Read the passage from "The Caged Bird." A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky. How does the figurative language in this stanza work as part of the extended metaphor? A. It creates images of freedom. B. It creates images of oppression. C. It emphasizes a sense of fantasy. D. It emphasizes a sense of arrogance.

A. It creates images of freedom.

Explanation:

In the poem "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou, the poet talks about the themes of oppression and discrimination faced by her people, especially the blacks. This poem uses numerous figurative languages to lay emphasis on the issues of social discrimination and the want of freedom.

The given passage from the first stanza of the poem talks of how a free bird goes along with the flow of the stream till it reaches the end and then began its flight after the current stops. This flight is suggestive of freedom and liberty that the poem and the poet wants to imply. Using the extended metaphor of the bird flying as the oppressed people, the speaker talks of how freedom and independence can be achieved.

not concrete, existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence

imparadis't in one anothers arms  

the happier eden, shall enjoy their fill  

of bliss on bliss, while i to hell am thrust,  

where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,  

among our other torments not the least,  

still unfulfill'd with pain of longing pines;  

yet let me not forget what i have gain'd  

from their own mouths; all is not theirs it seems:  

one fatal tree there stands of knowledge call'd,  

forbidden them to taste: knowledge forbidd'n?  

suspicious, reasonless. why should their lord  

envie them that? can it be sin to know,