Symbolism In Toni Morrison's Sula

Birds appear frequently throughout the story, especially in times of crisis. The birds often present themselves as omens for dangers that lie ahead. For instance, when Robert's team takes a wrong turn, "the fog is full of noises" of birds (80). Then the birds fly out of the ditch and disappear. Robert and Poole know that "[t]here must be something terribly wrong...but neither one knew how to put it into words. The birds, being gone, had taken some mysterious presence with them. There was an awful sense of void--as if the world had been emptied" (81). The birds return and when Robert nears the collapsing dike, "one of the birds [flies] up and cut[s] across Robert's path" as if it is trying to prevent him from going any further. Robert does not heed the warning and almost dies in the sinking mud.

Symbolism is used in literature as a visual representation of something invisible, which provides deeper meaning to the writing beyond what is being described. In “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, various examples of symbolism are incorporated into the story. The plot and action that take place in the excerpt can be thought of as one level, while the symbolism of certain things in the writing act on another level to enhance the story. Birds are of extreme symbolic importance within the narrative, and encourage a reader to think below the surface of the text.

In her book Sula, Toni Morrison portrays the ambiguous nature of the connection between guilt, good, and evil, and shows that they are relative and not mutually exclusive.

The imagery of the short story “The Birds”, by Daphne du Maurier, illustrates that nature will always overcome man. In the story the birds there are many examples of imagery but one of the main ones is “The birds had been more restless than ever” 52. This is letting the reader know that the birds are acting up. This also shows the reader that there is also a little foreshadowing in the story. Another part in the book where there is imagery is in the first sentence “On December the third the wind changed overnight and it was now winter”50. This tells you that it is now the coldest time of the year and it might explain why the birds are acting up. This also shows that mother nature is really throwing everything at them. The

During their stay as prisoners, they met a ruthless guard that who everyone called the Bird; he was unmerciful and would go to any length to torture or humiliate a prisoner. The guards treated their captives in a way that the prisoners would lose dignity and rebuild it by stealing from their captivators. It is odd that people would treat other people like this, making it seem that the torturer had no compassion for anyone and no heart. Very few stories have villains so evil, not even the darkest myths have antagonists immoral as the Bird. Many authors often draw upon other works to create a new character, and if they wanted to create someone truly malicious they could use the Bird as a starting point. The character of the Bird proves that reality is more odd than fiction, because no fantasy could have a character as pitiless as the

Birds represent God’s presence unless they are interfered with people. Leif Enger strategically created hidden places for the references of birds into his story that become a scavenger hunt for the reader. The Lands encounter a lot of positive and negative occasions with birds. Though God guides them along this journey to find Jeremiah’s son, Davy, God finds ways to show his presence through others. In this book, God appears through many symbols of birds. His presence appears through people or in new places. But, when birds are interfered with people, their positive presence of God has a negative turn. It determines how the next portion of the Land’s journey will go and their luck to come.

Edna is isolated and trapped like those birds in the cage, by her husband, and she does not have any freedom to leave as she pleases. “You are burnt beyond recognition,” he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin p.24). Edna could not escape from her husband anywhere, even when they were at the ocean; “ I thought I should have perished out there alone”… “ You were not so very far, my dear; I was watching you,” he told her (50). Birds are the major symbol in this novel; they are mentioned through out the novel. In the beginning of the novel birds were saying;”Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! Thant’s all right!” (Chopin p.22); this means go away, go away, for God’s sake, in Spanish. It is clearly seen that the birds represent Edna’s unspoken words and feelings toward her husband. The author mentions a bird at the end of the novel as well; “A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water” (Chopin p. 138). This bird was free from the cage but had broken wing. This bird represents that no matter how Edna tried to fulfill her desires; she did accomplish them; however, Edna did not have strong wings to fly high enough in her life to maintain her freedom, her desires, and her independence in the society she lived.

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Shakespeare often uses a motif of birds in order to foreshadow future events and relationships. Shakespeare achieves this by likening two influential characters, Macbeth and Macduff, to an owl and a crow, respectively, as well as using references to other types of birds in order to set a tone.

