Jealous Husband Parrot

665 Words2 Pages

Robert Olen Butler’s “Jealous Husband returns in form of Parrot” is a story of a married man who has suspicions that his wife has been unfaithful and in his effort to catch her he finds the address and name of her lover and goes to his house in hopes of catching her in the act. Seeing no other way into the house he begins to climb a tree to look into a window but loses his balance and falls to his death. He is then reincarnated into a parrot at a pet store and is bought by his wife. Now as a parrot he can witness his wife's adultery everyday and blames himself for pushing her to cheat. The main character is dynamic because in the end he realizes that his own insecurities and mistakes caused the problems in his relationship. By not voicing …show more content…

The external conflict is that as a parrot the narrator cannot communicate his thoughts and feelings to his wife which frustrates him.The internal conflict is the feelings the main character struggles with such as his jealousy and insecurities over his wife's adultery with other men, and his ruined pride due to her bringing the men to their home and in their bed. The setting is very specific it is in Houston, at the home of the narrator and his wife before he died and was reincarnated. By making the setting at the narrator's home it causes the narrator to have flashbacks and reminisce about the good and bad memories with his wife which causes his emotions to be raw and uncontrollable; because he is watching his wife bring these men into their home and their bedroom. The fact that the birdcage is sitting at an angle and hinders him from seeing into his bedroom and only allows him to hear the sounds emitting from it. The point of view for this story is first person which is appropriate for this story because it helps the reader to better feel and understand the husband's feelings and thoughts towards his situation and his wife, which is ironic due to the fact that he couldn't even express himself to his wife which lead to his problems in the first

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