It's easier for the former masters to put aside the masks that hid their humanity than for the former slaves to recognise the faces underneath. Or to trust that this is not a new mask these are wearing.
Nadine GordimerRead
The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote symbolizes the concept of isolation and imprisonment in various forms.
Nadine Gordimer uses the imagery of a caged eagle to express the profound sense of isolation and confinement that can manifest in many aspects of life. The comparison of a zoo to a prison highlights the degradation of freedom and the feeling of being trapped, regardless of the physical space one occupies, encouraging reflections on the nature of captivity and the longing for liberation.
Themes
IsolationImprisonmentFreedomConfinementMetaphor
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on mental health, one could use this quote to highlight feelings of being trapped by societal expectations.
More from Nadine Gordimer
All quotes βThe gap between the committed and the indifferent is a Sahara whose faint trails, followed by the mind's eye only, fade out in sand.
Nadine GordimerRead
Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.
Nadine GordimerRead
Art defies defeat by its very existence, representing the celebration of life, in spite of all attempts to degrade and destroy it.
Nadine GordimerRead
A truly living human being cannot remain neutral.
Nadine GordimerRead
If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it.
Nadine GordimerRead
Similar quotes
Like the bee gathering honey from the different flowers, the wise person _x000D_ accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Peace as a positive condition of society, not merely as an interim between wars, is something so unknown that it casts no images on the mind's screen.
Denise LevertovRead
I hold that without truth and nonviolence there can be nothing but destruction of humanity.
Mahatma GandhiRead
There is no God. But it does not matter. Man is enough.
Edna St. Vincent MillayRead
To be free is to be capable of thinking one's own thoughts - not the thoughts merely of the body, or of society, but thoughts generated by one's deepest, most original, most essential and spiritual self, one's individuality.
Rudolf SteinerRead
Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.
Niccolo MachiavelliRead