Now, let us proceed to the second line of that verse. This is where reality is somewhat challenged, as the scene evoked in the passage could only happen in an alternate world. It is not hard or impossible to imagine seeing a bird in flight amidst the azure above us. It is, after all, an occurrence that happens almost daily. Every now and then, when we look up to the heavens, we could sometimes see one lone bird soaring against the blue. What makes this line surreal, though, is the fact that it gives the reader the idea that the bird is trapped in an eternal flight. That it is forced to cover the vastness of the heavens, never to rest, never to stop in its journey. Yes, some birds are known to migrate from one place to another, and they could…
What she is speaking of is a slave, trapped in his master’s cage, meaning forced labor. The slave is so enraged but his hands are tied, he is forced to do as his master commands. When the caged bird (the slave) is singing, he is singing the songs of slavery. For example, “Hard Trails” and some of the lyrics are “Now ain’t them hard trails, great tribulations, Hard trials, hard trials, I am bound to leave this land.” Most of these songs were about the Lord saving them.…
In her novel Caucasia, Danzy Senna paints the image of a young bi-racial girl, Birdie, growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. Her mother is a white, blueblood Bostonian woman turned political activist, and her father is a black Boston University professor with radical ideas about race. Birdie and her older sister Cole are both bi-racial children, but Cole looks more black and Birdie looks more white. The two sisters are separated early in the novel and then the rest of the story focuses on Birdie and how she needs to “pass” as white. Passing is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of social groups other than his or her own, such as a different race, ethnicity, social class, or gender, generally with the purpose of gaining social acceptance. Birdie’s existence is the ultimate experiment on how to pass. She is first asked to pass as black at Nkrumah, even though she doesn’t fit the profile of a black child. Then she is taken to New Hampshire and asked to be the opposite of what she’d been before- a white Jewish girl. Senna introduces Birdie to all different versions of the races she is torn between, and none of them seem to fit quite right. Through Birdie, Senna is making the point we see that there is no one size fits all version of any race.…
The author uses imagery to illustrate and give the reader a clear understanding of his thoughts about injustice. Dunbar uses imagery by stating, “ Till it’s blood is red on the cruel bars” (line 9). This shows the bird’s relentless efforts to escape. The author includes this to relate the bird’s struggles and hardships to his own dealing with injustice. Another way Dunbar uses imagery to relate to injustice is by stating, “ When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, When he beats his bars and he would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer he sends from his heart’s deep core”( lines 16-19). Here the author uses imagery to show the reader that even when the bird is in pain he still fights for freedom and justice. The author uses this piece of imagery to relate himself to the bird in the sense of that like the bird, the author fights for his freedom, but along the way is…
The free bird is able to do whatever it wants because no one tells them they are not wanted. “ The Free bird thinks of another breeze/...and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn/and he names the sky his own” (Angelou 22,24-25) A free bird has freedom to do anything without obstacles or restrictions. No one gets in the bird's way and no one tells it what to do. In the free bird’s world the bird, itself, is ruler, leader, owner of its decisions, action, and consequences. Charlene Hunter-Gault was like a free bird because she was free to choose to go to a good university, to get a career she had envisioned for for as long as she could remember. In 1954 the Brown V. Board of Education decided that separating students depending on the race was unconstitutional, so from that year on students from all races…
Many times, in the book, the author is confronted with dead birds. During her childhood, the author spent much time with her grandmother out bird watching and while her mother was less involved in this, it is that the author very much connects birds with her family. We see the result of this connection when we see her encounter a dead whistling swan, “I knelt beside the bird, took off my deerskin gloves, and began smoothing feathers. Its body was still limp— the swan had not been dead long. I lifted both wings out from under its belly and spread them on the sand. Untangling the long neck which was wrapped around itself was more difficult, but finally I was able to straighten it, resting the swan’s chin flat against the shore”. (p. 121). The author and her family lived their entire lives at the Great Salt Lake. It seems to me that if the author felt such respect for a single swan, then how she felt for the area must have also been quite a powerful feeling…
The author is using imagery to portray his attitude towards justice. Such as when he says “When he beats his bars and he would be free.” This is saying the caged bird is beating his bars so he would be free which means, by imagery, that the bird is getting injustice to be able to be free. Also the way the author may look at injustice in this is a caged bird will never really receive justice. More evidence to show the way the author uses imagery to portray his attitude towards injustice is when in the poem it is stated that “for he must fly back to his perch and cling.” The author is is showing that with injustice the bird now feels defeated; Therefore the bird is going back to his perch. Also it shows that injustice towards the caged bird is making it feel tamed.…
