The main character, Zebra, tells a story about a bird with a broken wing in “Zebra” a short story created by Chaim Potok. The reader can infer that the injured bird plays a significant part in Zebra’s story and tells the reader more about Zebra’s emotions. This quote shows just how the bird with the broken wing, in Zebra’s story, compares to him: “When it was Zebra’s turn, he told a story about a bird that one day crashed against a closed windowpane and broke a wing. A boy tried to heal the wing but couldn’t. The bird died, and the boy buried it under a tree on his lawn” (Potok 51). The reader can guess that the bird is very significant because it compares to Zebra. One way that the wounded bird and Zebra are similar is that both of them cannot do the things they love since they got hurt during a fatal accident. The bird cannot fly and Zebra cannot run. Also, …show more content…
the bird broke its wing and Zebra broke his left arm. The boy who tried to heal the bird’s wing compares to Zebra’s doctor because both of them tried to cure the injuries but couldn’t.
Zebra doesn’t state in his depressing story that he is the harmed bird and the boy is his doctor, but it is very clear that his writing is based on him and his life because of the countless similarities. This quote tells the reader about Zebra’s feelings and what people think about him: “‘You always tell such sad stories,’ Andrea said. The bell rang. Mrs. English dismissed the class. In the hallway, Andrea said to Zebra,’You know, you are a very gloomy life form’ (Potok 52). Andrea describes Zebra as “a very gloomy life form” in this quote because of the way he behaves around people. The reader can infer that Zebra has been exceptionally depressed and lifeless ever since his tragic accident because many characters see him like that. In Zebra’s mournful story, the unfortunate bird dies and is buried under a tree on the helpful boy’s lawn. The bird dying expresses that Zebra has died on the inside and when the boy buries it under his tree, it is like Zebra has buried his running
days. In the beginning of the story, Zebra compares himself to a soaring eagle: “... and instead of a zebra he would become the bird he had once seen in a movie about Alaska, he would swiftly change into an eagle, soaring higher and higher, as light as the gentlest breeze, the cool wind caressing his arms and legs and neck. Then, a year ago, racing down Franklin Avenue, he had given himself that push and had begun to turn into an eagle, when a huge rushing shadow appeared in his line of vision and crashed into him and plunged him into a darkness from which he emerged very, very slowly…” (Potok 48). The reader can consider that this quote resembles Zebra’s downcast story because, in his story, the bird crashes into a closed windowpane and, in this quote, a huge rushing shadow appears in his line of vision and crashes into him and plunges him into a darkness. Also, in this quote, Zebra juxtaposes himself and his running style to a soaring eagle. The reader can understand from this that Zebra was the bird with the broken wing after all. In Mrs. English’s imagination class, Zebra tells a story about a bird with a broken wing that plays a significant role in the story because of the numerous relations it has with Zebra.
Chopin mentions birds in a subtle way at many points in the plot and if looked at closely enough they are always linked back to Edna and her journey of her awakening. In the first pages of the novella, Chopin reveals Madame Lebrun's "green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage" (Chopin 1). The caged bird at the beginning of the novella points out Edna's subconscious feeling of being entrapped as a woman in the ideal of a mother-woman in Creole society. The parrot "could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood" (1). The parrot's lack of a way to communicate because of the unknown language depicts Edna's inability to speak her true feelings and thoughts. It is for this reason that nobody understands her and what she is going through. A little further into the story, Madame Reisz plays a ballad on the piano. The name of which "was something else, but [Edna] called it Solitude.' When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing on a desolate rock on the seashore His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him" (25). The bird in the distance symbolizes Edna's desire of freedom and the man in the vision shows the longing for the freedom that is so far out of reach. At the end of the story, Chopin shows "a bird with a broken wing beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water" while Edna is swimming in the ocean at the Grand Isle shortly before she drowns (115). The bird stands for the inability to stray from the norms of society and become independent without inevitably falling from being incapable of doing everything by herself. The different birds all have different meanings for Edna but they all show the progression of her awakening.
In the novel The Wings of a Falcon, the author Cynthia Voigt uses the structure of an adventure tale to tell the story of courage and bravery. Oriel, an orphan boy with his friend Griff, encounter many hardships to earn the title of the Earl. In this story, the author uses the literary devices of setting, characterization, and symbol, which all make the book an interesting one to read.
The book, The Truth About Sparrows by Marian Hale is about when Sadie Wynn moves to Texas because of a drought in Missouri. She is separated from her best friend Wilma but before she left Sadie made a promise that she would be Wilma’s best friend even if they were apart.
The short story, “The White Heron” and the poem, “A Caged Bird” are both alike and different in many ways. In the next couple of paragraphs I will explain these similarities and differences and what makes them unique to the stories.
The novel Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a book that was written in order to provide “Some instructions on writing and life.” Lamott published the book in 1994 in hopes to share the secrets of what it is truly like to be a writer, as both a warning and as encouragement. Bird by Bird shares with the reader the ironic truth of being a struggling writer through personal experience and humorous stories. Lamott uses memories from her past to help illustrate her points and to help the reader get to know who she is, not only as a writer, but as a person. The author focuses on the true struggles and benefits of being a writer while using metaphors and analogies to express her points, she also wraps her life stories around almost every writing tip.
