29 pages • 58 minutes read
Signs and Symbols
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Symbols & Motifs
Twitching Bird
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains outdated references to psychiatric conditions, including the concept of “madness.” This section of the guide also discusses suicide.
The “tiny unfledged bird” (Paragraph 4) the mother and father pass as they return from the “sanitarium” (Paragraph 3) symbolizes the struggling life of the son they have just tried to visit. The bird’s “unfledged” state recalls the son’s suicide attempt, in which he “thought he was learning to fly” (Paragraph 6). Both of them want to fly away, to break free, but are unable to escape their restraints, the son in the hospital and the bird “helplessly twitching in a puddle” (Paragraph 4).
The son and bird are also connected by their liminal state between life and death. The son is on the brink of dying by suicide, while the bird lies helpless in a growing puddle, likely to soon drown. This connection allows the story to explore its theme of Death, Life, and In Between, suggesting that death is an ongoing experience shared by both people and the world at large.
The parents’ response to the bird points toward a grim outcome for the son. The mother and father are mere observers of the bird’s helpless existence; they do nothing to help. This suggests that they will be likewise unable to help or support their son through his struggles with his psychiatric condition, despite their best intentions.
Telephone
The three telephone calls that conclude the story serve as a motif that allows the narrative to develop its themes of Alienation and Loneliness, as well as Death, Life, and In Between. The first two calls, which come from an unknown girl looking for someone named Charlie, underline the distance that the mother and father feel from the rest of American society. The father’s English is not strong enough to answer the phone at all, while the mother seems unable to make herself understood, which leads to the girl calling multiple times. The miscommunication between the unnamed girl and the mother—their inability to make contact—further emphasizes the isolation that people have from one another in modern society.
The third call puts the reader in the same isolated position as the characters, not knowing who is calling, or why, unable to reach out and make a meaningful human connection. Given the story’s focus on the son, it is possible that this third call involves him. However, the story refrains from providing closure, making it unclear whether he is alive or dead, leaving the reader with the peculiar feeling that he is somehow both at once.
Fruit Jellies
The 10 jars of fruit jellies that the parents buy for their son symbolize the love they feel for him and their efforts to help him overcome his psychiatric condition. While on the surface the jellies appear “dainty and innocent” (Paragraph 1), the mother and father took great pains in choosing this particular gift, demonstrating the care and attention they devote to their son.
The parents’ failure in delivering the jellies to their son hints that their efforts to help him recover, while well-intentioned, may be ultimately futile. The fact that they cannot even give him a simple birthday present suggests that they have little hope of addressing his larger problems.
The father emphasizes the jellies’ importance when he examines them “with pleasure” (Paragraph 29) at the story’s closing. Where the jellies earlier represented the parents’ failure to help their son, the father is now hopeful that they will be able to bring him home. For this reason, he eagerly reexamines the “luminous yellow, green, and red little jars” (Paragraph 29), finding comfort in the hope that their small acts of love and support will blossom into their son’s eventual recovery.
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