This semester in American Literature I have read and analyzed various literary works. The reoccurring theme throughout the works is violence. I have came to the conclusion that the significance of violence throughout the various works is that the group or individual singled out throughout the works is the victim of violence because the enemy has something to gain from the victim. The literary works, Caged Bird, Giving Blood, Sand Creek, and An Episode of War demonstrate this.
For example, Caged Bird by Maya Angelou demonstrates how a personal struggle can become a form of violence. Angelou, an African American has a troubled childhood and as a result of her parents divorce she is sent to live with her grandmother at a young age. Angelou struggles with the reality of being rejected by her parents at a young age and as a result believes she is ugly and will never hold the same value as a white person. Throughout her life Angelou is confronted with racism. In Caged Bird, the bird represents Angelou who is a victim of her own situation. “The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom” (124). This quote reflects Angelou’s situation of being “caged” in her situation and demonstrates how the violence of racism and negative thinking of oneself results in self destruction and how people who discriminate against Angelou have self gain because they feed off of the negative reactions of Angelou. The free bird in the poem represents Angelou’s potential as well as hopes and dreams for the future.
Next, in Giving Blood, by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist is in need of money for a cab fare goes to a blood donation bank. Th...
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...ant makes his way to the hospital and comes upon men who are misplaced in the war due to various situations such as injuries or separation from their units. Once the lieutenant arrives at the hospital the surgeon tells the lieutenant that he will need surgery and assures him that he will be able to keep the arm stating, “come along, now. I won’t amputate it” (14). This quote is a lie told in order to get the lieutenants consent. The story concludes with the lieutenant’s right arm being amputated. The violence in the short story consists of the ongoing war and the act of the surgeon lying to the surgeon and amputating the lieutenant’s arm. The gain was as a result of the lieutenant’s consent the doctor was able to amputate the lieutenant’s arm.
The works studied this semester all share a common theme of violence. The theme is that one party gains in violence.
While reading, I felt a sense of sadness for the caged bird, as its undeniable determination was persistent and valiant. Along with the message of the poem, I also appreciated Angelou’s unique sense of “unstructured verse” and her non-traditional poetic approach. It is clear that the caged bird represents African Americans and the free bird represents the white population, however, the poem is well written which sends this implied message of African-American suppression in a poetic, yet clear,
My presentation will be about the depiction and meaning of violence and human nature, in C.M.’s novels.
First, war is universal due to its violent nature, violence in its application knows no bounds, and it is the common factor that identifies the war and without it the war is nothing more than a diplomatic effort to reach the end. However, wars blow out only when the diplomacy fails. Violence is the war engine. Although the application of violence evolved through time and its severity varies according to communities, cultures, and the means and methods used. Demonstrating the violence through the application of force to subjugate the enemy is the central idea of war. “War is a clash between major interests,
The book thus explores a lot of important issues, such as: sexuality and race relations, and shows us how society violated her as a young African American female. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou clearly expresses the physical pain of sexual assault, the mental anguish of not daring to tell, and her guilt and shame for having been raped. Her timidity and fear of telling magnify the brutality of the rape. For more than a year after the rape she lives in self-imposed silence, speaking only very rarely. This childhood rape reveals the pain that African American women suffered as victims not only of racism but also sexism.
