Sympathy
"I know why the Caged Bird feels, Alas (1)". In the first line of the poem, the speaker gives a direct insight into how Dunbar shares the same plight that has plagued the bird’s mere existence. The “caged bird” represents the African Americans and the struggles they have faced then and now. Dunbar’s imagery of the caged bird’s erratic behavior of being caged in and not being able to spread its wings and fly is a representation of the obstacles that African Americans have faced since boarding the boat to America. When Dunbar wrote “Sympathy”, he was writing from experience, being an African American writer who couldn 't receive the accolades he deserved to the color of his skin. At that time that was the story of all African Americans, fast forward 100 years later, African Americans still face those same obstacles.
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In the year 2016, it feels as if African Americans are opening old scars and reliving the life of their ancestors that came before them. They are being killed by cops and its being justifies in the eyes of the law with the simple phrase “I feared for my life”. White people and black people are committing the same crimes yet white people are getting less sentencing or none. These are just a few of the many scares that are becoming fresh wounds do to the unjust world that we live in today. Hundreds of years later racism still rears its ugly head. “I know why the caged bird beats its wings (8) Til its blood is red on the cruel bars (9)”, symbolize the protest that African Americans put forth to be treated equally. All over the world protest are being held and movements are being created all in hopes of their cries possibly fall on listening ears that understand. Al African Americans want is equality in a world where equality was never an option for brown