Thoughts In A Zoo Summary

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The Different Perspectives of Captivity “There are no facts, only interpretations.” - Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche was a German poet who studied about perspective. According to quote from Nietzsche, poetry is how people interpret a situation. For example, some people have different perspectives about being in captivity. Although “Untitled” by Tupac Shakur and “Thoughts in a Zoo” by Countee Cullen are both about being in captivity, the poems deal with the idea of being in captivity in extremely different perspectives through the use of similes. “Thoughts in a Zoo” deals with being trapped in society by comparing zoo animals to African Americans using similes. For example, the narrator compares activities similar between African American and mole through the use of similes when the narrator said “Some delve down like the mole far underground”(line 13). In this quote, Cullen uses a simile to compare how African Americans and moles react to being in captivity. “Delve down” denotes “reach inside a receptacle and search for something.” Conversely, “Delve down”connotes darkness because it describes African Americans going deep in the unknown because they don’t want the attention given by society. They feel trapped like the zoo animals and don’t want to be seen like the mole in the zoo. They do not want to be seen because everyone around them judges each of their actions. The tone of ‘delve down’ is hopeless because people want to go deep down in the darkness when they feel