Regina Spektor's Two Birds: An Analysis

Kingsolver makes reference to Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” through Adah. “When Miss Dickinson says, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” … I have pictured it many times—Hope!—wondering how I would catch such a thing one-handed, if it did come floating down to me from the sky,” (185). Kingsolver incorporating this poem into her novel adds insight into the thoughts and feelings of Adah, who is one of the most important characters. By adding this quote, Kingsolver helps correlate the symbolism in the poem to the text by showing that hope can be represented by a bird which can be delicate this can be compared to what some of the characters put their hope into.

When I was a child art was my worst enemy, it was “impossible” for me, but now it is one of my favorite hobbies because I chose to try hard to defeat my enemy rather than let it convince me I could not do something. Another example of doing the “impossible” is from not that long ago when I told my sister there was no way on Earth I could possibly do a piano duet I did not have enough skills, but in doing so realized that I had created an enemy, the thought of “I can not do this”. So I pressed the “I can not do this” out of my mind and the next week we performed our first piano duet together. Both of these instances challenged my belief that most things are possible if one tries hard enough, but I have proved this to myself over and again through the many years I have told myself “I can

In the political cartoon shown above labeled “Nationalized Healthcare”, a lady is wrapped up in a massive amount of red tape and a man is above her taking pictures. Standing by is a reporter who asked the policeman what happened. He stated, “She ended up getting strangled by all the red tape.” The definition of red tape in Chapter 15: The Bureaucracy, is complex bureaucratic rules and procedures that must be followed to get something done. The origin of red tape is from England, when all binding legal documents were bound with real red ribbon and a seal.

John James Audubon and Annie Dillard are two authors who both describe large flocks of birds in flight. Although Audubon describes pigeons and Dillard speaks about starlings, these passages can be easily compared. Both authors feel that the birds are beautiful and worthy of admiration, but Audubon is more curious about the birds than Dillard seems to be. Dillard feels more connected with the birds, as if they are a part of her, and she appreciates their mysteriousness more than Audubon does. These similarities and differences are clearly conveyed through the author’s use of diction, imagery, details, similes, metaphors, and level of formality.

John James Audubon and Annie Dillard, both established writers, expertly describe their experiences observing a flock of birds. Their evaluations go in depth in the form of both a physical description of events and well as the emotions exposed from those events. Although both of the authors use rhetorical strategies to enhance their writing, they convey their message making different stylistic choices.

Thus, through the initial impression of the man of the bird’s brave and challenging movements by the utilisation of poetic techniques, the reader is able to visualise the bird’s characteristic it inherits and gain a deeper understanding of nature and the impression of humanity distinctively.

The term veteran can refer to somebody who has had a great deal of experience with a trade, but for the sake of this paper a veteran will refer to somebody who has been honorably discharged from the military, naval, or air service (What is a Veteran, n.d.). Often when returning home veterans need additional resources to help themselves adapt to their new life outside of the armed forces. Their new lives might bring struggles such as, new health conditions they’ve acquired from being in service, or even transitioning back to civilian life. Discussing the struggles veterans face will bring light to the interventions that are available to them, which include veteran specific benefits and organizations, and transition assistance programs.

According to Tommy Douglas, “Man can now fly in the air like a bird, swim under the ocean like a fish, he can burrow into the ground like a mole. Now if only he could walk the earth like a man, this would be paradise.” The use of birds have been used as different symbols in literature has been prevalent during our readings, some literature I would like to emphasis on is the film Apocalypse Now directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Birds directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, The Birds Daphne du Maurier, the musical art work of Charlie Parker Ornithology. The use of birds has been present to most of these books and film adaptations, but one film that had a lot bird-like symbols was the film Apocalypse Now.

Dickinson and Whitman also use similar poetic devices in "Hope is a Thing with Feathers” and “O Captain! My Captain!” Each poem contains an extended metaphor. In Dickinson’s poem, a bird clearly symbolizes hope. The first stanza introduces the bird metaphor: ‘Hope is the thing with feathers--/That perches in the soul.’ The next lines ‘And sings the tune without the words--/And never stops—at all—’ illustrate the interminable nature of the bird and hope. The second stanza expands the metaphor by saying ‘And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—.’ The bird’s song, or hope, is the sweetest during a Gale, or troubled times. The first lines in the final stanza ‘I’ve heard it in the chillest land--/ And on the strangest Sea’ describe the bird, or hope, as being

She introduces the metaphor in the first two lines of the poem by saying, ““Hope” is the thing with feathers - / That perches in the soul -” and then builds the poem around the idea of a bird. When Dickinson says, “And sings the tune without the words- / And never stops - at all -” she shows that the hope doesn’t have to be sensible, and it never stops existing in one’s heart. In the last stanza she says, “I’ve heard it in the chillest land - / And on the strangest Sea -”. It is not a possible thing to hear the hope, but in this line she tries to say that that hope is everywhere. Even though the main idea of the poem is hope being in everyone’s heart, the metaphor of hope being a bird is actually what makes the poem more interesting for the

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.

Birds are often seen in literature as a symbol of freedom and hope; patrolling the skies, they serve as nature’s ultimate display of freedom. Likewise, birds are seen, in Christianity, as a symbol of freedom. On Noah’s ark, it was a dove that brought back an olive branch… the dove gave hope for a new, free world. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the belittling of the bird functions to highlight how the Europeans feel that the Congolese are inferior and how they effortlessly take away the Congoleses’ freedoms. Similarly, in The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the absence of the bird functions to symbolize the lack of freedom and hope… when the man and son finally reached the coast, they were struck by a sense of failure- they were not free from the cruelty of the post-apocalyptic world.

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.

In literature, birds are commonly viewed as signs of freedom while in flight, yet while they are entrapped in cages, they symbolize the struggle for freedom. Gabriel Garcia’s usage of birds has both common and uncommon roles in the novel. The birds

She uses a number of literary devices in the poem. One primary example of the figurative language that she uses is a the personifications do symbolism of hope. A symbol is an image that represents an abstraction. For example, a red rose may represent love, or a stone may represent hardheartedness. In “’Hope Is The Thing With Feathers,” the poet assigns hope the symbol of a ‘thing with feathers,’ more specifically a bird. Even though that, by the end of the poem, readers can definitely conclude that Dickinson used a metaphor by saying ‘hope is a bird,’ she does not make that clear until the very end. The metaphor began as only a “partial one: a ‘thing with feathers’ is not yet a bird, but some sort of object, not easily envisioned and defined only by the fact that it is feathered, that is, winged, capable of flight. It is a transient human experience, one that ‘perches’ in the soul but does not live there. It ‘sings the tune without the words,’ that is, a song in which rational, lexical meaning plays no role, while melody is all. Finally it ‘never stops at all’” (Leiter). The symbolism of saying that hope is a bird assists the reader in having a better understanding of how the virtue of human desire exists in side one’s soul, and is always singing – always alive – even when times get drastic. A bird is used to represent hope since “birds are often viewed as free and self-reliant, or as symbols of spirituality” (Rose and Ruby). The feathered fowl in this poem is “courageous and persevering, for it continues to share its song under even the most difficult conditions” (Rose and Ruby). Providing imagery of a bird also helps one to form connections as to what hope would act like if it were personified as said