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The Question & Answer (Q&A) Knowledge Managenet
The Internet has many places to ask questions about anything imaginable and find past answers on almost everything.
1969
Maya Angelou
The purpose of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is to make sense of what has happened to her and to provide hope for other survivors. The tone of this book is conversational, down to earth, and easy to read. The meaning of this powerful autobiography is that one should never lose hope.
The main themes in “Caged Bird” are freedom and confinement, artistic expression as resistance, and civil rights. Freedom and confinement: As its title indicates, “Caged Bird” is concerned with both imprisonment and the innate urge for freedom.
In literature, conflict is the problem or struggle that the protagonist must face. In Hamlet, Hamlet has a conflict with his uncle, whom he suspects of murdering his father in order to be king. Hamlet also has some internal conflict, as he struggles with his own feelings during the play.
Theme is the lesson about life or statement about human nature that the poem expresses. To determine theme, start by figuring out the main idea. Then keep looking around the poem for details such as the structure, sounds, word choice, and any poetic devices.
The central idea of a poem is the poem’s theme or ‘what it’s about’ if you like. Although many shy away from poems being ‘about’ something, at the end of the day, the poet had something in mind when it was written, and that something is the central idea, whatever it is or might have been.
Defining a Theme The theme in a story is its underlying message, or ‘big idea. ‘ In other words, what critical belief about life is the author trying to convey in the writing of a novel, play, short story or poem? It is what the story means. Often, a piece of writing will have more than one theme.