Let's focus somewhat on point of view. Think about unreliable narrators. Think about form and distance. Butler brings us in close. How?
For your own writing, reread the section on consistency: Burroway insists that "you make your own rules, but having made them, you must stick to them" (310-311) (ignore the dang chart on page 310).
Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot is a piece by Butler that I found really funny. The whole idea about a women who is unable to be trusted by her husband who later becomes a parrot just tickles me. Butler does a nice job with the humor in this short story and using techniques like allowing the reader to discover what is going on without too much of the parrot disclosing what happened in the previous life. The parrot talks to his wife once she has brought him home and the words that he does say in his tiny mind are only small words that show what he is really feeling and thinking as he is unable to fully communicate with her. On a deeper level I think that this story really touches on the power of minimal words in revealing an enormous amount of information about a character. This character, being a funny little jealous parrot, while a parrot he has a sense about what his wife was now doing right under his little beak and he talks about having the words in mind but not being able to convey what he was feeling and thinking to make some sense of it.
ReplyDeleteAs illustrated in Burroway, character can be developed many different ways. The way in which Butler chose to allow the reader to become increasingly interested in the jealous parrot was to give him a voice and allow him to speak minimally. Only showing those features in his jealous life that were applicable to his current situation as a bird. Although this story had minimal dialog from the characters we were able to see emotion in situations that the bird was experiencing. Such as when he saw his naked wife and her lover (to whom he refered “Cracker”) We as the reader are able to see the humor of the bird and in him being a jealous bird of his past wife.
Guess it would have been nice to read what you read first.. here is it in relations to the current Burroway reading...
ReplyDeleteAs shown in Burroway "First Person" it is true throughout this story that the central narrator (being the bird) is always the center of the action. We are skillfully placed in his cage in the middle of the action going on throughout his house. Along with that, although there is a short segment about the woman's life and her new men, the focus mainly stays on the bird and his perceptions about what is going on. His perceptions are what we as the reader see as truth in the story. The form of this story suggests that it is more of a report coming from the bird and a kind of confessional more than anything else.
In this story, Butler does a great job of making us see things from the parrot's point of view. Everything is related somehow back to a way that only a bird would look at it. For example, the man's adam's apple being the size of his seed ball. I thought the funniest example of this was in the bird's treatment and perspective of his "dangling" toy. He takes out all his agressions on this toy, and later imagines it as the more vital aspects of the men that his wife is entertaining. This comes back again when he sees the "Cracker" naked. He pities the man's nakedness, and relates him to a parrot as well, saying that they keep their privates hidden.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the most interesting examples of perspective in this story is the placement of the parrot's cage. Not only is it where his pool table used to sit, but he is situated in this amazing middle ground between his wife's bedroom and the view of the outdoors. He is stuck in limbo in so many ways, tied to this memory of his wife but with a longing to be free. But we find out that even if he was to be "free," he would still be trapped. He has the cage, the glass door, and his wings are clipped. Even if he were to get over his jealousy, he is paying for what he did while he was alive.
First off I found this story really funny, the idea of a husband who is so untrusting that he has to come back and disguise himself as a parrot to basically spy on his wife. I felt the butler who told the story did a very good job with his descriptions and the humor of what was going on. I also agree with Jess when the story talks about seeing things from the bird’s point of view.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting point of view to me was that of the bird cage, the reason I say that is because it makes me think back to the writing exercise where we wrote about the area of the classroom and described the room and the people in it. I really felt this story was a lot like that.
For some reason the fact that the man was a parrot makes me think of the term "cuckolded" and relates back to cockatoos. Yeah, random thought. I thought it was interesting that Butler used a bird to describe how emasculated the main character had become. He was suspicious of his wife and did not stand up and claim her when he found out that she was cheating on him, but instead, made himself less than human and allowed himself to be her pet. I also found it somewhat ironic that as a parrot he felt that nakedness was wrong and held dignity in his feather, despite the fact that he had given up all dignity to become an animal.
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting to note how Butler's character maintains a great deal of human thought and emotion about the situation and does not completely become the bird. Even as the bird, he has very human opinions of the world around him despite giving into some animalistic tendencies. He never is fully transformed.
Well, that is certainly a different perspective to read a story from. Even though it was awkward, not in the sense that it read weird, just that it’s from the mindset of a parrot that was once a married man fell from a tree and came back as a bird, I really enjoyed it. It certainly plays with characteristics of a story that we typically see, like the narrator being human for example. I really liked how the narrator, main character, parrot man, was really in the back seat to everything that was going on. And this may be because I’m insanely tired but I read it a little but in a big brother is watching over you kind of way, without the whole creepy communist connotations that come along with that.
ReplyDeleteFor all it's gimmick, I found this story to be rather beautiful and profoundly sad (especially in the ending). The point of view is still inherently of the dead husband, but the influence of his parrot state flows into his thoughts, actions, and behavior. The language is even full of double meanings, as you said, and the connection between the two flows effortlessly. The end section detailing the simple parrot speech witholding such deeper meanings was especially poignant.
ReplyDeleteI found the subject of nakedness to be an integral part of this tale, whether it meant as in through nakedness, clothing, or feathers. The two themes of humanity & avian life seem to coalesce most effectively through this point, and during the parrot-husband's final lament we seem to understand this the most.
I really like and agree with the other blog posts of my classmates. Scott says the language is full of double meanings and I find that to be a very striking concept because much of the language in love tends to be filled with meaning. I felt so bad for the dead husband/parrot because he was trapped within himself, unable to speak out and let his feelings be heard. I feel like most people are like that and we spend so much time trapped inside our own minds that we limit ourselves in speech, never saying exactly what we mean and holding those emotions inside, like a parrot, limited in the words he knows.
ReplyDeleteThe first person, unreliable narrator, really works well in the story. We know so much more then the parrot knows and that’s the technique that keeps the reader interested and emotionally invested to what happens to the character as the story progresses. The Authorial distance felt by the reader for the parrot is what really pulls at the heartstrings and makes us feel close and detached from the parrots pain all in one breathe.
I enjoyed the humorous aspect of this story. I felt that it was still poignant when it needed to be, but that it also used humor well to tell the story. I felt that it was difficult to identify with the narrator though, because he was halfway between parrott and jealous husband.
ReplyDeleteKind of going off of what Jess said, I think that the cage was a good way to isolate the perspective. We have to have a caged mind set in order to engross ourself in the story. He does seem to me to be in some sort of limbo, maybe meant as a punishment or pennance for being so jealous.