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Comparing Sympathy And Caged Bird

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Many members of society around us feel “trapped” in life, being stressed, depressed, or being discriminated against. In both “Sympathy” by Paul Lawrence
Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, a similar theme about confinement and discrimination is shown. Maya Angelou wrote “Caged Bird” referencing to “Sympathy,” meaning both poems are similar. Both poems describe similar ideas and have similar use of symbolism. The different ways both poets emphasize their message help the reader understand the overall similar theme in both poems.
Both “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird” describe a caged bird that longs for freedom and is deprived from its needs and wants. The theme is that discrimination traps people, taking away their freedom and rights. In “Sympathy,” …show more content…

“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still… / the caged bird sings of freedom.” The caged bird in both poems symbolizes people faced with discrimination. Discrimination is the “cage,” preventing people from getting what they need, or giving people an inferior quality of life compared to free people who don’t get discriminated against. “Caged” people would want to escape, but they can’t because of society. They try many times, but usually they fail. It is only when they have perseverance and hope then they can escape. In conclusion, a theme in both
“Sympathy” and “Caged Bird” is that discrimination traps people, taking away their freedom and rights.
In “Sympathy,” Dunbar develops the theme by describing its actions and effects and using repetition to drive his point across. He describes the responses of the caged bird being trapped in a cage. “I know what the caged bird feels, alas!... / I know why thecaged bird beats his wing… / I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,.” He …show more content…

This is similar to the fact that it took more than 100 years for Black men and women to gain their rights: first being free from slavery, and then ending segregation. Dunbar also uses repetition to emphasize his message. He repeats the phrases “I know what the caged bird feels,” “I know why the caged bird beats his wing,” and “I know why the caged bird sings” to show the point that he understands the bird’s situation, and also showing empathy for the caged bird. Therefore, the use of repetition and the description of the caged bird’s actions help Dunbar develop the theme in “Sympathy.”
In “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, the theme is developed through comparisons between a free bird and a caged bird. The free bird is able to fly and express itself without restraint, while the caged bird cannot. “A free bird leaps / on the back of the wind… / and dares to claim the sky. / But a bird that stalks / down his narrow cage / can seldom see through… / his wings are clipped and / his feet are tied…” Similarly, people not faced with discrimination can freely express their feelings and go places they

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The bird also symbolizes how people go too far with the amount of power they have. The bird has clipped wings, is trapped in a cage, and its feet are tied up, which means that the bird has no escape. The bird has no freedom and has no way to escape, because it cannot walk or run. Since the bird is being abused and has no power, it is traumatized and explains how its life is like a nightmare. In the text, it states, “His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream/his wings are clipped and his feet are tied” (Angelou paragraph 5).

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In “Sympathy,” Dunbar imbues metaphors into his poem, depicting an image of what African Americans longed and fought for which is liberty and equality. According to lines 2 & 3, “When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the river stirs soft through the springing grass.” The “sun”, “wind”, and “grass” shows what they are missing. “The caged bird” represents the African- Americans at that time because both of them are longing for freedom and equality. As stated in line 11, “When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;” “The caged bird” or the African Americans yearn to be among the other birds or other people and have the same rights.

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From the interpretation of the audience, Dunbar and his strong desire to be free is greatly expressed through his poem: “Sympathy” and his relationship with the caged bird who only wishes to be

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I felt responsible for my own circumstance when the poem stated: “can seldom see through his bars of rage.” The bars of my own rage and my own emotions made me feel confined to stay where I am at, but because of my own inability to see outside of this cage of my own making. When the author wrote “his wings are clipped and/his feet are tied,” I thought about the external factors that affect this self-inflicted imprisonment of emotions. I felt out of control and as though I could not influence the circumstances of my own life. The poem later discussed how the caged bird sings “of things unknown/but longed for still.”

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…the caged bird beats his wing, till its blood is red on the cruel bars”. Using this imagery, of the caged bird, the poet expresses the ordeal of African-Americans. For ages, they have been oppressed and enslaved by the whites. The iron bars represent the systematic racism that has prevented them to live a normal life.