The narrator watches helplessly as the bird tries to escape wondering “how did it get into this terrible place?” (520). As the narrator watches the bird, he slowly begins to turn into the bird himself. All of the paralleled imagery comes together when he physically turns into a bird. The narrator and the bird are in the exact same situation and the narrator has slowly begun to view his own situation through the bird’s eyes. In an airport there are so many factors that travelers have zero control over. In the narrator’s case, he is trapped in the airport because his flight has been delayed over and over. The bird is trapped because it flew in somehow and cannot seem to find it’s way out. The narrator, frustrated with the other people in the airport for not paying attention to the bird or his similar problem screams, “Help me! I want to go home! I don’t belong here!” (520), but no one will help because they either don’t have control either, or they do not care. He helplessly awaits his plane to come, just like the bird helplessly waits for a person to come and save it. All of the imagery about the airport at the beginning comes back to the narrator’s panic attack. He screams for help as loud as he can but no one listens. He becomes just one person among the large crowd of people in the airport. Everybody has his or her own things to do and places to be. The randomness and chaos of the airport leads the narrator to feel helpless and unheard. Both the narrator and the bird have become trapped and
Denotatively a bird is defined as a, Any of a class (Aves) of warm-blooded vertebrates distinguished by having the body more or less completely covered with feathers and the forelimbs modified as wings, often capable of flying. The authors/Glaspell’s strategic comparison of Mrs. Wright to a bird can be interpreted connotatively that she was a free,
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
People label things as “normal” because they have become habituated with these things. Beth Harry’s book, Melanie, Bird with a Broken Wing, her ideal view of a mother is challenged when she gives birth to a child with cerebral palsy. Through her story, she provides an insight into what she felt as a mother of a child with a disability and her journey up until Melanie’s death. The memoir left me with mixed emotions because, in the beginning, Harry expressed her thought of wanting her child to die, if the child had caused any trouble. Harry challenges my core beliefs and values, however, through Melanie, I was able to see Harry grow as a mother and a person. The little ackee seed sprouted a new perception for her mother, as well as it did for
Before entering the ocean, the setting that allows Enda’s spiritual awakening to occur, she sees an injured bird, “A bird with a broken wing.beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling, disabled, down, down to the water”( Chopin #). The bird indirectly represents Enda’s failure to seek liberation and defy the restrictions society sets upon her. The fall of the bird is reflective of Enda’s spiritual awakening as it represents society’s fatal misjudgment as she desires to rebel against society and participates in an infatuation with her lover Robert.
Bird usually portrays an image of bad luck that follows afterwards and in this novel, that is. the beginning of all the bad events that occur in the rest of the novel. It all started when Margaret Laurence introduced the life of Vanessa MacLeod. protagonist of the story, also known as the granddaughter of a calm and intelligent woman. I am a woman.
In The Zebra Storyteller the narrator is a Siamese cat but the narrator is also an outsider. During the story the cat tells a story to his friends about how skillful and 'powerful' he is at killing zebras. Towards the end of the story the cat is handed his fate; he is kicked and killed by a zebra, who sensed feared when approached. At the end of the story Holst concludes with the statement, "That is the function of the storyteller." This statement pertains to the idea of the function the storyteller has or how they create the atmosphere and set the grounds in which the story is based on. There are many functions of the storyteller. They can teach a lesson, control the story, entertain, and stretch one's own imagination. In this story it is a great example how the story can take a sudden unexpected turn and shock the reader. The narrator can take twists and turns and can make expected or even unexpected outcomes in the story. A good example in the story would be where the narrator states, "The zebra storyteller wasn't fit to be tied at hearing a cat speaking his language, because he'd been thinking about that very thing" (Holst 1971). At this point the narrator changes the reader's perspective and sheds light on an upcoming event in the story. Which turned out to be a big event where the Siamese cat got killed. Of course this story is fictional but it is an excellent story to portray how a narrator can expand the reader's imagination.
The rope symbolizes death and destruction. When Mr. Wright was killed, he was chocked to death with a rope. The same way Mrs. Wright was killed, so was Mrs. Wright's bird. The death of Mr. Wright was Mrs. Wright's way of starting a new life. The bird's death symbolizes Mrs. Wright's dying because she is with Mr.
bird as the metaphor of the poem to get the message of the poem across
Wright was described as a beautiful women filled with such joy and life until she married John Wright. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale feels sorry for her because her husband treated her so bad. Due to female bonding and sympathy, the two women, becoming detectives, finds the truth and hides it from the men. The play shows you that emotions can play a part in your judgement. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale felt sorry that Mrs. Wright had one to keep her company no kids and she was always left alone at home. “yes good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debt. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters just to pass the time of day with him. Like a raw wind that goes to the bone. I should of think she would have wanted a bird. But what you suppose went with it?” Later on in the play the women find out what happens to the bird. The bird was killed the same way Mrs. Wright husband which leads to the motive of why he was killed. Mrs. Wright was just like the bird beautiful but caged no freedom not being able to live a life of her own. Always stuck in the shadows of her husband being told what to do and