Summary Of ' The Chaser '

Four have already left home, one will leave soon and the other three still dwell in the house with her. She then begins to express the dangers of the world around her in a bird’s point of view. For example, she is afraid that her young will fall in a fowler’s snare, be caught in a net or by birdlime on twigs, or hurt by a hawk. In a human world a fowler’s snare might be fallings into the hands of trickery, robbery, or any other type of crime. Caught by net or birdlime might represent being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a hawk-inflicted injury might symbolize being wounded or killed by an Indian or criminal.

His daughter understood the bird better than all the others who had owned it. As soon as the swallow was brought to her by her father she noticed it was feeling sickly as was she. The text states“When the girl wakes suddenly in the middle of the night, the first thing she sees through her fever is a small cliff swallow blinking at her from behind the bars of a rattan cage. She knows too well how terrible it is to be kept inside. ‘I know what you need, little bird,’ she murmurs. But the swallow no longer believes what people say. Slowly, the sickly girl rises from her bed and carries the cage to the open window. Unlatching the rattan door, the girl asks, ‘Will you fly for me, too, little bird?’ And her language is one that the swallow understands.” This shows how the girl and the swallow understand each other. The swallow was able to fly under the rice moon yet another time. Both the little girl and the bird became free. The swallow passed by the little girl’s window every

After a while the bird’s master became thirsty and they left the animals at peace for a moment and searched for a stream. Once he spotting a gurgling brook, full of the clearest, purest crystal water he ever saw, it seemed

The parents respond to her fear by telling her that the owl is only asking “an odd question…” (4). They say that if she “rightly listened” to the owl, she would be able to hear it merely asking “who cooks for you?” (6). The stanza expresses a humorous tone with phrases such as “[It] was an odd question from a forest bird…” (4), and “Who cooks for you?” (6). On one level, the parents comfort the child by telling a lie in order to get her back to sleep, on another level, this changes the perception the daughter has of the owl. The parents do this by using the term “forest bird”, instead of “owl” to make her feel less intimidated. Through this lie she perceives the owl as a friendly forest creature, rather than a horrid monster from the night. The poem’s “AABBCC” rhyme scheme also helped further establish the tone, giving a child-like feeling to it, because it’s often used in fairy tales which is meant for children. Wilbur believes that the lie is a good way to help the child go to sleep. He justifies it in the

“James,” he says. We begin walking where there is a bundle of people and he looks concerned. “How about I send you to the sheriff’s station? They will surely help you out,” he says. “If it will help,” I say. The chirping of birds seems to follow me, it triggers a memory of home. When Mama and I would take short walks through the meadow behind our home. Whistling along with the bird's melody is what we did. Back then, I had no worries at all. Now, all I have is worries.

In the story the father didn’t understand his daughter which made their relationship rocky. In the text it says ‘‘...watching him get out of the truck and walk toward me, noticing that there was no smile on his face but still feeling my body move toward him, my arms opening for an embrace, something rising in my throat. My father stopped and held out his right hand.’’ This quote shows that the father had a hard time showing his emotions to his daughter. In the end of the story they bonded over a bird and the father began to understand his daughter.

One of the women made the comment that Mrs. Wright used to be pretty and happy, when she was Minnie Foster not Minnie Wright. This is just the beginning of realizing that she was just pushed to far into depression and couldn't live up to John Wright's expectations anymore. The Wrights had no children and Mrs. Wright was alone in the house all day long. The women perceive John Wright to be a controlling husband who in fact probably wouldn't have children and this may have upset Mrs. Wright. They eventually find vacant bird cage and ponder upon what happened to the bird, realizing Mrs. Wright was lonely they figured she loved the bird and it kept her company. The women make reference to the fact that Mrs. Wright was kind of like a bird herself, and that she changed so much since she married John Wright. They begin looking for stuff to bring her and they find the bird dead and they realize someone had wrung its neck. This is when they realize Mrs. Wright was in fact pushed to far, John Wright had wrung her bird's neck and in return Minnie Wright wrung his.

Because of the supposed similarities between humans and birds, birds are a useful tool for authors wishing to symbolize human emotions or thoughts. Mynott offers that birds are often “distinguished partly by the different human emotions they seem to be revealing” (Mynott 282). He references several examples of the use of human-specific traits in the description of birds, such as “kind,” “stern,” and “astonished” (282). It is not such a huge leap from the attribution of such human characteristics, to “anthropomorphic misdescription” (282). The birds in The Ant of the Self are said to be looking “as though they [had] placed bets” on who would lose Spurgeon’s and his father’s confrontation. While Spurgeon is taking a stand against his father by ordering him out of the car and onto the shoulder of the road, the birds’ curious glances are exposing Spurgeon’s own thoughts. The birds, a symbol for Spurgeon, wonder whether he or his father will “go down in flames” (Packer 95). The caged birds, which are so capable of human expressions, are expressing Spurgeon’s thoughts. ZZ Packer endows the birds with a look of human quizzicality, having them glance from the nervous Spurgeon to his angered father. Spurgeon wonders whether he or his father will win, and the birds, as his symbol, express this.

The first quote I chose came from chapter 15. This quote shows that it harmed his chances of survival at first. Then when he realized what he did it helps him tremendously. As it says in the book (chapter 15) “ And that had been the secret. He Had been looking for the color of the bird.” This hurt him in his chance his survival because he had been

Hurst uses foreshadowing to convey the narrator’s pride throughout the story. A red bird flies into the family’s yard while they are eating, and makes strange noises like it’s sick or dying. It’s not from the South, and must have been blown in by a storm. The author describes the bird, “At the moment the bird began to

As he continued up the climb he saw a small bird, it was very colorful. It seemed to like his presence and flew around him. Jessie quickly became annoyed and suddenly swatted the bird. It fell lifelessly to the ground. This was something he had never done before, harm a peaceful creature, but he felt no sadness. He continued his climb. When he reached the top he looked out upon a beautiful sunrise and valley but he immediately started back for home. He had planning to do.

At the bird’s appearance and apparent vocal articulation, he is at first impressed, then saddened. He compares this evening visitor as only another friend which will soon depart, just as “other friends have flown before” (58). But the raven again echoes quite aptly his one-word vocabulary, thus leading the man on to think more deeply about the possibilities that exist at this juncture. Somewhere deep inside him, he has realized that it doesn’t matter what question he poses, the bird will respond the same.

He wonders why the birds are just waiting in the sky as if they are waiting for a command, why they are restless, and he thinks it is strange that they are little birds and they are the type of the birds that normally keep to their own territory and don’t have a history of attacking people . When he looks out toward the coast, he sees the birds flocking in his direction and he believes that for some odd reason, they are going to come down to the

“You did this, you know” she whispered, Kevin awoke to the cacophony of birds, screaming. The birds were not doing their original sweet chirp, chirp, it was more like a howl of women being tortured by having their hearts ripped out with a rusty spoon. The Kevin took off as fast as he possibly could running outside. Once he reached the front porch he

Tricia swung the door open amid this cliffhanger and I begged for more information. As it happened, Tricia had moved our friends to the other side of the bar to leave the two of us alone, while still maintaining a clear view of our the drama unfolding between myself and Mr. Wonderful. Love was in the air and it was hijacking my soul.