Arturo The Parrot

Branch off of the great tree of Eudora Welty’s unique writing style into her more playful and creative mindset as she ventures to write a children's book about a urban store talking parrot. Charming shoe store parrot that causes mistakes and miscommunication throughout the story.
Arturo; the main protagonist/bird in this story works alongside the City’s Shoe Store owner Mr. Friendly, and the store assistant Mr. Clark. An intelligent bird that helped around the store dragging across the floor shoe boxes that could fit customer's, getting top shelf boxes, and even getting matches for Mr. Friendly’s pipe. Arturo the Parrot, whose job was to help greet people as they came into The Friendly Shoe Store. A eye catching greetings as you walk into

the store, seeing a parrot that had green head feathers, blue wings, yellow eyes, yellow feet, and a small feathered yellow tail. Arturo was not a bird that you could easily miss because he was also the store’s personal mascot, not only the mascot but the manager in charge when Mr. Friendly was not there or during after hours. During store hours Arturo was serious and quiet waiting on instructions to help tend to customer needs.
Arturo the Parrot had a motto, and it was this: If you hear it, tell it, whi Repeating statements as all trained parrots will do.

As Arturo hears things by customers as the come in and out of the store, he echoes them throughout the shopping trip. Including by the son of the Thompsons, a family very close to Mr. Friendly. One day the family came in for a quick browse for back to school shopping and extra curricular activities, when Robbie, the oldest between him and his sister jane, sat down with an attitude grunting and mumbling through the store. Until he finally left and he let out a random statement that shapes the plot the this book. “SHOES ARE FOR THE BIRDS!” yelled a little boy defiantly when he finally succeeded in getting his mother and sister out of The Friendly Shoe Store. This one statement and its misinterpretation by the birds lead to a party after closing time at the Friendly Shoe Store. Birds from around the world come together to claim shoes for themselves. This sets the stage for the humorous language and actions throughout the text. Arturo is quite surprised what repeating one phrase can do and must sort out this confusion with his fellow birds. The birds demand shoes, and they are soon fitted into their new mode of

transportation.
Arturo, the parrot who lived in the store, took the comment literally, and since his motto was "If you hear it, tell it," and this habit sets events in motion that end up snowballing into a crazy party. He begins to echoes them throughout the shopping strip, and everybird; from park pigeons, to pet geese hear these statements without any background knowledge take and interpret them in their own views.
Jane’s pet goose who had heard the random outburst of Arturo, took it into her own hands to tell Carrier pigeon spread an invitation to all the birds to an Open House at the Shoe Store.

Birds from all over the city from seagulls, geese, ducks, owls, sparrows and many more; even penguins and ostrich from the city zoo. Representatives of all the species came to the meeting to receive their prize. None knowing what the actual prize was and Arturo not knowing what reason or the occasion why the other birds were there in his shop. A very intelligent bird that Arturo was used his resources around him to keep the birds calm and collected instead running a muck throughout the store. I can tell Arturo was a very intelligent bird because the large us of his vocabulary and his dictionary ready for all situations. Even praised by the highest noble representative bird family; the owls commended Arturo for his wisdom and brains. In the dark store room when the sun sinks below the horizon the chirping of “Bring us the prizes we won’t go”, the singing songbirds, the chirping cockatoos quiet down and get ready to sleep. But the “Owl rises up from his slumber and his huge yellow eyes light up the store room like to yellow globes”. Rethinking the situation again Arturo realizes the situation he’s in is a;; because of him. Over the course of the night, he learns to think for himself instead of just repeat what he hears. The next morning tending to all of his riled up guest,

along with assistance from goose being the Mr. Clark to Arturo himself as Mr. Friendly. As the store after hour manager Arturo did as he was taught to do and sale the product to the customer, each bird was tried for their “earned prizes”. None actually knowing what a shoe actually was except Arturo and Owl, all thinking it was to make a prestige nest or that the shoelaces was worms to eat. Every Bird stubborn to get their prizes, finally learning that it made them incapable of leaving the ground because of the weight from their prizes. The frustration of community demands and loss of flight culminates in a fearful conflict when the store cat Freddy comes calling. The birds are grounded by their literal-minded desire for shoes, not able to leave behind their cherished prizes, and cannot escape the cat.
Humor is an integral and pervasive element in Welty’s works. Her use of humor indicates an awareness that humans need some relief from the tragic potential and effects of everyday life, and literary humor can offer “a distancing from pain that is, in short, essential to existence” If Welty had not incorporated humor into her stories, many of them could have had traumatic effects on her audience. For example, if The Shoe Bird did not present a humorous illustrations of what happens to birds that decide to wear shoes, the story might be a despairing and brutal tale of birds being devoured by Freddy the Cat. While some children may find such a conclusion incredibly exciting and amusing, many could be bored beyond belief and others could be terrified. The humorous quality of this fantastic story keeps the action moving and maintains the reader’s attention. The Shoe Bird is a smaller, lighter version of Welty’s adult works: all are concerned with the essential nature of relationships and the interaction of the collective unconscious and the individual’s search for identity. Welty addresses the various aspects of everyday life in terms of these elements existing in confluence. The family stories are examples of this confluence. A brief overview of The Shoe Bird, Eudora Welty’s only children’s book, will facilitate this discussion that her children’s story is similar with her dark background adult works.