Passion is what causes violence in terms of human conflict; but often society overlooks the consequences violence has on the individuals in humanity. The United States wanted so desperately to fight communism that they put their own citizens in harm’s way multiple times. The complexity of conflict, such as the Cold War, lies within this dilemma: there’s no telling who is truly right. Perspective makes all the difference. So now I ask: why must humanity employ violence when more often than not the cost is much greater than the cause? The price of violence is a life, but one of the few priceless gifts humans have is a
The many depictions of violence in Of Mice and Men, presents violence as a way to solve problems and disputes in the undeveloped minds of teenagers. What adolescents are exposed to can mold their views on certain actions or topics. If an impressionable high school student reads about a person using violence to solve a problem, it creates the illusion that the decision to be violent or hurtful is a correct one. An example of using violence to solve a dispute in Of Mice
One of the first themes that is experienced is the idea that violence will often take control and change people. For instance in “The black cat” by Edgar Allan Poe the quote “I suffered myself to intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her my personal violence”(Poe). This quote explains that the narrator experienced waves violent feelings and the need carry out these malevolent mannerisms gradually grew stronger. Eventually the narrator went corrupt and in turn hurt the people and family closest to him. Like wise in the quote “Hector takes the doves and swiftly twists its neck, ignoring his daughter’s cry of protest”(Morgenstern). His daughter is mortified at the fact that he snapped a bird’s neck without even thinking twice. As the book continues Hector purposefully breaks his daughter’s wrist without any pity or guilt for the act he committed. In both passages they commit an act of violence but do not care that it is wrong or unjust.
Furthermore, Maya Angelou’s poem, ‘Caged Bird,’ there is a heavy usage of imagery to contrast the lives of the free and caged bird. For example, the first stanza includes vivid details about how free and easygoing the free bird’s life is. The text includes, “A free bird leaps/ on the back of the wind/ and floats downstream…” “...and dips his wing/ in the orange sun rays/ and dares to claim the sky.” Evidently, this bird can openly travel through the wonders of the world, such as streams and beautiful skies; there seems to not be a care in the world. However, the reader gets a peek into the life of the caged bird, who has a multitude of challenges and sorrow. These circumstances are first shown in the second stanza, but there is a more intense picture in stanza five, “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams/ his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream/ his wings are clipped and his feet are tied/ so he opens his throat to sing.” There is an obvious switch in mood that is projected from the author, as the caged bird has lost its dreams and had many obstacles preventing it from breaking
Western genre is recognized for the place it gives to violence as one of the central points of the Western stories. In Western, violence is considered as a usual part of the life. Shooting and hanging are kind of violence commonly met in Western stories. For example, Rooster explains in a casual way that “[he] shots [Lucky Ned Pepper] in the lip last August down in the Winding Stair Mountains. He was plenty lucky that day"(p.63). He doesn’t describe this event with agony or guilt but rather as if it was happening regularly. Violence is also represented brutally: “With that, Quincy brought the bowie knife down on moons cuffed hand and chopped off four fingers which flew up before my eyes like chips from a log” (148). The particularity in this quote is in the way Mattie is illustrating this scene without emotions and in a casual manner. In this novel, violence is shown as casual and brutal. Hence, in the western stories, violence is significantly present.
Often times in today's society, we stumble upon instances of racism and oppression. About 60 years ago, innocent civilians were poorly treated and ridiculed on a day to day basis during the time of segregation. The courage and strength of those men and women was indescribable. So now we ask ourselves, what was it like? In Maya Angelou's “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” Maya effectively uses multiple writing strategies to bring awareness to the prominently apparent issues of racism and oppression that still exist in our society using imagery, pathos, and strong diction to craft her overall message.
Firstly, violence is used as a tool to vent anger. One prime example of this is that in the very first conversation of the play,
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
Throughout I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, racism is a frequent obstacle that non-whites had to overcome. When Maya is young, she doesn’t recognize the racism and discrimination as well as her grandmother does. As Maya gets older, she begins to recognize and take notice to the racism and discrimination towards her and African Americans everywhere. Maya may not recognize the racism and discrimination very well at her young age, but it still affects her outlook on life the same way it would if she had recognized it. The racism and discrimination Maya faced throughout I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, affected her attitude, personality, and overall outlook on life in a positive way.
She is comparing a free white person, the free bird, to a black slave; the caged bird. Angelou uses rhymes and repetition to show the meaning of her poem and to prove the point that she is making to her readers. This poem is all about the inequality and the violation of civil rights that black slaves had to go through (“Angelou, Maya. Caged”;“Skinner”;“Hagen”). Angelou often writes about inequality, but not just the inequality for African American people, but for women as well and the stereotypes that they face. This is potraied in Angelou 's “Phenominal
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