A Fascinating Poem by Maya Angelou

Recently, I came across a collection of poems in one of Maya Angelou’s first autobiography. The name of the poem is “ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.” I thought I’d share with you the poem and also what I retrieved from reading this lovely poem!

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

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.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

This poem speaks about freedom. The free bird symbolizes a person from the white society, and the caged bird symbolizes a person from the black society. Racial segregation has been a problem in the past and still is presently. Maya Angelou’s poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is a good representation of this. This poem shares the separation between the colors of people’s skin in everyday life. Those things include racial signs such as water fountains, theaters, and bus stations. Though it is not as bad as it used to be, it still occurs. Angelou’s words speak out to an all African American audience to relate to, understand, and share the feelings of oppression and segregation, and feelings of jealousy toward the white race. Maya Angelou also speaks to an audience of mixed races many of us can identify with her voice. The reader should notice that she is not just talking about a bird; however, the way she wrote it makes it seem that way. The poem represents racial issues through the use of a bird and the reader can relate to it through her use of metaphors throughout when talking about a caged bird and a free one.

Her usage of incorporating metaphors is very fascinating. The poem itself is a metaphor for enslaved African Americans. In the opening lines of the poem, Angelou compares the “wind” to being like a creature that can hold a bird on its back. She also compares it to a “flowing stream of water.” With that being said, the wind may represent the racial issues that spurred back and forth between the white race and the black race in our tradition of history. “Breeze” and “fat worms” can demonstrate that most of the white society cares more about their wealth and very little about the black community’s oppression. This also represents hope and opportunity for the free bird (white race) to name the world as his own. “His wings are clipped and his feet are tired,” represent the advantages that whites have over blacks due to their skin color. The metaphor overall shows that the free bird has that advantage, but the caged bird stands, leaps out on faith, and it came to pass that the caged bird sings of freedom at the end.

A caged bird can be interpreted as the black race being held back from freedom by their own skin color. The free bird is the white race retaining freedom and their aversion toward blacks. Overall, I believe this was a great poem I came across and hope to read more of Angelou’s poems in the future.

Generosity: By Richard Powers - Another Novel Meant to be Pulitzer Prize Worthy!!

Okay, since our focus in the class is Pulitzer Prize and such, I wanted to bring about a book I think is worthy of winning this prize that I recentely read.

A new novel named Generosity centers around a college student in Chicago who had emigrated from a horrible life in Algeria but who was persistently, unstoppably happy, so much so that other characters in the book speculate on whether an analysis of her DNA would demonstrate the existence of a “happiness gene” which at least one of the characters (a scientist who has moved into the business world) would hope to patent, package and sell. The character that has this problem, so to say, is named Thassa. Her joyful personality comes to the attention of the notorious geneticist and advocate for genomic enhancement Thomas Kurton, whose research leads him to announce the genotype for happiness. Thassa’s congenital optimism is soon severely tested. What will happen to life when science identifies the genetic basis of happiness? Who will own the patent? Do we dare revise our own temperaments? Funny, fast, and stunningly magical, Generosity explores both science and the freed imagination.

Now, this may sound like a crazy book by the way I described it above but it is true!!! The author named Richard Powers writes his books like this all the time. His topics that he mainly focuses on are science and engineering which I think is so fascinating. Why? Because he ties his knowledge he has on science and such to make a story. Powers indeed has a real background in science - all his books involve science in one way or another and are highly sensitive to the ethical side of “biotech” industries as I mentioned. The other characters, including the “happy” one, get swept into the whirlpool of this big business, quite against their collective and individual wills.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is concerned about the direction the technical world is going. Trust me, you’d like it. I chose to read this book because I love science. This book was published in 2009 so it is very recent and it is the first time I have read a book written by this author (Richard Powers). He won the National Book Award for The Echo Maker and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize!! He has also received fellowships, prizes and literary awards for other works of fiction. Therefore, after reading this book I believe it should deserve to win any kind of prize because it was well written and inspirational. So, I believe these kinds of novels that are moving deserve to be a part of the Pulitzer Prize collection!

The Moivegoer - By: Walker Percy

The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy is a wonderful novel to read for pleasure. I was immediately captivated by its casual yet urgent style, as though there was a secret message running through the book that you would be able to detect only if you paid careful attention to its dialogue. This book explains many things: the yearning for some kind of inspirational meaning in the midst of a secularly ordained universe; the possibility of romantic love, the limitations of romantic love, the temptations and arrogance of characters and lastly, the pathos of both emotional illness and physical illness.

