THE CAGED BIRD

NAME

: LOGARAAJ S/O DORAISELVAN

ID

: 21813

PROGRAMME

: ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

LECTURER NAME: MADAM JASMIN HASSAN

TUTOR NAME

: MISS SAADIAH

TUTOR GROUP

: GROUP 07

PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF FAL0014 ENGLISH I

Introduction
*Poem title (The Caged Bird)
*Brief introduce about the poem such as the author and the authors biography
*chosen literary aspect (themes)
*points of the literary aspect (topic sentence)
Body paragraph 1

i.
Brief synopsis
ii.
Reasons choosing this book
Body paragraph 2
I.
Difficulties of racial discrimination
II.
Equal rights are not given to justice
Body paragraph 3
I.
Blacks were servile and bounded by tradition
II.
Cant have freedom to move about
Body paragraph 4
I.
Black women biography visible while white woman has opportunity to develop biography
II.
black people created hatred towards the white people
Body paragraph 5
I.
II.

current issue related to black people

comparison of past and current issue of black people

Conclusion
i.
ii.
iii.

Topic sentence
Importance of good characteristics in ourselves
Future will reduce with number of racism cases and happy life will be leaded.

The Caged Bird

Have you ever wondered when discrimination ever started? If we look throughout
history, it began with slavery in 1865. Since then barriers have been put up between races.
Inequalities and division between the blacks and the whites have been existed since those
days. It is a contradiction on how the past has made blacks to live as slaves and why racism
and discrimination exists. During the era of white supremacy, the lives of African-American's
were characterized by discrimination and limited opportunities. This was a period of AfricanAmerican inferiority; which forced them to endure many inequities and injustices. This
discrimination is a result of the tradition of whites. Blacks were forced to be servile and
submissive due to these customs that were deeply ingrained in a prejudiced society. The only
way for African-Americans to earn respect was for them to have a voice and stand up for
their rights. In Caged Bird, Maya Angelou uses symbolism to develop the theme of
oppression.
According to Myra K. McMurry, Maya Angelou was a songwriter, journalist,
playwright, poet, fiction, and screen writer. She was often asked how she escaped her past.
How does one grow up when it comes to black and female in the rural south of the 30s and
40s? Her immediate response was, How the hell do you know I did escape? Maya
Angelou encouraged those of her ethnicity to do this in this poem. She voiced out and stood
for the right of her race without any fear. Her courage was beyond our expectations; she
dared to dream, took the risk despite knowing that it might cause her, expressed her feelings,
and managed to change the future not for herself, but for her race. In 1960s Angelou served
as northern coordinator of the southern Christian leadership conference at the invitation of
Martin Luther King.

In this poem, Maya Angelou writes about the difficulties of racial discrimination
which is a form of oppression using several poetic techniques. She does this by comparing a
free bird to a caged bird. When talking about oppression, it is happening almost everywhere. I
personally feel that there is always a gap when things are different. According to Oxford
dictionary, oppression generally means prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of
authority. In this context, the caged bird has its wings clipped and feet tied. This indicates
that the caged bird has no freedom to move around and it does not have the power to decide
the way it wants to live but the only thing it can do is to sing. It highlights the disadvantages
the black race had to endure due to their skin colour. Singing for freedom, the caged bird of
the second stanza is an angry and frustrated one as is shown in stalks. Maya is conveying
that whites were the superior over other races and finally, the African-Americans knew that it
was necessary to stand up for their long-deserved freedom. Shattered dream is what the black
race has before they voice out.
Whites have been given hopes and freedom whereas the blacks are servile and
bounded by tradition. Tradition has killed the dreams and hopes of the black race just because
they are caged by their skin colour. But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams, the
fifth stanza emphasize on the despair moments for the black race. Hence, it opens its throat to
sing, to sing for freedom. It is something similar to the third stanza which emphasizes the
caged bird and its plight. It tells of how the caged bird sings for freedom, as if it still has hope
for things it does not know of. The caged bird can be heard on the distant hill. The bird is
shown to rebel against all that it holds it back in an attempt to be freed. According to, A
Gathering of Equals. A National Conversation on American Pluralism and Identity. Reading
Selections (and] Guide for Leaders, 1995, oppressed people cannot forever remain oppressed.
The eagerness to be free will somehow develops itself like what happened to the American
Negro.

