Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot

The broad theme of the story, from first sentence to last, is the challenge of communication, specifically as it involves saying what one means. The opening line—“I never can quite say as much as I know” (103)—sets the tone, but it is soon clear that this problem has plagued the narrator since long before his reincarnation.

The narrator struggles tremendously with expressing himself. His most obvious obstacle is that he is a parrot with a limited vocabulary. For example, in the pet store, he can’t find words to engage his former wife: “A ‘hello’ wouldn’t do and I’d recently learned ‘good night’ but it was the wrong suggestion altogether, so I said nothing” (104). His speech is restricted to the simplest of expressions, and it, therefore, feels like a heroic achievement when he communicates an actual thought, as he does when he says “hello, cracker” or “peanut”; yet even in these instances, his audience seems not to fully understand him. Moreover, these utterances convey only rudimentary ideas, and his full thoughts remain locked in his mind like a bird in a cage: “‘Hello,’ I say again. Please listen to this tiny heart that beats fast at all times for you” (107).