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, there is a debate throughout the novel to whether someone, specifically a woman, can be strong enough to break conformity and tradition. Chopin illustrates this debate using birds to symbolize the difficulties and struggles to accomplish this feat. This relates to the meaning of the work because Chopin uses the symbolism of flight and wings as Edna’s means of strength and ability to break the mold. The Awakening begins with two birds that are being kept in cages hanging on a door.

Birds are the main theme in the novel The Awakening. Many people when they read the first statement, should be perplexed and try to grasp the concept of how birds can be the main theme of The Awakening. However, throughout the novel, we see many examples of birds appearing in the text. Many great authors use the power of symbolism to establish a connection between an object that seems ordinary to a human counterpart whose actions and intentions are masked by the way the actions are executed. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses birds to represent the different parts of Edna’s life and how they relate to her throughout the text.

So as we can see, birds are a prominent symbol throughout this story whether representing liberation, the lack thereof, or

In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, literary devices such as symbolism pave the path for many motifs that are present, such as the small but meaningful animals, birds. As this 19th century novel progresses, birds transform into something more meaningful than just a warm-blooded vertebrate, but rather the thoughts of Edna that she typically does not express. Birds are not just a symbol in the novel, they are also seen as a motif which explains why the birds continuously increase in meaning as Edna's emotions and actions do as well. Overall, the birds help symbolize and reinforce Enda’s limitations of a Victorian women, how she attempts to break away from her past life, and failing at this breakthrough in the end.

Susan Glaspell uses the bird to justify the murder of Mr. Wright in Trifles. Within the play there is a broken bird cage. This cage is symbolic of Minnie Wright’s marriage. She lives in the middle of nowhere with John. This isolation breaks Minnie Wright’s spirit, just like the cage is broken. In the story it says, “She used to sing real pretty herself” (986). Since Minnie is out in the country with no one but John, that bird is her lifeline to the outside world. She lives through that bird. John’s oppression of Minnie, and the fact that he cold-heartedly killed her bird takes away her desire to sing, or dance, or dress pretty. Arthur Waterman states “She was figuratively strangled by John” (3). In turn, Minnie literally strangles John with a rope in his sleep. The women don’t always find this action morally or ethically right. Mrs. Peters, in the beginning, said “But, Mrs. Hale, the law is the law” (Glaspell 984). After finding out about the bird, and pondering the situation among themselves, the women all agree with Minnie Wright. It was justifiable homicide in their eyes, thus making it ethically and morally right in their eyes.

Birds, like Cholera, lead to death. Márquez uses the birds in the novel as an ironic message of love that soon leads to a disastrous end. Birds were the reason why people died, just like Cholera will make people die. In the novel, Márquez does not include a character that actually died from Cholera. However, he does include characters that die from “love sickness” at the hands of birds. Since lovesickness serves as a parallel to Cholera, we can assume that birds also represent Cholera, which is the fate of death. The most prominent example is when Dr.Urbino tried to catch his beloved parrot and eventually fell to his death. The parrot that Dr. Urbino spent countless hours of dedication and the bird that he had paid more attention than he did to his own children, that lead ironically to his death. Another example when Olimpia Zuleta gave Florentino a carrier pigeon as a thank-you for rescuing her and her parasol. Florentino sent back the carrier pigeon with an unsigned love note, and thus the romance between the two began. The Pigeon that lead to a romance between the two soon ended when the husband discovered her infidelity and Olimpia was killed. Both Dr.Urbino and Olimpia lose their lives to love, whether it be because of a bird or for a bird. I believe that the birds also

Every day he can look out of his window and see all these pigeons. Peaceful animals. However, we hear that there are a person who feeds there pigeons, so they trust him, then he kill one of them so badly. Victor says in this dialogue, that he has to lives with this next to his cell. We all know that the pigeon symbolize freedom and the man who kills this innocent pigeon is a symbol of that freedom can be taking from anyone very quickly. The pigeon could symbolize Victor himself, when he thinks back to when loss his freedom. We can see these things about the pigeon here: “he feeds the pigeons crumbs so they get to trust him, then he catches one and traps it so that its head is caught in the little gap where the window opens and its beak is forced open like that. He uses his hand to illustrate a gaping beak “That’s what I have to live next to