Night Mail
Night Mail
Caged Bird
The quotation above is a significant stanza of the poem, CAGED BIRD.
The stanza explicitly displays the true meaning of the poem and defines
actions of a "caged bird." Blackness of skin acts as a barrier for the
black race; it prevents freedom for a person. The freedom, and feelings of
a white person's existence are unknown to one who is black. Here, Maya's
belief for freedom and equality is beginning to spread among the black
race. She "sings" for freedom.
Throughout history, barriers have been put up between races.
Divisions and inequities between blacks and whites have existed since
ancient times. It's an enigma regarding how heritage has incurred blacks
with slavery, and why discrimination and racism exist. Nevertheless, the
Civil Rights Movement, actions of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and
the trials of Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, and Plessy vs.
Ferguson (Separate but Equal, 1896) are examples of how blacks have
slowly "sang" for equality. For more than three hundred years, a wrongful
tradition of slavery and discrimination has existed. This ongoing black
inferiority and white supremacy (ethnocentrism) is bound in tradition and
hard to sever. Blacks are slowly overcoming the dominance of whites to
blacks.
Through tradition and history, whites have been given hopes and
spirit; blacks are servile and bound by tradition. This controversy is
condoned and accepted. Tradition has caused the death of black dreams and
hope. If a black person existed retaining the same amount of knowledge,
skill, and talent of a white person, who would succeed more in life? The
poem infers that the probable answer would be a white person, because
blacks are "caged" by their color. Opportunities infinitely exist for
whites, whereas the same is false for blacks.
In her book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and her poem, Caged
white race
white tradition carried through history,
black race
black tradition of unequal opportunities, permanent
in the ground
opportunities, that can be carried by the bees,
but can remain in the flowers