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Angelou and Dunbar show similarities when they describe feeling trapped like caged birds, but their portrayal of the birds contrast in their actions

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“I know what the caged bird feels. . .” (Dunbar 1) declares the speaker of “Sympathy.” “Sympathy” is a lyric poem written by the son of ex-slaves, Paul Laurence Dunbar. Finding common ground is the first step to gaining an understanding. In Dunbar’s poem, the speaker sympathizes with a caged bird, saying that they know what he feels, why he beats his wing, and why he sings.

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Marilyn Frye draws from her own personal experience as a feminist activist in the 1970s and 80s to writer her account of oppression . I believe that the historical context of this is key to appreciating Frye’s work as well as understanding the cause that she was specifically fighting for and the general movement she was part of. She using the metaphor of the birdcage to try to explain oppression. You are to imagine the oppressed group being stuck inside a birdcage, they cannot escape not due to any individual wire that makes up the cage but due to how they all work together to keep the group in it. It is all the binds of the cage that keep the oppressed group in .

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In the article, “Solitary confinement is Overused in Our Prisons,” by Barack Obama, the point of view towards isolation is that solitary confinement negatively affects people's mental health and relationships with families and friends. The effects of isolation are conveyed by president Obama talking about the effects of solitary confinement. In the poem “ Sympathy,” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the point of view towards isolation is that any person in isolation will be deranged from not being able to be free and the effects of isolation are conveyed by the author comparing his own experience to a caged bird. In this extended response I will discuss the point of view towards isolation in both the text and poem as well as state how those views

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Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Tom ran for it even though he knew there were high risks of him being killed, which shows how the caged bird in the poem “Caged Bird” is much like him. In the poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, the caged bird is compared and contrasted to a free bird and by examining the circumstances of Tom Robinson’s life, I say that he is very much like the caged bird. For instance, in stanza two it’s stated “His wings are clipped and/ His feet are tied/ So he opens his throat to sing.”

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Dunbar also illustrates the yearning for mental and physical freedom from the racism African-American endured through symbolism in “Sympathy.” Dunbar suggests to the reader a comparison between the lifestyle of the caged bird, and the African American. Dunbar begins the poem by stating “I know what the caged bird feels, alas!” showing the comparison of a caged bird to an African American (1). This line hold extreme weigh as the closest way to describe one’s life is through the analogy of a caged bird.

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Hepzibah, a woman who has not been offered any compassion nor extends any toward herself, is much like the caged bird Maya Angelou writes about in her poem, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.” The poem juxtaposes the sentiments of a free bird and a caged bird. A free bird “dares to claim the sky” and has the freedom to “name[s] the sky his own” (Angelou 7, 25). A caged bird - anyone who cannot display compassion, an integral component of humanity, to his or herself - cannot flaunt the luxury that is the feeling of being free. Angelou describes the actions of caged birds as “stalk[ing] down his narrow cage...can seldom see through his bars of rage” (8-11).

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Caged Bird both share a very common theme; segregation, slavery, and imprisonment. According to the poem Sympathy, “Till its blood is red on the cruel bar… I know why he beats his wings.” And from the poem Caged Bird, “…His bars of rage…so he opens his throat to sing.” These quotes show that both birds are treated like slaves. The bird from Sympathy was shipped until the back is full of blood and the bird from Caged Bird was held in a dungeon where it will die.

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(Davis) “Caged Bird” is the poem which lead to Angelou’s autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” 1970, (Davis) and in 1979 was made into a major motion picture. (IMDB) This poem addresses the feelings of isolation and segregation which allows the reader to travel the path of Angelou during the social injustice

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In the poems “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, both portray captive birds that sing. However in “Sympathy”, the bird pleads with god for freedom, whereas in “Caged Bird” the captive bird calls for help from a free bird. In “Sympathy” the bird knows what freedom feels like since there was a time where the bird was once free, but now is trapped. In the first stanza the use of imagery revealed how freedom felt before the bird was caged.

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