This story is about Binx Bolling, a successful, socially prominent New Orleans stockbroker from an old and wealthy family, and how he faces his life in the week of Carnival leading up to his thirtieth birthday on Ash Wednesday. Binx is an avid and successful skirt chaser, but he really loves his step cousin Kate, a manic depressive. The book tells us that a life spent seeking happiness is almost doomed to failure, that happiness, both as a concept and as a reality, is difficult to grasp and difficult to retain. “Joy and sadness come by turns, I know now. Beauty and bravery make you sad, and victory breaks your heart, but life goes on” (Percy 211).

The various characters in this story show us how many ways there are of dealing with the world and with one another. We are not sure how the lives of Binx and Kate and the others “end up” but we see how the world affects them and how they affect the world. This is, in a sense, a very modern novel. Despite its title, The Moviegoer doesn’t talk about film a lot. It mentions a specific movie, but the title seems to me to be more of a metaphor for the narrator’s passive life. Thus, a lesson I learned from reading this book was no matter the struggles or difficulties one faces throughout life, life has to go on.

Atonement - The Movie!

Hey guys!

So I just watched the movie Atonement and here is what I thought of it!

The movie disappointed me a little because it rarely showed the sheer enormity and viciousness of the “crime” Briony commits and the way in which the family (except Cecilia) closes conversations with her. Atonement is one of those rare movies that feels too short rather than too long. I thought that Knightly (Cecelia), who is the book’s main female role did an okay job in the movie. Briony’s character (3 different ones), to me seemed a tad shortchanged. Briony, (age 13 played by Saoirse Ronan) was very strong in the movie but I thought Romola Garai (who played Briony when she was 18) was rather dull compared to Ronan’s strong appearance. In her one scene opposite Knightley and McAvoy, Garai just didn’t impress me and shattered my expectations. As the more controlled Cecilia, Knightley hints at the rebel behind the upper-middle-class mask, while McAvoy shows a sheer emotional range.

The scenes of Cecilia and Robbie making love with sweet lips and token resistance is what may keep people awake in the movie because towards the middle, it gets kind of boring. Those images (lovemaking) supply Atonement with a sense of purpose before Briony supersedes their saga. The lovers’ bond provides the best lines in a movie based on a novel. They speak of love without shame and the clarity of passion. One wants them to unite.

Then, came the scene when Robbie is out of jail and is on a quest to find Cecelia (who is working in London as a nurse). However, he goes on to France to fight in WWII. Meanwhile, Briony (Romola Garai) is also working as a nurse to remove her guilt. Briony’s seeking for atonement, to meet Robbie and Cecelia is hurting her from the inside and this is at least 45 minutes of the movie giving emotional punches back and forth!

The overall execution of the movie is so fine. Atonement is worth seeing even if the ending of the story doesn’t live up to the beginning of it. There is a level of filmmaking and storytelling here that places it in the highest ranks of best films. I most definitely recommend seeing it, and am curious as to how others would view this movie. If so, which one did you like more? The book or the movie?

Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies

Some books pop out and grab the reader all at once. Others take longer and then sneak up on you. This is one of the those.

I enjoyed reading Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. Of course I read it for class this semester but I also do believe I read it in High School (another story in the book) -- not really satisfied reading the stories my teacher had chosen in that collection. Yes, it is definitely not a jump - in - your - face collection, but I guess once you read many stories written by Lahiri, you can get a general gist of what underlying theme consists in his stories.

In Lahiri‘s “Sexy,” the protagonist is someone more American than Indian who is confronted with the specter of India of her ancestors, the alien nature of its’ gods and foods and thinking. “Can I help you?”- the man standing at the cash register asked. He was eating a samosa, dipping it into some dark brown sauce on a paper plate. Below the glass counter at his waist were trays of more plump samosas, and what looked like pale, diamond-shaped pieces of fudge covered with foil, and some bright orange pastries floating in syrup. Unaware of the Indian culture, Miranda still fell for Dev and started to have an affair with this man (though he was married to Laxmi)!

Apart from Laxmi and Dev, the only Indians whom Miranda had known were a family in the neighborhood where she’d grown up. I think I could relate to this story a lot since it was about Indian culture and there were a few words that I knew straight up what they meant. For example in the above passage, the word “samosa” is a really tasty Indian dish that can be eaten as an appetizer! Also, Madhuri Dixit is a famous Indian actress and there was a reference to her in the story when Miranda mentioned that Laxmi was as beautiful as her!

