Angelou did not change facts about her life, but fictionalized them in order to increase the impact of her massage. ... She witnessed evil that was generally directed at black women and uses the metaphor of caged bird singing in midst of a struggle to represent confinement as a result of oppression and racism, book contains a sequence of lesson on how to resist oppression. ... Angelou's rape experience depicts the suffering of African Americans and connects it to the theme of caged bird's death because Mr. Freeman who raped her told her to keep silent about the rape or he would kill...

• Word Count: 649
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Dunbar understands the pain of the caged bird, because his parents were former slaves, and he had to grow up learning to understand that his world was not the same as the pale kids that were his age (like an iconic photo of when Martin Luther King, Jr. had to explain to his daughter that a famous amusement park she really wanted to go to was "for whites only"). ... That's why the "pain still throbs" (12) but "they pulse again with a keener string – I know why he beats his wing!... That's why Dunbar "[knows] why the the caged bird sings" (15) e...

• Word Count: 1871
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate