Question

Match the words from Maya Angelou’s poem "Caged Bird" to their implied meanings.

Answer 1

Answer:

Caged bird- African American

Freedom- sky

Cage- Jim Crow Laws

Self expression- sing

Free bird- white American.

Explanation:

Maya Angelou was an African American woman who had to endure hardships and even sexual assault during her childhood. She began writing about her earlier life, with her autobiography "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" becoming the epitome of African literature.

Her poem "Caged Bird" is also a form of her expressing her thoughts on the black people's condition.

The words of the poem given in the question are as follows-

Caged bird implies the African Americans, who had no form of freedom or liberty to do what they like and be like their fellow white American citizens.

Freedom means the sky, where birds can easily fly around, with no restrictions around them. It is basically their open ground.

Cage is the Jim Crow Laws which segregated the citizens of America based on their race. This greatly affected the blacks, especially Maya and her family.

Self expression is seen in the form of singing, when even during the slavery system, the slaves used to sing while laboring. This is their only form of expressing their pains and wants, wishes etc.

Free bird implies the white Americans who had no problems like the blacks. They were free to do and be whatever they like, being the authoritarian power in the state.

Answer 2

The caged bird is the African American, who is held in a sub-free state by the whites. The sky is freedom, for a bird, flying is the freest thing there is. The free bird is the white American, who's never had to be a slave or seen as subhuman. The cage is the Jim Crow laws that subvert the stated "freedom" of blacks at that time. Singing is self expression, that is one of the only things that slavery can't take from a person. Hope this helps!