Ellison’s purpose in this essay is to prove that “Parker was a most inventive melodist-a true songster” which is evident in paragraph one. He uses the fascination of nicknames to symbolize the achievements of “Bird” and the impact the nickname had on others. He adds in a joke near the end of paragraph two, “why, during a period when most jazzmen were labeled “cats”, someone hung the bird on Charlie.” to show that even though most jazzmen were called “cats” at the time, Charles earned the name of “Bird” because he was above other jazzmen, like a bird would hang high above a cat so the cat couldn’t reach the bird. Charles’s talent was so above all the other “cats”; they couldn’t even reach his level. In paragraph three Ellison compares the goldfinch to Bird. He uses a short apocryphal story of baby Jesus being given a clay goldfinch for a toy and bringing it to life as a metaphor to indicate that Bird brings jazz music to life. The majority of paragraph three is Ellison going through the species of the goldfinch and how it is characterized, then at the end he hits the reader with the problem of why it does not relate to Bird; it’s like the canary. Paragraph four goes on to show the similarities the mockingbird has that connect it to Bird himself. The sentence structure in paragraph four mimics that of a saxophone holding a long, drawn out note. The sentences are long and drawn out, making the reader have to take a breath in between because the sentences are so long which would happen if a jazzman were playing the saxophone. He is connecting the sound of a saxophone to the sentence structure of the paragraph. The last paragraph also sums up the idea that Bird had a complex life but it didn’t minimize his greatness. All of these strategies bring the reader back to the purpose of the essay which proves that Charles Parker was a “most inventive melodist-a…
"The birds sat comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dinghy, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland." (342 Crane) The birds in the story symbolize how in control nature truly is. They cannot but watch as birds fly so close that they can see the black of each other's eyes. The birds play an important role in testing the men emotionally. If the men can remain calm as an animal that normally would not be problem if…
The novel The Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse portrays the American Government, the Ketchikan locals and the Soldiers of War to be horrible racist and unfair to the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands.…
When we hear of the term species, a class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name comes to mind. However, when the term endangered is used in conjunction with species, this gives us a different perspective, as well as negative. Thus, an endangered species is a species threatened by extinction. The Puerto Rican Parrot falls under this category. This parrot has seen an extravagant population decrease over the last five hundred years. However, there stands a great chance for its recovery through captive breeding programs.…
Friendship is a virtue or at least involves virtue. Friendship is always a special thing but people tend to forget about how much its value is. Friendship is not just necessary, but also noble.Friendship consists of goodwill between two people. You can only have a few friends being that its take some precious time to build a real friendship. Aristotle’s speaks about how there are three kinds of friendship. The first is friends of utility, where both people receive some benefit from each other. Aristotle believed that this is the type of friendship that is for the old. Aristotle argued that they “are at such a time of life pursue not what is pleasant but what is beneficial.” The second is friends of pleasure, where both people are attracted to each other, good looks, or other their pleasant qualities all together . aristotles says this friendship is for the young. Aristotle argues that the young because “...quickly become friends and quickly stop...” and “...love and stop loving quickly...” The third is friends of excellence, where both people admire the other’s excellence and help one another strive for excellence. Aristotle says this about friends of excellence “...complete sort of friendship between people who are good and alike in virtue...”friends of virtue or excellence is hard to come by especially in the world we live in today because it is so much individualism. According to Aristotle the first two friendships are accidental, because in these case friends are only thinking about their own utility and pleasure, not are going to change over a period of time. If a friendship is based on excellence it will be a long lasting relationship, because excellence is a quality. This kind of friendship is the one everyone wants to have and it overlooks the other two friendships. This kind of friendship though is hard to find and takes a lot of time to progress but it is worth it. It is nothing like having a real and true friend. Friends who want the same thing will…
I am African-American with a hint of West Indian in my blood. I was born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in Delaware. My surroundings and family affected who I developed to be as a 21 year old African-American woman. I was brought up on certain foundations on how one should live such, as going to college, getting a good job, buying my own home , meeting a man , marrying him , then having kids and it had to be in that order. I did grow up in a somewhat strict home, but as I grew old I learned that it was for my best interest because my parents had been there and done what I was going to face growing up. I never really understood why most of the time it was no, but now that I’m older and see some of the results of no discipline upon some of my peers I’m grateful for the no’s. A big part of my cultural identity is God and going to church. I grew up in the church and God is a big part of how I chose to live my life thus, I use the Bible as instruction. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth I grew up in the middle-class and to me I felt like I was rich because we never went lacking us always had what we needed and sometimes what we wanted. Both my parents are well-off but they still work hard in their fields of work, the medical field. My father is a physical therapist and my mother is a registered nurse and now she is the director of health services here at Lincoln. But my personality was developed based on my different surroundings such as school. Going to various schools and meeting various people I really didn’t develop into my own personality until high school. Another surrounding would be my family. My family plays a huge role in who I am because I have both traits of my mother and father , some good and some not so good but I am me. I am not ashamed of who am I like who I am becoming every day because I am not done maturing…
There are many birds in the world, but there is a special bird in this book that symbolizes more than just a bird. That bird is a mockingbird. The book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” has many themes that set the mood in the story. Scout is just a little girl and doesn't know why race is such a big factor in her society. In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” it shows themes such as “Race, Justice and Judgement, as well as Morality and Ethics.”…
The Black Bird Among the snarling snowy mountains, The blackbird whirled in the autumn air. Chirping upon the charcoal tree, The little bird settled and sang. Tunes of love and hope pondered. Until the blackbird razed out of sight, Silence masked the pretty melody…