issue and tells

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.

Because I live in a community with a majority black population, it is very easy to know all of the famous African American people. Growing up with my grandparents, I always heard a lot about the loving Dr. Maya Angelou. She was a tremendous figure in their lives and a phenomenal woman. One day my family was sitting outside, and my mom was reading a book with a lot of famous poems. The one she read aloud was Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird.” She was so emotional reading this poem. During that time, I did not understand her emotions. At my high school, we would always celebrate black history month, so one day my favorite teacher brought the movie “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” My classmates and I sat down and watched it for very first time. At the moment, I understood why my mom way so emotional when she read the poem. I finally understood the significance that poem brought to her life and what the poem was actually about. That day brought the admiration I now have with Dr. Maya Angelou. I started reading her poems and studying her. She was a woman that explained tough topics about certain things. Needless to say, the topics were not popular. Maya Angelou spoke the truth. She was a great activist who changed many people lives with her words.

Similarly, both poems "Sympathy" and "Caged Bird" examine related themes about dedication through the captured bird’s continuous persistence and use of his helpless song despite previous efforts. Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Sympathy” focuses on an enclosed bird’s constant fighting against numerous physical limitations from deserved opportunities, emphasizing his hopeless shouting for liberty. In contrast, Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird” explicitly discusses a trapped bird’s efforts to overcome various boundaries using his underestimated song and constant perseverance. While both poems “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird” share a comparable theme about African American's battle for deserved advantages