Explore how freedom versus confinement is depicted by Bren MacDibble and Anna Fraillon in the novel “The Ravens Song”. “The Ravens Song” written by Bren Macdibble and Zana Fraillon showcases freedom versus confinement. The authors use dystopia, escapism, and isolation to show the living conditions of Shelby and Phoenix. They explore escapism and dystopia living to forecast between the different eras Shelby and Phoenix are living in. Dystopia, isolation, and escapism assist in showing the need for freedom because of the isolation and confinement shown throughout the book “The Ravens Song”. Fraillon and MacDibble display freedom versus confinement using dystopia. With the assistance of juxtaposition, they show two different eras, one with freedom …show more content…
In the novel, Shelby is portrayed in an isolated land in which everyone fears the plague and is worried about catching the disease. The authors use vivid descriptions to evoke isolation “Just once I’d like to sleep in. Just once. There’s barely a glow behind our hilltops. The sun hardly lights my room. ‘No need for curtains,’ Da always says, ‘coz we’re up the moment our part of the world turns to the sun.’” The quote demonstrates their remote living conditions and waking up on time. It also says, “the sun hardly lights my room” which shows the dullness of the town. Isolation, using dual narration, is seen from Frallion and MacDibble as each character’s story is told in altering chapters, emphasizing their separate existence. As the story continues, the two characters' paths intersect, symbolizing the connection of their isolated worlds. This connection gives them access to work together towards a goal, helping them transform their isolation into an experience for both. As it states in the book, “Only 350 people in 700 hectares”. It is an awfully specific number of houses that are all distanced to try to keep everyone safe from the disease, portraying isolation and the fear of catching the disease. To protect themselves, their only choice is to isolate themselves. To sum up, all the points Zana Frallion and MacDibble have portrayed freedom vs confinement with the themes of escapism, isolation, and
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
Erdrich, Louise. “Captivity,” in Kelly, Joseph ed. The Seagull Reader: Poems. Norton and Company: New York, 2001.
The Awakening and “Mad Men” both utilize birds as symbols of freedom to contrast with the constrainment of Edna and Betty’s lives. The birds are initially caged, similar to how Edna and Betty were first kept under control as housewifes by their husbands, but when the doors to the bird cage were opened, the birds were able to fly free. When Edna and Betty had an opportunity for independence, they were unable to move on the ground. Birds in both the Awakening and “Mad Men” symbolize the freedom and independence Edna Pontellier and Betty Draper yearn for, yet are unable to attain which highlights the immobilization of women in society.
Oppression in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The novel, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", by Maya Angelou is the first series of five autobiographical novels. This novel tells about her life in rural Stamps, Arkansas with her religious grandmother and St. Louis, Missouri, where her worldly and glamorous mother resides. At the age of three Maya and her four-year old brother, Bailey, are turned over to the care of their paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Southern life in Stamps, Arkansas was filled with humiliation, violation, and displacement. These actions were exemplified for blacks by the fear of the Ku Klux Klan, racial separation of the town, and the many incidents in belittling blacks.
“The Raven.” The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill 2009. Print
In the text "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" a young black girl is growing up with racism surrounding her. It is very interesting how the author Maya Angelou was there and the way she described every detail with great passion. In the book Maya and Bailey move to a lot of places, which are, Stamps, Arkansas; St. Louis, Missouri; and San Francisco, California. Maya comes threw these places with many thing happening to her and people she knows. She tries to hold onto all the good memories and get rid of the bad but new ones just keep coming. That is why this book is very interesting. It keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
Both of these works illustrate the shift of birds from symbols of freedom to agents of chaos, mirroring society’s true fears of uncontrollable forces.
Maya Angelou’s excerpt from her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” reveals the challenges facing a young black girl in the south. The prologue of the book tells of a young Angelou in church trying to recite a poem she has forgotten. She describes the dress her grandmother has made her and imagines a day where she wakes up out of her black nightmare. Angelou was raised in a time where segregation and racism were prevalent in society. She uses repetition, diction, and themes to explore the struggle of a black girl while growing up. Angelou produces a feeling of compassion and poignancy within the reader by revealing racial stereotypes, appearance-related insecurities, and negative connotations associated with being a black girl. By doing this she forces the
Fiction Essay Professor Anderson English 300 5 April 2024 For my comparative essay, I chose to reflect on 2 poems. Of those two poems, they both reflect on the audience and the writer emotionally. I chose Isabel Allende’s “ And of clay we were created” and August Wilson’s “Fences”. I chose to write about these two poems interpretively because both authors caught my attention on an emotional platform.
Brysen Newville Professor Spurlock English 1B 14 April 2024 Writing Exercise Cagedbird had a very big importance on both the book ‘Trifles’ by Susan Glaspell and the poem ‘Sympathy’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Although it is referenced in both books / poems, they don’t exactly have the same exact story behind each meaning. In the book Trifles, the caged bird is used to symbolize the prison of Mrs. Wright's marriage. In the instance of the book, Mrs. Wright felt like a ‘caged’ bird. As to where in the poem Sympathy it’s expressing the freedom for African Americans that back then were held back by laws and segregation and other things such as White Oppression.
There are many different ways someone is considered to be free, the direct definition is to enjoy personal rights or liberty, this can be interpreted in different forms. In their poems “Caged Bird”, and “Sympathy”, Maya Angelou and Paul Laurance Dunbar use caged birds to represent what it means to be free. They both use birds to convey a better image for the reader. Birds are used in both poems of “Caged Bird” and “Sympathy” as a central image because the caged birds are metaphors for true freedom and hope.
Davidson, Arnold E. "Cages And Escapes In Margaret Laurence's A Bird In The House." University Of Windsor Review 16.1 (1981): 92-101. Print.
The novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings goes through the childhood of Maya Angelou as she faces the difficult realities of the early South. This novel does not do a very good job at portraying the hardships of the blacks because she