The Songs of Freedom

This caged tinker's damn's earthly c formerlyrn is a bitter one comp ard to the naturally free tinker's damn and Angelou uses harsh resourcefulness to convey the dehumanizing, limiting and harsh impact of racialism and hurt - another artificial imprisonment. For example, the caged boo exists in a " sign cage", can barely see through " bars of rage", and must express himself via his "throat to sing" since his " go are clipped and his feet are tied" (Angelou 2003, 1). Whereas the free bird experiences independence, the caged bird can only " consternationfully trill" for it (Angelou 2003, 1). The caged bird has been robbed of its natural freedom and is now trapped in an existence that robs him of all expression but a cry for what has been stolen. The caged bird cannot enjoy the freedom due him naturally but sort of must "stand on the grave of dreams", his shadow a "nightmare scream" and rely on songs of freedom as his only expression.

We can see how robbing individuals of their natural freedom undermines them and robs us of the beauty of what might have been their natural expression. In Rich's aunty Jennife

r's Tigers, we see another cause of how oppression limits the capacity of expression and meaning in the oppressed. aunt Jennifer's tigers are free. They "prance across the screen", they are " intense denizens of a world of green" and they have no " fearfulness [of] the men beneath the tree" (Rich 1951, 1).

In this depiction we once again see the noble savage image of animals when they are free in nature. As Rich (1951) wrote, "They pace in sleek chivalric certainty" (1).

Rich, A. (1951). Aunt Jennifer's Tigers, (Poem). Viewed on Jul 16, 2003: hypertext transfer protocol://www.americanpoems.com/poets/adrienne_rich/Aunt_Jennifer's_Tigers.shtml, 1.

Aunt Jennifer's capacity for expression and fulfillment was diminished because of her fear of breaking the bonds of male oppression. Like the caged bird, she is modified in expression. Her experiences with courage, freedom and self-expression are limited to inanimate portrayals of life, much as the caged bird's limited expression is only a call for what the free bird naturally possesses. As such, both of these poets demonstrate how oppression, prejudice and racism are diminishing to human capacity, expression
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