Maya Angelou Caged Bird

Maya Angelou talks about a caged bird and a free bird in her poem “Caged Bird.” When Maya Angelou talks about a caged bird and a free bird I think she is describing people, like the caged bird is a person who is stuck by others opinions about him/her and

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.

In Maya Angelou’s I Know the Caged Bird Sings (1969), the reader is absorbed into a personal account of her life starting from her childhood to young adulthood during the 1930s and 1940s. From a young age, Maya witnessed the first-hand effects of racism in the South for blacks growing up alongside her brother, Bailey. In the novel, Angelou faces racial discrimination and displacement inside and outside her own community that act as metaphorical cages barring her from the freedom to be her true self.

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 as well or to give up and use its voice and imagination to be free rather than to truly feel what it's like.I feel like the decision to give up or keep trying is a choice too difficult to be chosen and wears down this bird day after day. Maya Angelou writes, “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.” Perhaps the bird wants to escape yet the decision scares it off.The bird seems full of rage that he can not set himself free.In Maya Angelou’s writing “The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is

On other hand, the caged bird’s “stands on the grave of dreams, his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream, his wings are clipped and his feet are tied”, symbolising the oppression and represents the the African-American community. The bird has extremely limited freedom because of the locked cage and constantly longs to be free. The caged bird cannot escape and this symbolises the segregation and discrimination that Angelou grew up

Maya eventually comes to the realization that women deserve love and power, regardless of appearance. Not only were whites superior to African-Americans at the time, but men were superior to women, stereotypically accomplishing much more than females. This standard belief was introduced to Maya at her eighth-grade graduation, “The white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gauguins, and our boys (the girls weren’t even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises” (Angelou, 179). Maya is academically gifted with the curiosity and desire to learn new things everyday, so the thought of only males accomplishing great things in life angered Maya to a new extreme.

In the book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya is faced with situations where she is being degraded by the white people around her. The ignorance that Maya faced while being so young forced her to become mature early in life. She faced the struggles of an adult, having to stand up for herself for being disrespected as a young girl. The derogatory language that is used is dehumanizing towards Maya and her community but shapes them to be strong.

Because they are trapped, both sing for help. Dunbar shows in Sympathy, “ I know why the caged bird sings...” and in Angelou’s poem Caged Bird, “ The caged bird sings with fearful trill…” These quotations show both birds want help and their freedom so they project their voice as a cry for help hoping for someone to hear.

To be caged represents to be isolated mentally or even physically by which someone or something is held back against something else. In both poems, sympathy and caged bird, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Maya Angelou portray a bird in a cage which both hope for freedom. These two poems both have a similar purpose of proving that there can still be hope in the harshest times. While both poem’s sympathy and caged bird, both contained hope Caged bird was more meaningful because it showed more hope even though the bird was more blighted and isolated than the bird in sympathy.

Angelou’s poem “I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings” expresses the idea that freedom is a natural state and knowledge of this fact cannot be rid of by any amount of oppression, limitation or confinement from different opportunities. The poem contrasts a

The reader does not imagine this bird as a happy and cheerful bird that might sing on an early spring morning. Similarly, Dunbar uses imagery to show the contrast between what “ the caged bird feels… when the sun is bright” and why the “bird beats his wing Till its blood is red”. This word choice does not only allow the reader to imagine the scene, but also sets the difference between what the bird might want, and what the harsh reality is. In addition, Angelou ends the chorus of “Caged Bird” with the bird “[singing] of freedom” which show the reader that despite all of the horrible experiences that this bird has, it still holds on to hope. Also, both of these poems do not say that they are about slavery and racism, but it is incredibly clear that the bird (in both poems) are an

In the poem, “Caged Bird”, by Maya Angelou, and the poem “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the authors exemplify feelings of those being discriminated against in the actions and feelings of the birds. The poets make contrasting and comparable stories, that relate in many ways and also contrast in hidden but most important ways as well. The birds in the poems add morals and meaning by being so alike and yet so different.

This poem was able to bring hope to Americans who were fighting for civil rights. She uses the caged bird in the poem to show the battle that many Americans faced during this time. In one stanza, Angelou states, “his wings are clipped and his feet are tied, so he opens his throat to sing” (Angelou). Although the caged bird has obstacles, like his tied feet, he sings for freedom and to access

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.

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