Neil Gaiman's Sunbird

In Neil Gaiman’s fantastical short story “Sunbird” the author ironically conveys messages concerning real-life problems towards young adults and children of age similar to his daughter whom seems to be considered as the main audience of this story. The short story begins with the introduction of the Epicurean group of five noble people who are all rich or was rich at one point. Augustus TwoFeathers McCoy, Professor Mandalay, Virginia Boote, Jackie Newhouse, and Zebidiah T. Crawcrustle are the only members of the group of those who concern only one goal, which is to eat or try eating all the animals that are known to the public. The story progresses until the members of the Epicurean group fulfills their goal by eating the Sunbird, which was

the last animal that the Epicurean group have not eaten, and faces a severe consequence of death except for one of the member, Crawcrustle who have lived all his life watching all the generations of the epicurean members making the same mistake over and over again. The main message Gaiman warns to the young adults who are in the similar age group with his daughter is about the importance of learning from the upper generations about the mistakes that the upper generation already went through and preventing the mistakes to happen again for the younger generations.

By using a fairy tale-like genre the story has great advantages of communicating to the younger generations and easily conveys the main message. However, throughout the short story, Gaiman uses sophisticated dictions that would seem to fit those with educated levels of academics, and not children of the similar age from his daughter. The intended audience would rather seem to fit for those who can understand the educated dictions, resulting in that the adults can be considered a secondary audience that Gaiman tries to convey his message

towards.
In Gaiman’s short story, he first introduces the members of the Epicurean group before explaining the overall situation of the story. Whether this story was intended for those of the younger age group or the upper age group, Epicureans are not a commonly known concept that even adults would easily have heard of. However, it is likely that the upper age group that reads the short story has the advantage of noticing the connotation from the story from experience in readings, and analyze that the Epicureans are a group of people that only seek pleasure and not work for their wealth. In further defining the Epicureans, they are a group of Greek philosophers’ apprentices who derive sensual enjoyment especially from food and drinks. Without knowing who and what the Epicureans are, the reason that Gaiman uses the Epicurean group would have not mattered in such concept of the story where people who only seek pleasure can stumble upon consequences because of lack of knowledge like how the Epicurean group members in the short story did not know about the consequence of eating a sunbird, resulting in death. By discussing such educated concept of the epicureans in a fantasy genre, it seems irrelevant that this short story is a fairy-tale like fantasy only written for his daughter and the similar age group. As a result, although the genre seems to fit into a younger age group, it seems like that the age boundary of the intended audience is higher.
In the rhetorical situation where the argument or the message of the story revolves around the rhetor and audience, the connection can be sought in depth of whom the primary and secondary audience is.

All things considered, after knowing that the short story was specifically wrote for his daughter, the primary and secondary audience can be determined. Primary audience, being his daughter, is the individual that is listening to or reading the rhetor’s story first. However, it is possible that the adults could be considered as the secondary audience, who are the individuals that the arguments were actually intended for (The Rhetorical Situation). Although Gaiman states that the story was written for his daughter as a birthday present, it seems like the message is not only for his daughter because the primary audience can receive the message about avoiding the same mistakes that the upper generation has suffered and the secondary audience can receive the message about the danger of seeking pleasure and the danger of the lack of knowledge dealing with unknown materials. In response to the story, the message for the primary audience is about learning from the upper generation and it can be seen in the end of the story where Gaiman transitions into a first person point of view saying “I hear that the Epicureans are beginning to grumble once again. They are saying that they have eaten everything” (Gaiman). Because the upper generation failed to leave a guide about eating the

sunbird the next generation does not know about the consequence of eating the sunbird which is the last animal that they have to eat. On the other hand, the message for the secondary audience can be also found at the end of the story where the narrator exemplifies the Epicurean members to be “a rich and rowdy bunch” (Gaiman). This meaning that the Epicurean members are of course rich but troublesome and rebellious towards the working society where pleasure can not be prioritized. Therefore, it is likely that Gaiman intentionally used educated diction and higher qualities of concepts that can determine as to why the message of the story is intended for the older generations to aid the young adults. In relation to the topic, Nordquist claims that, “knowing the audience increases your ability to accomplish your purpose for writing” (Nordquist). To add upon about the meaning of the message and it’s purpose for the audience can be specified with Gaiman knowing both audiences as a father and as one of the adults that can relate to the message.
The reasons as discussed above expose that this story story is not only for his daughter and the similar age group because the diction and concept of the story is for the adults or people with higher educations. As discussed in the beginning of the essay, Epicureans are not well known to common people without specific education into the specific field of studies. But why Gaiman uses this concept is to acknowledge the adult society because it is for those who seek pleasure in food and drinks, resembling that of pleasurable materials and concepts. Not only do the younger generations have to learn from the upper generations, the upper generation has to show and be resembling honorable behaviors to the younger generations to learn from. For this point, Gaiman uses the fantasy genre to appeal the innocence of the childhood and allow adults to step back to a safe place and pretend that the reality is in a fictional world which mirrors the real working society where adults have responsibilities to work. (Webb). In addition, around the early nineteenth hundred, the fantasy genres were as common as novels that both children and adults could enjoy (Krongberg). Krongberg also expands on the idea that around the time period when the Brother Grimm (German academics) published fairy tales, they were unpopular and the older generations avoided reading the fairy tale genre because sexual contents were left out deu to religious reasons (Krongberg). However, even though fantasy genres have the purpose to entertain the readers, the genre teaches moral concepts like how in Sunbird, it teaches about learning from the upper generation to prevent mistakes and learn about the danger of seeking pleasurable concepts rather than taking responsibilities. These messages of course are helpful for children to learn about taking responsibilities, but are also helpful for adults to acknowledge once again about their duty as adults to take care of the children and become role models for the children.
Ironically, the way that Gaiman wrote the short story was for a specific audience. By saying so, it might mean that there is a relationship which the secondary audience can not perceive that makes the story feel more meaningful because it is written for his daughter specifically (The Rhetorical Situation). The relationship with the rhetor and the audience makes the story more complex in understanding for other audiences that have been discussed. Krongberg inplies that, “There was a relationship between the teller and listener, and each had an important part in carrying the art on” (Krongberg). In other words, as much as the rhetor knows about the audience, the “art” or message that the story carry becomes more meaningful and important towards the specific audience; in this case Gaiman’s daughter and the upper generations. In addition, there can be notions that only the rhetor and the primary audience can acknowledge as the story fulfills its assignment; to convey the message to the primary audience first (The Rhetorical Situation). Yet, there is no doubt that the secondary audience exists and Gaiman intentionally uses the fantasy genre and knowledgeable dictions that point toward the adult age group as components to what have been discussed in this essay about avoiding mistakes of only pursuing pleasurable elements.