Constructing Freedom and Oppression in Maya Angelou’s Caged Bird: A Semiotic and Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This study explores Maya Angelou’s poem Caged Bird through the lens of Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistic theory, employing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework to uncover how language constructs and reflects social power relations. Using Saussure’s concepts of signifier, signified, and binary opposition, the research investigates the semiotic contrast between the “free bird” and the “caged bird” as symbolic representations of freedom and oppression. The poem’s discourse reveals that linguistic signs operate relationally, where meaning emerges through difference rather than inherent reference. The free bird symbolizes privileged autonomy, while the caged bird embodies the silenced and marginalized subject whose only means of resistance lies in language, the act of singing. Through CDA, the study demonstrates that Angelou’s poetic discourse functions as a critique of systemic inequality, highlighting how linguistic structures reproduce yet also challenge dominant ideologies. The analysis concludes that Caged Bird transforms language into a site of both captivity and liberation, reflecting the tension between silence and voice, subjugation and self-expression, within social and racial hierarchies.