In many ways Hunter-Gault can be considered a caged bird because she was surrounded by people who didn’t want her and became huge obstacles in her life. A caged bird only see the negative side of things because they know they can't do nothing about the situation. The Caged Bird feels trapped because its feet are tired and its wings are clipped. “ 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.” (pg17)The Caged Bird see how happy the life of the Free Bird it is but it can't do nothing but feel angry. the kids bird feels trapped because it sees its dreams but it also sees boundaries, limits, end it all seems hopeless, not only is the cage that surrounds the bird
He tapped the pane 3 times with his claw… The bird spread his wings and flew up into the maple tree. She grabbed the broom…went outside and shook the branches of the tree… ‘Go,’ she shouted…the bird…flew off into the night”(Otsuka 19-20). The bird is the strongest representation of the theme in the novel. It was taken into captivity by the family and put in a cage
Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening opens with a scene of two birds, emphasizing that the motif of birds later within the novel will play an important part with setting the constant metaphor they bring. Throughout the whole novel the motif of birds is a metaphor for the Victorian women during that period -- caged birds serve as reminders of Edna’s entrapment and the entrapment of Victorian women in general. Edna makes many attempts to escape her cage (husband, children, and society), but her efforts only take her into other cages, such as the pigeon house. Edna views this new home as a sign of her independence, but the pigeon house represents her inability to remove herself from her former life, due to the move being just “two steps away” (122).
Moreover, Glaspell may have tried to utilize the damaged cage door and the dead bird, to represent how hard it would have been for a woman like Ms.Wright to break free, from their husbands and start their own lives without societal norms pushing them down. Mrs. Hale found the bird, lying dead in the box, and Mrs. Peters said "Somebody wrung its neck. " The damaged cage door represents how Mr. Wright forcefully abused the remaining piece of Mrs. Wright’s former self. The dead bird shows how if she or any woman in the same situation tries to leave during this time, adapting to the outside world becomes difficult due to the unfair treatment of women in society, and their cries for freedom or equality share the same fate as the dead bird. Using the cage, damaged cage door, and the dead bird, Glaspell’s message may be that the unfair treatment of women in terms of equality, in comparison to men, leads to an extensive consequence, that diminishes their ability to go ahead in society and remain
Catherine owns a number of caged birds in her chamber. The birds symbolise freedom and the cages she keeps them in symbolises lack of freedom. “I told all this to the cages of birds in my chamber and they listened quite politely. I began to keep birds in order to hear them chirping, but most often now they have to listen to mine”. Symbolism helps show how her perspective changes as she matures.
She decides to keep quiet and refuses to tell the stranger the whereabouts of the bird. “But Sylvia does not speak after all, though the grandmother fretfully rebukes her, and the young man’s kind appealing eyes are looking straight in her own” (Jewett 58). Her previous journey up the pine tree causes her to mature and realize how important nature and the bird’s life is. Sylvia becomes one with the bird feeling as if she can fly as well. “Sylvia felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds” (Jewett 57).
Birdie’s life begins to be displayed with her in the present, observing a young girl out of a hospital window and is suddenly reminded of herself. Her life then fades away to the one of her ten-year-old self. Her life is then shown in phases, her ups and downs, over, and over, and over again. The same structure on repeat. “You miss a day of school, but nobody notices.”
The oppression is binding the bird to its cage while the bird hopes and prays that someone will hear him so that he can leave this maiming tyranny. In addition in “Caged Bird” the bird is singing with mighty voice that was conceived by the rage that the bird felt toward the oppression that was trapping it. The tune that the bird sings is described as, “The caged bird sings,/ with a fearful trill,/ of things unknown”(Angelou, 30-32). The bird is illustrating the anger that it felt, by fighting the tyranny that he is facing. The tyranny is holding him down and the rage that the bird feels from this pain is what the bird symbolizes.
The birds portray the possibility of escape from Portland, which is referred to as a cage by Alex (A cage for birds), “We are in a cage: a bordered cage” (228). Through this foreshadowing is also seen, as both Alex and Lena plan to escape into the Wilds like the birds. In addition, Alex also says to Lena, “The first time I saw you […] I hadn’t been to watch the birds at the border in years. But that’s what you reminded me of […] you were so fast […] Just a flash and then you were gone. Exactly like a bird” (230).
In Year of Wonders, birds are being used as a positive sign, as a symbol of freedom, where in The Crucible, birds are adopted as a negative sign, as they are thought to be related back to the devil. Within the text Year of Wonders, birds are utilised as symbols of hope and freedom. “I must have fallen asleep, for when I awoke it was to birdsong. Sunshine streamed through the high casements and fell in wide bands, like yellow Maypole ribands, across the kitchen floor.” The bird song shows that it is peaceful around Anna at this time, but her mind is not at peace wither current inner conflict.
The bird is Mrs. Wright. It was locked up in a cage as was Mrs. Wright when her husband was alive. He wasn’t a very “cheerful” man, therefore, people didn’t come to visit them. Over the twenty year time period of their marriage she became lonely, which resulted in her buying a bird and the drastic change in personality. The broken door to the cage represents Mrs. Wright’s freedom from her husband.
Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Tom ran for it even though he knew there were high risks of him being killed, which shows how the caged bird in the poem “Caged Bird” is much like him. In the poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, the caged bird is compared and contrasted to a free bird and by examining the circumstances of Tom Robinson’s life, I say that he is very much like the caged bird. For instance, in stanza two it’s stated “His wings are clipped and/ His feet are tied/ So he opens his throat to sing.”
Caged Bird both share a very common theme; segregation, slavery, and imprisonment. According to the poem Sympathy, “Till its blood is red on the cruel bar… I know why he beats his wings.” And from the poem Caged Bird, “…His bars of rage…so he opens his throat to sing.” These quotes show that both birds are treated like slaves. The bird from Sympathy was shipped until the back is full of blood and the bird from Caged Bird was held in a dungeon where it will die.
By placing the bird so high up, yet incredibly close to the family, it can be taken as a warning. The bird only appears in this single line throughout the excerpt, acting as an observer but also as a predator waiting for a chance to strike, providing an unsettling truth to death being out of our control. Though many efforts may be made to create a sanctuary, there are things out of one's control and when power is exercised, there will be forces fighting back. The opening sections of the novel A Bird in the House demonstrate this clearly by how Margarets Laurence's’ use of literary devices can be interpreted.
Lines one through seven define the free bird as one that “floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays” (Angelou) this is a representation of freedom and joy. The second and third stanza lines, eight through fourteen defines the caged bird that “stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage” (Angelou) where these words reference isolation and despair compared to the freedom in stanza one. These lines create a visual response of the bird’s environments. The third stanza is repeated at the end of the poem for prominence as it reflects the two birds are so different.
In the poems “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, both portray captive birds that sing. However in “Sympathy”, the bird pleads with god for freedom, whereas in “Caged Bird” the captive bird calls for help from a free bird. In “Sympathy” the bird knows what freedom feels like since there was a time where the bird was once free, but now is trapped. In the first stanza the use of imagery revealed how freedom felt before the bird was caged.