Racial Inequality In Maya Angelou's Caged Bird Essay Example

Racial inequality has always been a societal issue since early humanity. Maya Angelou was a major advocate during the Civil Rights movement and using other background information one could infer that this poem is about racial inequality, both the freedoms of the whites and the restrictions of the minorities. She also uses specific diction as well as literary elements such as symbolism and imagery to convey the themes of freedom and its opposite, restriction. 

Many authors use specific diction to convey certain themes. Angelou did an excellent job of this in her poem. Many of the words used were intended to both demonstrate her intense feelings about this topic, but also to help the readers understand her themes. In line seven, she wrote, “and dares to claim the sky.” The word “claims” suggests that this free bird will take things even if they aren’t given to it, while the word “dares” suggests that bird is in the wrong when doing this. This shows the theme of freedom by hinting that the “free” people of that time would “claim,” or take away certain rights that the “caged” people should naturally have. Another example of this specific diction can be found in lines fifteen and sixteen when Angelou wrote, “The caged bird sings with a fearful trill...” The word “sings” was used to show that the caged people were crying out for change and help, but the word “fearful” showed that they had caution in fear that things could possibly get worse to show the theme of restriction. 

Symbolism and imagery are large literary elements that most poets use to convey their themes. Angelou uses these profoundly in her poems. Examples of symbolism in “Caged Bird” were the obvious: the caged bird and the free bird. The cage bird was used as a metaphor of minorities, which at the time were treated lesser to the dominant white male. Examples of imagery were the “... dawn bright lawn” used in line twenty-five and “his wings are clipped and his feet are tied” in line twenty-nine. “... dawn bright lawn” is used to illustrate that the free bird lives luxuriously and free to have cordial things, which indicates the theme of freedom. The quote “his wings are clipped and his feet are tied” shows that the life of a caged bird would be extremely restricting, which shows the theme of restriction. 

All in all, Maya Angelou uses her knowledge of dictation and literary elements to demonstrate her themes of this poem. While “Caged Bird’ is a poem that reveals the harsh truth about racial inequality, a reader can also use it to gather information about how authors use different strategies to establish their themes differently. So next time you come across a poem, study it to find how its dictation and literary elements build its theme(s).