Freedom of self-expression, imagery, and silence are three themes that both: the story “Jacob’s Chicken” by Milos Macourek and the poem “Poetry” by Nikki Giovanni clearly illustrate to the readers. Both works describe the significance of self-expression and the sequent immediate criticism that comes right after one tries to use imagination and stand out or be a different individual. The authors of both forms of literature send the readers a message about the importance of silence- versus what nowadays is more often if not solely to be witnessed, physical talk. Both works express a feeling of an ongoing deficiency of freedom to express oneself in one’s society and a feeling of irony and aggression towards the most common belief of always “going with the flow” and pre-conception that everything has to be alike or else it is weird, unneeded, or just doesn’t belong in a society. The terms: imagination and self-expression come very much along, if not always together. For one to express himself and be able to show his or her own ideas without fearing the opinions and judgement of others, is one having the ability to incorporate his/her imagination into reality. The speaker in the story “Jacob’s Chicken” uses strong irony to show his readers a reaction a young child Jacob receives for using his imagination to illustrate something he sees a certain way and actually “brings it too life” in a form of a drawing. The most interesting point of this story that Macourek depicts