Waxen Wings Literary Analysis

You are lucky, Little Bird, for you have wings. But you must learn to master them. Look at the baron’s hawk there on her perch. Just because she doesn’t flap her wings all the time doesn’t mean she can’t fly. ”(Cushman 83).

In this cruel environment, the people seem to act upon their passions without much regard for the consequences. Jealousy and revenge torment Vas as well as other characters in the novel. THE BIRD ARTIST is a wonderfully vital creation. Men and women struggle against a brutal locale, against one another, and against themselves in order to survive with some degree of

In elementary, she has a desire to fly and enjoys swinging on the swing set at school so she was determined to make a bigger jump, performing a somersault; yet, her teacher isn’t happy because another child gets hurt mimicking Birdie. She warns Birdie, “ Only birds can fly. It’s impossible for people to fly”, (165). In middle school, Birdie pushes the thoughts of flying and is more focused on the force of gravity; she joins gymnastics and appeals to a star gymnast, Yunhui whom Birdie studies every move; but, Yunhui has a tragic accident that leaves her paralyzed from the neck down.

Her name can also be used as irony. She wants to fly, and birds fly. When Birdie tries to fly, she fails. In the beginning she is successful because she is so tiny that she can stay in the air longer than most of the children. Once she falls in her competition, it is pretty much over for her.

People live through positive and negative events. Many people have struggles throughout their lives that make life feel impossible with the amount of abuse that is placed on them. Louie is stranded at sea and his situation does not get much better when he is taken by the Japanese. Being beaten by the Bird on nearly a daily basis while stuck as a POW in Japan eventually takes a toll on Louie. Although the war is over after nearly two years as a POW, his problems do not get much better.

Chopin uses bird symbolism and metaphors to reflect Edna’s journey and her true desires. The bird is used as a symbolic element used to represent Edna and

Daphne du Maurier’s short story “The Birds” is a piece of fiction that displays many literary elements. This story displays suspense, foreshadowing, and imagery. By using these literary elements du Maurier creates an intense story that leaves the readers wondering what happens next and wanting more. First, foreshadowing is used to reference events that will happen further into the story.

If the prisoner lowers his arms, the Bird told him, hit him with your gun. The Bird walked to a nearby shack, climbed on the roof, and settled in to watch. Louie stood in the sun, holding up the beam. The Bird stretched over the roof like a contented cat,calling to the Japanese who walked by, pointing to Louie and laughing. Louie locked his eyes on the Bird’s face, radiating hatred.

In addition, her choice of killing was to the neck with a rope as is similar to the way Mr. Wright killed her pet bird by wrecking its neck. Figuratively in this story, the bird is Mrs. Wright therefore, her killing the bird meant that she was close or already had killed Mrs. Wright’s true personality. The thought of this is what made Mrs. Wright rage vigorous from her cage as the thought of the constant oppression and the murder of her pet that influence her to reach for the rope. This scene is what drove Mrs. Wright to insanity as the constant nagging of abusive behavior and isolation is what made her leave her cage and remove the problem that was impeding her escape to

The men of the group, much like John in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” consider themselves more capable than the women and refuse to consider Mrs. Wright as anything other than irrational. The men leave the women to their “trifles” on the first floor, where they discover a broken bird cage, and the bird’s body, broken, carefully wrapped in a small, decorative box. They realize that Mr. Wright had wrung the neck of his wife’s beloved bird and broken its cage. Mrs. Wright, once known for her cheerfulness and beautiful singing, she stopped singing when she encountered Mr. Wright. Just like he did with the bird, Mr. Wright choked the life out of his wife until, finally, Mrs. Wright literally choked the life out of her husband.

While the perception of the reader remains the same, the narrator’s perception of the bird becomes more jumbled and insane when he starts asking questions like “is there balm in Gilead? (line 89)”. His troubled mind seeks for relief from the bird . Also he is asks if there is a balm that can heal anything, and if he will ever be able to embrace Lenore again. When relief of grief doesn’t come the image of the bird changes to a prophet possibly sent from the devil.

Bird: symbolize freedom and independence in the novel, the awakening. Birds are able to roam free and do as they please rather than being subjected to society 's standards and help down rather than flying. The bird with a broken wing flying above before Enda swam into the ocean and drowned represented her current state. She could not continue to fight even though she remain strong in the beginning. The caged parrot in the beginning of the novel represented how women were caged by society during those times and were removed if they caused some sort of recuse.

The bird is interpreted as the symbol of the African-American people, beating their metaphorical wings against their past cages of slavery, and the current cage of segregation and discrimination. Dunbar highlights this notion, declaring, “I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, / When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, - / When he beats his bars and he would be free; / It is not a carol of joy or glee” (Dunbar, “Sympathy” 555). Dunbar addresses the fact that he is able to relate to this bird, and mentions the fact that the bird wishes it could be free; much like the African-Americans wished they could be free from discrimination at the time, while the bruises on the bird’s wings and body symbolize the mental abuse being enforced. Dunbar uses his poem to lay the groundwork for future forms of African-American literature by perpetrating the desire for freedom and equality.

“A Caged Bird” is a poem by Maya Angelou, that describes the struggle of a bird ascending from the restrictions with adverse surroundings. The poem renders the oppression that has affected African Americans over the years. As Angelou explains, the bird fights its imprisonment even with fear, but rises above with the stance of freedom. “Phenomenal Women” by Maya Angelou discusses beauty being in the eye of the beholder. You don’t have to have a perfect physique or focus entirely on outer beauty.

In the poems “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, both portray captive birds that sing. However in “Sympathy”, the bird pleads with god for freedom, whereas in “Caged Bird” the captive bird calls for help from a free bird. In “Sympathy” the bird knows what freedom feels like since there was a time where the bird was once free, but now is trapped. In the first stanza the use of imagery revealed how freedom felt before the bird was caged.