In the two poems, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “Sympathy” by Laurence Dunbar, these short works share many similarities as they both speak on being a minority in a white world. As Maya Angelou describes her childhood in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and the ways of which the world became portrayed to her because of her race and the time that she grew up in, she was a visual representation of being a minority in a white world. Also, in “Sympathy” Laurence Dunbar portrays his comprehension of how the “caged bird” feels as he finally understands how it feels like to be oppressed.
In the first poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” Maya Angelou describes the ultimate feeling of oppression as she faced it while growing up as a young African-American in a racist state. Angelou starts off the poem by describing what the free bird feels as it is able to fly freely in the wind, “A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends…” this quotation conveys the illusion of the white man who is able to do as they please. In comparison to the bird who is caged which is described in the next stanza, “But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are …show more content…
Dunbar uses the quote “I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes”, this quote conveys the ultimate theme of the poem as it allows for the reader to understand that the feelings in which Angelou shows are portrayed in “Sympathy”. The reader is able to view why the caged bird is oppressed and from the outside looking in what the caged bird feels daily. The author uses word choices such as “caged bird beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars” to describe the comprehension of what the bird feels by being an oppressed minority in a white
In the first poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” Maya Angelou describes the ultimate feeling of oppression as she faced it while growing up as a young African-American in a racist state. Angelou starts off the poem by describing what the free bird feels as it is able to fly freely in the wind, “A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends…” this quotation conveys the illusion of the white man who is able to do as they please. In comparison to the bird who is caged which is described in the next stanza, “But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are …show more content…
Dunbar uses the quote “I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes”, this quote conveys the ultimate theme of the poem as it allows for the reader to understand that the feelings in which Angelou shows are portrayed in “Sympathy”. The reader is able to view why the caged bird is oppressed and from the outside looking in what the caged bird feels daily. The author uses word choices such as “caged bird beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars” to describe the comprehension of what the bird feels by being an oppressed minority in a white