Analysis Of Sympathy Poem By Paul Laurence Dunbar
Harry Tran
English 11
Ms. Lesson
3/21/2017
The Price of Freedom
Freedom is one of the human rights, which guarantee by God when he created human equally, each has responsibility for their liberty. Therefore, it makes a lot of arguments around the world, especially in America between the 1800s and 1900s, the dark era of slavery that the slaves have no human rights and treated as properties. At the same time, the 20th century is an evolution of art, illustrious pieces born, some of them considered as typical literary masterpieces. This is the impeccable combination of expressing their feelings through art and poems is a prominent place which included the I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou in 1969 in and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “ Sympathy” in 1899. Both poems accurate the hope of freedom through the image of caged birds which reflects their excruciating childhoods. However, “Sympathy”
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Dunbar and Angelou raise their voice to the reader, especially the white people to let them think about the individual who did not receive his equality which they deserved to have from God and social. The wrongdoing cannot forgive, the incapable bird cannot do anything besides singing and risks their lives hopelessly.
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar shared a few of similarities with the hope of freedom, the image of caged bird and there are some differences between the tone of the two poems. Maya Angelou with “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is more hopeful and encouraging than the “Sympathy” of Paul Laurence Dunbar, even though they did the same thing that sharing the ideas of freedom and peace. In “Sympathy,” the illustration of the bird is gloomy and hopeless with “ blood” “ old scars;” the bird cannot do anything beyond raising his head into the
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