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Symbolism in langston hughes
Analysis of the Langston Hughes poem
Analysis of the Langston Hughes poem
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Dunbar uses imagery and detail to describe the pain and injustice of the caged bird. Lawrence illustrates, “Till its blood is red on the cruel bars” (Dunbar 9). Caged bird struggles and battles to get out because he believes he has the right and deserves to be free. The reader can picture this thought of the bird throwing itself at the wall over and over until he eventually gives up from the unbearable pain. Dunbar also uses detail to portray his thoughts; “when his wing is bruised and his bosom sore” (Dunbar 16). The details of the bird’s condition give the story a painful feeling since the bird is hurt and sore. The bird in the story is bruised and hurt, but he still has not escaped the cage that is taking away his rights. The author also
In “A Caged Bird”, it is made clear that this bird has never experienced the freedom of flying with the other species or perching atop the highest building. All it has ever known is the cage in which is has been kept and fed plentifully, yet not punctually, and nurtured with the love of an owner and proper care.
The production of Wait Until Dark preform by Center Stage was very good. The acting was very well done and the set looked very real. Alexis Jarvis did a wonderful job playing Susy Hendrix her scream of terror was really good. Lauryn Cosgrove did a wonderful job playing Gloria her outfit was really cute and her acting was very good. The play lasted a little over two hours, but that is to be expected. Everyone involved did a good job, they should be very proud of them self’s and their acting skills.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
Metaphors of Society in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Dunbar finishes off the poem with powerful lines: “But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea that upward heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings!” The caged bird is depicted as battered, bruised, and beaten from his violent rebellion— praying as his last chance of freedom. The bird’s belief in its virtuous rebellion justifies the revolt, as we see the bird’s constant persistency, even as the mutiny is demoted to
In I Know why the Caged Bird Sings the author uses many different literary devices and various figurative language examples. The use of metaphors, imagery, similes, and Symbolism has a great effect. They’re effective due to the fact in how they inform the reader of various important details needed to understand the story completely. The use of specific, different, and various types of language illustrate to the reader the effect of racism on many characters in the novel.
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 entire poem is based on powerful metaphors used to discuss the emotions and feelings through each of the stages. For example, she states “The very bird/grown taller as he sings, steels/ his form straight up. Though he is captive (20-22).” These lines demonstrate the stage of adulthood and the daily challenges that a person is faced with. The allusions in the poem enrich the meaning of the poem and force the reader to become more familiar with all of the meaning hidden behind the words. For example, she uses words such as innocence, imprisonment and captive to capture the feelings experienced in each of the stages.
Just like the caged bird, the narrator feels caged and trapped. The narrator is trapped within a certain social class and the way white society expects him to behave, and how he should behave to his fellow blacks. Trueblood receives money and kindness from white people after they hear his story of him raping his own daughter because of a dream. Though the black community ridiculed him, the whites were interested in the story and showed him some sort of praise. Wanting the blacks to behave more animalistic and ignorant rather than “rational” like themselves.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. “The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural world.” (Womack). Poe uses many of the American Gothic characteristics such as emotional intensity, superstition, extremes in violence, the focus on a certain object and foreshadowing lead the reader through a series of events that are horrifying and grotesque. “The Black Cat is one of the most powerful of Poe’s stories, and the horror stops short of the wavering line of disgust” (Quinn).
In the poem “Sympathy” the author explains why the caged bird sings, this is said many times through the poem. The caged bird attempts to get out of his cage, he doesn’t stop trying to escape. “I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till it’s blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back to his perch and cling When he fain would
She accomplishes this through her use of imagery and allusion. Johnson describes the abilities of women by illustrating the life of a free bird. A woman is “a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on,/ Afar o’er life’s turrets and vales does it roam/ In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.” (“The Heart of a Woman” 2-4). This imagery allows the reader to visualize a bird flying over mountains and valleys, and living its life freely. This bird is able to do what it wishes without being told what to do. The poem then ends with the haunting image of the bird being locked up in “sheltered bars” (“The Heart of a Woman 8). By contrasting the actions which women partake, Johnson attempts to inform women of their “unrealized ambitions and the pain that can emerge from domesticity” ( Brown). There are many opportunities for women to live life freely rather than existing as a housemaid. Johnson hopes to warn women to not allow their life become limited, because she lived with a husband who implored her to become the stereotypical housewife. She did not listen to his desires and wrote. Johnson wishes to encourage other women to have the courage to grasp their own lives as well. Johnson also encourages women by alluding to Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy.” As depicting the heart of a woman as “tr[ying] to forget it has dreamed of the stars/ While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.” (“The Heart of a Woman” 7-8), Johnson references the caged bird in Dunbar’s poem. His poem is about a captive bird that beats its wings against the bars of its cage (Brown), because it wants to be free and live its life. If the reader picks up on this allusion, they realize the connection between the poems and the severity of Johnson’s warning. Johnson portrays domesticity as being caged while freedom is just beyond one’s grasp.
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
I chose these three poems because the subject matter appealed to me and I believe that the poems convey their meaning very effectively. Upon researching the poems, I discovered that Caged Bird was in fact inspired by Sympathy, which accounts for the similarities in language and imagery, as outlined below. All three poems deal with the subject of freedom using the imagery of birds; On Liberty and Slavery is narrated as a human plea for freedom, and makes reference to birds in that context, whereas Caged Bird and Sympathy both use the imagery of caged birds to explore the theme of loss of freedom. The symbolism of birds is used to depict freedom, as birds are essentially without constraints; in comparison to the limitations of humans, they have limitless possibilities. When a bird is caged, however, it loses that potential and is restricted not by its own limitations, but the limits set by another.
In the “Caged Bird” Angelou’s comparison to the caged bird was African-Americans in the society they were living in. She symbolized the bird with African-Americans experiences. In the second stanza the poem states “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 so he opens his throat to sing”. This is comparison to African-Americans in their society. When African- Americans were enslaved they use to sing songs to uplift their spirits because that’s all they could do. They were physically bound and mentally brain-washed. The songs was there way of showing they still had fight left in them. In the fourth stanza it states “The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn and he names the sky his own”. This is saying the while African-Americans were enslaved and oppressed they watched Caucasians be free and do as they pleased. Although at the time African-Americans never experienced freedom they yearned for it. They knew it had to be better then what they were enduring. Racism is considered the cage around the caged bird, and it means not getting treated fairly with jobs, medical treatment, and even get