ipl-logo

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

642 Words3 Pages

“ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou , a person who survived the Great Depression and a multitude of wars but lived in a time when her race and sex was put down and were not treated as equals because their skin was darker than white people. In the poem the caged bird sings because that 's all that the bird can do . The bird cannot fly or walk around freely because it is trapped so it does the only thing that it can do , sing. And the free bird can fly and explore the world freely and has more opportunities than the caged bird. In the movie “The Long Walk Home” the caged bird is Odessa because she is black and black people at that time did not have all the rights that the white people had therefore they are caged. Odessa has

Show More
Related

  • I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Rhetorical Analysis

    223 Words  | 1 Pages

    Maya Angelou’s excerpt from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” will imaginatively take a reader away from their deskbound position to envisioning the stage of a play ornamented with fashioned rabbits, buttercups, and daisies, hearing children as they actively perfect their performance, and stimulate the readers’ appetite with the expressive words she uses to describe sweet whiffs of cinnamon and chocolate from the food samples being prepared. From Angelou’s portrayal of the play an individual will be capable of picturing white rabbits crafted from construction paper and cotton balls modelling puffy tails, together with, yellow and pink card board cut outs resembling buttercups and daisies decking a stage. The person who reads this excerpt

    Read More

  • Perseverance In I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

    705 Words  | 3 Pages

    Maya Angelou published her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in the late 1960s to shed light on her personal experiences as a girl growing up in the segregated South. She writes unfiltered depictions of rape and sexual abuse, along with topics such as racism and teenage pregnancy. Her novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings became censored in America in 2002 due to these topics. Regardless of this novel being censored, it holds significant value in the lessons it teaches.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Using I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

    1024 Words  | 5 Pages

    The challenge of banning books with sensitive material is understandable, but also shouldn’t be done depending on the book. Using I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as an example of why novels with sensitive material shouldn’t be banned, the reasons are going to be discussed in the following body paragraphs. Along with the opposite viewpoint of why books with sensitive material should be banned. Critical issues can be noticed in multiple novels with sensitive material, everyone chooses whether or not they want to read it or not, no one is forcing them to. Being able to read and understand sensitive material is a good component to growing new perspectives, and can also bring awareness to the material mentioned from the book.

    Read More

  • Banned Books Should Not Be Banned Essay

    462 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings teaches people about situations that have happened in our society and are still happening currently. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings talks about the topics of racism, teen pregnancy, and rape. This book also talks about how these unsettling and traumatizing situations affect a person. After Maya was raped she refused to speak showing us something that can happen to people after going through something as horrible as being raped. Situations like these aren't exactly talked about as often and when they are most of the time people are always looking down on the people that it has happened to not the person who did it.

    Read More

  • Paul Laurence Dunbar Sympathy Themes

    914 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Identity Essay

    999 Words  | 4 Pages

    People throughout their lives are constantly discovering who they are and who they want to grow into. The same statement accurately describes Maya Johnson, a strong woman who wrote about her life in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. As a little girl, her mother’s ex-boyfriend raped and she had to rediscover herself whilst navigating through the grim veil of trauma - a process that burdened her for many years. Throughout her life, she encountered many different people, some good, others bad, but they each helped her eventually discover her identity. ‘Identity’ is how people define themselves as a human being, and, therefore, nobody else can dictate it.

    Read More

  • Maya Angelou Obstacles

    740 Words  | 3 Pages

    III. a. Maya Angelou was an avid writer, speaker, activist and teacher. As a result of the many hardships that she suffered while growing up as a poor black woman in the south she has used her own experiences as the subject matter of her written work. In doing this she effectively shows how she was able to overcome her personal obstacles. Her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) tells the story of her life and how she overcame and moved forward triumphantly in spite of her circumstances.

    Read More

  • Champion Of The World By Maya Angelou Analysis Essay

    476 Words  | 2 Pages

    She shows us that despite the injustices that may occur, there will always be victory for those who truly deserve it. Maya Angelou's perspective as a young African American girl is described in Chapter 19 of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, titled Champion of the World. Her community is gathered to support Joe Louis, the former champion, in a boxing match that determines if he'll continue being champion or not. As the story progresses in her grandmother's and uncle’s store, the tone transforms from hopeful to defeated, to triumphant.

    Read More

  • I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou Analysis

    935 Words  | 4 Pages

    The singing caged bird in the article refers to her having no other means to change her situation other than "singing," that is using literary works such as poetry and novels. 2. During the interview with the poet, comedian Chappelle admitted

    Read More

  • To Kill A Caged Bird Analysis

    1630 Words  | 7 Pages

    Huda Paracha                                                                                                                        812                      To Kill A Mockingbird And Caged Birds                    “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. ”- Maya Angelou     Have you ever had any emotional or physical struggles in your life that sometimes made you feel as if though you were caged and unable to achieve your goal?

    Read More

  • Sympathy Paul Laurence Dunbar Analysis

    1652 Words  | 7 Pages

    The bird is interpreted as the symbol of the African-American people, beating their metaphorical wings against their past cages of slavery, and the current cage of segregation and discrimination. Dunbar highlights this notion, declaring, “I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, / When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, - / When he beats his bars and he would be free; / It is not a carol of joy or glee” (Dunbar, “Sympathy” 555). Dunbar addresses the fact that he is able to relate to this bird, and mentions the fact that the bird wishes it could be free; much like the African-Americans wished they could be free from discrimination at the time, while the bruises on the bird’s wings and body symbolize the mental abuse being enforced. Dunbar uses his poem to lay the groundwork for future forms of African-American literature by perpetrating the desire for freedom and equality.

    Read More

  • Sympathy And The Caged Bird Poem Analysis

    443 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing Poems Sympathy And Maya Angelou's Caged Bird

    409 Words  | 2 Pages

    In two poems “Sympathy” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou talk about a poor bird that is trapped in a cage and wants to be free. It longs for everything that the free bird has but it cannot achieve it. In both of the poems, there is a use of comparisons between freedom and nature. It is also interpreted from the poems that the use of a song is a form of coping for the birds. Both of the birds sing for their freedom and sing through their pain.

    Read More

  • Caged Bird Analysis Essay

    700 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou in 1968 announces to the world her frustration of racial inequality and the longing for freedom. She seeks to create sentiment in the reader toward the caged bird plight, and draw compassion for the imprisoned creature. (Davis) Angelou was born as “Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St Louis, Missouri”. “Caged Bird” was first published in the collection Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? 1983.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Caged Bird And Sympathy

    1215 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Open Document