Topic > Freedom as the Main Message in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born according to the Poetry Foundation, "to Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She was a poet , African American storyteller, activist and autobiographer. Her poem “Caged Bird” was written in 1969 and was her most popular poem.” theory that comes close to what Maya experienced. Well, according to the Poetry Foundation, "In one of her most evocative (and controversial) moments, Angelou describes how she was first cuddled and then raped by her mother's boyfriend when she was just seven years old. ". In my opinion, her feeling of being constantly harassed by this person explains why she felt so trapped in this atmosphere and how she imagined having a free life. This can be supported by the first stanza of the poem where she describes how a person, in in this case a bird, she is free without limitations and without any possibility of stopping or going towards the dream. On the contrary, a caged bird is one that remains trapped in that little space without being able to fly or express itself. This is also a sign of what African Americans experienced during that time, where whites mistreated the free expression of blacks. In other words, the entire context of the poem is based on the term “freedom” and what would happen in life without it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay The contrast of the whole poem, as I said before, the difference between a free bird and a caged bird is that the free bird has no limitations and is able to express its feelings while a caged bird he is trapped and more isolated or ignored. In this case, the author expresses her feelings about how she felt growing up in a harsh life and racial supremacy. Another important note about this poem is that it is very symbolic in terms of the “free bird” which, as I said before, is a sense of freedom. It is also similar to the “white dove” which represents peace and tranquility. The author expresses her feelings about what a free bird is capable of doing. Some keywords of this are "jumps", "dives", "bright", etc. In the other context, it explains the caged bird as something atrocious like words like "anger", "scary warble", "nightmare", etc. Another important note is that there is a quite ironic term in which the author says “The caged bird sings” which is the opposite since the one who should sing is the free bird. But the caged bird sings a “terrifying trill,” which in this case is more like a frantic cry for freedom. Another message the poem can convey, aside from the whole mistreatment of blacks and how the author felt about her mother's boyfriend's abuse, can be about how women were treated in the past, if they thought that women were only allowed to take care of children, cook, clean, a typical housewife. If women had abandoned the regime, the consequences would have been many and therefore her freedom would have been more limited. There are many messages that this poem can show as the whole topic of this poem is that there are people who have more freedom than others. Some other examples can be the concept of religion, where people are limited to some kind of thing, or even in the LGBT community, where there are still people who discriminate against them religiously and those people within that community feel trapped, and there are so many other examples that the poem's message can explain. In conclusion, the central point conveyed by the author, Maya Angelou, is that freedom is something very important in.