Thus, I thought of this story as a combination of life stories and characterizations of both Indians in India and Indians in America. The stories take place in that traditional culture and in New England. There is a clash of cultures. These are people who both are and possibly aren’t comfortable in their place or culture and are feeling their way through life with doubts and fears.

Pulitzer Prize Comittee Board

Hey Guys,

So to start thinking about our presentation, I was thinking what is it exactly that makes a book Pulitzer Prize Worthy.

Now, I went on a little scavenger hung online trying to figure the answer to my question because in our presentation in the last week of school, we have to share with the class why we believe it deserves to earn a Pulitzer Prize.

Sad thing is that I couldn't find any information on this. The book just has to be appealing to the Committee Board.

So, if you have any ideas or would like to share...

Here is the place! :]

Analysis of Barn Burning

To me, the story “Barn burning” seems just to be about an oppressive father who burns barns and about a son who is put into an awkward situation unknowingly. I think Faulkner explores at least one dilemma in the story when the main protagonist Sarty is faced with the decision of either going along with the views and actions of his morally challenged father or asserting his own morality and individuality by running away and leaving his family and his pain behind.

The antagonist in the story is Abner Snobes. Abner Snobes is a very angry and thoughtless man who has hate for almost anybody who is not “blood-related”, and he portrays that hatred and contempt throughout the story. The relationship between the father and the son is very significant. This is not a typical father and son who care for each other. In general a father-son relationship would be built on genuine respect, love and loyalty. These emotions were not prevalent in Abner and Sarty Snopes relationship. Sarty’s loyalty to his father appeared to come from a long time fear of the consequences of not obeying his father’s commands.

Sarty “smelled the fierce pull of blood.” Sarty knew he was the son of the “barn burner.” Sarty fought to defend his father and when hurt, he seemed to need the blood to remain for a while as a reminder of why he stayed with the man. Sarty viewed his father at times as “bloodless.” Most of the time, Sarty could usually convince himself of why his father was this way. Sarty’s family are farmers of course, but they move around a lot because of his father’s habit of burning something down every time he gets angry. This is mainly how Sarty developed this hatred for his father. It is at that time Sarty realizes that there is something deeply psychologically wrong with his father, but he underestimates his father’s danger! And this is where the conflict occurs. The climax occurs at the point when they arrive at the plantation of Major de Spain and Abner burns the beautiful, large plantation down!

Abner Snopes looked at the mansion of Major de Spain as a symbol of inequity. A fact that he had too much and Abner had so little. Sarty looked at the vast mansion as a picturesque scene of “the grove of oaks and cedars and flowering trees and shrubs” almost as if it was a place out of this world! Sarty wanted to be a man of truth, but at the same time didn’t want to feel guilty. This would have been a complete denial of any inherited traits from his father. Abner Snopes would not tell the truth whatsoever which kind of annoyed me while reading this short story. He thought that he had paid the price of the war and now was his time to seek what was his. This violent act of rage against this man and the area that Sarty loved would bring him to a deciding point in his young life.

Thus, Sarty’s decision was the following: At the story’s beginning, when Sarty was ready to testify that his father did not burn down that barn, he would have done it because a son’s job is to never break his father’s trust. However, at the end of the story, Sarty warns Major de Spain that his father is about to burn down his beautiful plantation, even though he knows that this will bring his family down once and for all, knowing he will never be able to go home again. Sarty is able to do it because he realizes that the path he would like to go on and the path that his father would like to go on are totally different and so he risks his life.

Why Explicate A Poem?

Since we are on the verge of writing an explication of a poem that is in the Pulitzer Prize winning Native Guard, I figured I would do a little bit of research on what it exactly means to “explicate” a poem!

First off, explicating a poem means to explain, interpret or analyze a poem. You have to know the form, type of rhyme scheme and themes or symbols that are used in the poem. There are also various literary techniques one can’t forget which can always contribute to the poem at large!

Now, once you have read the poem, one has to identify with the actual situation in the poem. What is the poem telling us? Is it written in first person or second person? What is the typical mood of the poem? Next is the structure. How many lines are there in the poem? Is that significant? How are the images and ideas developed? Is the diction and syntax complicated for the reader to be able to understand immediately?

Never overlook a title because it may be significant and it can relate to the poem. This takes you back to the language or diction. Within language, there are allusions or references to the text and also imagery which focuses on the figurative language and meaning of the poem.

At times, there may also be devices such as rhyme scheme or meter present in the poem. Overall, what I have discussed here are just some basic components one may want to include if explicating a poem. Hopefully, when you read a poem it will create a change in your attitude!