Without a doubt Maya Angelou is Americas most visible black women auto
biographer. While black women writers might share traditional motivations for writing
autobiography, at least as far the awareness of the dominant group is concerned, the black
women speaks from a position of marginality and yet against all odds, she comes to selfawareness and finds herself at the centre of her own experience. Maya Angelou has tempered
her own anger and put it to a constructive purpose; her work speaks to the necessity of
reflecting remembering and at times issuing a warning. In the poem this is clearly shown
form the stanza
. The free bird thinks of another breeze,
And the trade winds soft through the sighing trees,
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn,
And he names the sky his own.
From that stanza, the writer clearly shown that the African-Americans have already
developed hatred against the whites. Although the white people are free, they are not content
and are still greedy to have even more freedom. It is also understood that things seem to
come easily to the free bird, white people, as there are worms, various opportunities, waiting
for them. By using metaphors and simple vocabulary, it is much easier for people of all ages
to understand and relate this poem to their life.Peace will never ever achieved as the hatred
grows in ones heart day by day till the day where fight, war will eventually happen. The
difference between this scenario and the poem is that the type of discrimination that occurred,
one is discrimination towards skin colour whereas another one is discrimination towards the
poor and illiterate. Both have the similar part which is the action of voicing up when
something is not right and fighting for justice.

In this current life that we can see from the outer saying that the country is in peace
but we dont know what is actually happening inside that causes many issues among the
black Americans and the white Americans. This has a very good relation with Maya
Angeloues poem Caged Bird as she has said lots of problems that the blacks has faced long
ago and the hatred that the black Americans have towards the white Americans. Unfair
treatment in education happens a lot. For instance, a teacher treats non-English speaking
students unfairly because he/she thinks these students cannot learn, and they should not be in
school anyway or a college accepting fewer applications for enrolment from people of colour
than it does for white people. The college does this because it wants most of its students to be
white. Now as we can see the current issue that plays dominantly among the blacks are
success of black students in this current world. According to S.Fordham on The Urban
Review (1986), there was once a class of students were given assignment and there was only
one black American who studies in that class and the next day when that individual was about
to pass up his assignment the teacher asked whether did he plagiarism and blamed him for
doing plagiarism and was given disciplinary act and was sacked from school since plagiarism
is a serious crime in this current world.
From this we can see that Maya Angeloue has stated that blacks rights are not seen
equally and they dont have the opportunity to develop themselves and this is why they have
hatred towards the white Americans. Moreover the black Americans has very less
opportunity to work in a company with a high pose instead they work as a slave in a company
and they get paid very low. Sometimes it is hard to say what discrimination is and what not
discrimination is because every situation is different. But if we think that every human being
on the earth is equal then there will be no need to talk about discrimination, slavery or
oppression. Everyone can live together in a peace and harmony.

To wrap up, this project paper gives information on where does the poem taken from, the
topics that evoke me to write about and how I relate the poem with the current issues.
Angelou's autobiography allows us to appreciate various rich passages. Her memory is
brought to life in a very bold manner using words that she manages to inspire us to recall our
memories with greater clarity and expression. But Maya's experience is now ours also, and
we can use that experience to pursue our quest to bring order to our chaotic world, balance to
our personal lives. (Fleming & McGinis, 1985). Maya Angelou and other activists had done
so much to change their destiny. Though the poem Caged Bird, I understand why Maya
Angelou was willing to put her life into risk by getting involved in civil rights movement.
Justice, freedom of speech and the right to choose the way of how we want to live our life are
what Maya Angelou was trying to convey in the poem to the nation so that we will help each
other for the betterment of future. Main objective has met. This poem is still relevant till now
as discriminations are still happening around. I hope that this poem will continue touch the
hearts of people of all ages regardless of background, skin colour, religion to continue to fight
for justice. Generally, Maya Angelous poem and autobiography focuses almost entirely on
the inner spaces of her emotional and personal life, crafting a poem that becomes not nearly a
personal record but also a stage on which sins of the past can be recall and ritual of healing
and reconciliation enacted.

References
1. A Gathering of Equals. A National Conversation on American Pluralism and Identity.
Reading Selections [and] Guide for Leaders. (1995). Retrieved November 4, 2014,
from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED390782.pdf
2. Burns, A. (2002). Thematic Guide to American Poetry. Retrieved November 3, 2014,
from http://books.google.com.my/books?id=MAYGksK5vMYC&dq=thematic guide
to American literature&source=gbs_navlinks_s
3. McMurry, M. K. (1976). Role-Playing as Art in Maya Angelou's" Caged Bird".South
Atlantic Bulletin, 106-111, from
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3198806?uid=381142501&uid=3738672&uid
=381142451&uid=2&uid=3&uid=67&uid=62&sid=21104476592251
4. Portraits: Biography and Autobiography in the Secondary Schol. (1985, January 1).
Retrieved November 4, 2014, fromhttp://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED253884.pdf
5. Signithia, F. (1985, December 5). Black Students' School Success: Coping with the
"Burden of 'Acting White.'" Retrieved November 3, 2014, from
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED281948.pdf