Preview

The People Could Fly Virginia Hamilton

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
351 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The People Could Fly Virginia Hamilton
Have you ever had your freedom taken away? Well in “The People Could Fly” by Virginia Hamilton shows a message about freedom because the folktales talks about people escaping throughout course of being captured. This story is intended for readers who have been suffered or caused suffering because the story analyzes a meaning of freedom about escaping from captivity. The story is meant for people who suffered because they need to know about freedom and finally get out of misery.
Likewise, the author relates the blackbirds and eagles because the eagle shows a symbol of freedom while the blackbird shows a meaning that they are enslaved. In paragraph 1 it states “The ones that could fly shed their wings. They couldn’t take their wings across the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Foster then takes flight and it’s symbolism and shows us how this could twisted. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter had a protagonist named Fevver. She was born with wings, so you’d think she’d be free, right? Not quiet. While she did have wings, she was caged and used as a circus act and could not interact normally with the common man. Her wings that could fly were what imprisoned or “caged” her.…

    • 74 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The people of Hamlock, would soon realise that these birds of darkness marked the end “The Eagles.” During his class lecture, Alexander looked out the window and noticed that the sky had become dark because of bird that were coated in black, also the movement of these birds was highly irregular. The very sight of these birds lead to these feelings of dread started to corrupt Alexander’s mind, “Are the Blackbird, coming to Hamlock to attack?” However, he quickly dismissed the thought, “The "Blackbirds" are nothing but cowards, they don’t have the guts to come and infiltrate our territory and besides, even if they did attack “The Eagles” are filled with power men and women, there's no way they would attack”, but even though he pushed off the idea of the “Blackbirds” attacking, he was still worried about what those wings of malevolence to the town of…

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “There was a time in Africa when people could fly like blackbirds.” Sue Monk Kidd opens the book with this concept while Charlotte is talking to her daughter, Handful. Right away she gives off the impression of Charlotte having a strong mindset and imagination that will be passed onto Handful. This interpretation is very important throughout the book as we read about Handful and Sarah growing up. The novel is divided into 6 sections while the chapters alternate from Sarah to Handful’s point of views. Within the chapters we learn about other characters and their stories from the girl’s perspectives. Originally, the book starts when they are young and don’t know about the world or their social status. Handful, a slave on the Grimke’s plantation…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What she is speaking of is a slave, trapped in his master’s cage, meaning forced labor. The slave is so enraged but his hands are tied, he is forced to do as his master commands. When the caged bird (the slave) is singing, he is singing the songs of slavery. For example, “Hard Trails” and some of the lyrics are “Now ain’t them hard trails, great tribulations, Hard trials, hard trials, I am bound to leave this land.” Most of these songs were about the Lord saving them.…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘With it’s sight restored at last, the bird jerked it’s head sideways to look at Carl and then Joy, as though it was asking, is it true? Am I free?’ James Moloney uses the image of the osprey in several ways throughout the novel. The main technique in which it is represented, is the emotion of the characters finally feeling free in there own way.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee signify an important message throughout its chapters while the symbolism of a mockingbird appears from time to time. The mockingbird symbolizes one´s purity of true kindness to do something and receive nothing or something worse, in return. This symbolic bird develops the theme throughout this book by establishing the actions of a mockingbird onto the innocence population of Maycomb. Within this naive population, two characters can be considered ¨mockingbirds,¨ Tom Robinson and Arthur ¨Boo Radley.¨…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The book, Song of Solomon, is a story about a hero – a black(African) man called Milkman Dead. The story talks about how Milkman discovered the history of his family, and his upbringing. In fact, Milkman’s and his family’s history reflect on the situation of all black people living in that society. “Flying” is an important facto in the story. The author, Toni Morrison, who is a black woman, explains many different styles of flying of different persons such as Milkman’s grandfather, his father, his aunt, and his friend(s?). Black people view the “flying” as a dream. They all want to fly. However, flying has different meanings to different people.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass’s “Escape from Slavery” is one man’s account of why he chose to risk his life for his freedom. Douglass does not reveal how he escapes for fear it would endanger those who assisted his escape in addition to preventing future escapes from other slaves. In view of, the dangers of revealing the how Douglass only reveals to his readers the why’s of his desire to escape and his journey to becoming a free man.…

    • 76 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Frederick Douglass Quote Log

    • 2784 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The audience of this piece is educated, white abolitionist men from the north. Because of this, this speaker chooses to frequently use logos to make his argument, which is evident in this passage. He is straight forward in describing what it truly means to be a slave, and how they are of no lesser value than white people. These are simply facts, but the tone in which they are presented enable the audience/reader to understand where he is coming from and take his side.…

    • 2784 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    he folk tale titled “the people could fly” by Virginia Hamilton introduces the importance of never giving up and always have hope no matter what don't lose hope. The folk tale uses examples to explain how slaves were treated in the plantations they had to work in without being paid but instead was given a horrible life. When Sarah was being whipped by the plantation owner, nicknamed “The Master” is a powerful example that illustrates how slaves were being treated in the plantations, in real life that wasn't all, they were called horrible names that are forbidden or compared like a animal like the master called Sarah a “Black Cow”. Another important idea from the folk tale is that it is not really what it seems like because they wings ment freedom…

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many times, in the book, the author is confronted with dead birds. During her childhood, the author spent much time with her grandmother out bird watching and while her mother was less involved in this, it is that the author very much connects birds with her family. We see the result of this connection when we see her encounter a dead whistling swan, “I knelt beside the bird, took off my deerskin gloves, and began smoothing feathers. Its body was still limp— the swan had not been dead long. I lifted both wings out from under its belly and spread them on the sand. Untangling the long neck which was wrapped around itself was more difficult, but finally I was able to straighten it, resting the swan’s chin flat against the shore”. (p. 121). The author and her family lived their entire lives at the Great Salt Lake. It seems to me that if the author felt such respect for a single swan, then how she felt for the area must have also been quite a powerful feeling…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Asshoo

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In Song of Solomon, a novel by Toni Morrison, flight is used as a literal and metaphorical symbol of escape. Each individual character that chooses to fly in the novel is “flying” away from a hardship or a seemingly impossible situation. However, by choosing to escape, one is also deliberately choosing to abandon family and community members. The first reference to this idea is found in the novel’s epigraph: “The fathers may soar/ And the children may know their names,” which introduces the idea that while flight can be an escape, it can also be harmful to those left behind. However, while the male characters who achieve flight do so by abandoning their female partners and family, the female characters master flight without abandoning those they love. Throughout the novel, human flight is accepted as a natural occurrence, while those who doubt human flight, such as Milkman, are viewed as abnormal and are isolated from the community. It is only when Milkman begins to believe in flight as a natural occurrence that he is welcomed back into the community and sheds his feelings of isolation.…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” seeks to enlighten and, inform readers about slavery first hand through the eyes of Frederick Douglass. Douglass not being the only freed slave to write an autobiography, but his work being considered one of the most accurate and authentic. Douglass uses his writing to demonstrate what events happen due to the power abuse of slaveholders over their slaves. Frederick Douglass describes with examples from personal experiences, the tremendous physical and mental destruction slavery has on both slaves, and slave-owners. Douglass provides us with vivid imagery of what actions were taking place during this enslaved period.…

    • 1117 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    also contrasted the black hawk with the white pigeons as a black person within a white society.…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Woodard, Loretta G. "Understanding I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents." The Journal of Negro History 86.2 (2001): 188+.…

    • 2750 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays