Birds in almost every piece of literature have a positive connotation that is associated with them, Birds in literature vary as authors portray the meaning behind birds differently. These different interpretations of birds in literature create different meanings to each kind of specific birds, some having specific correlations that go along their characteristics that are observed. Pigeons in literature are usually associated with a description of having an aggressive yet tamed nature. This is in part due to the setting that pigeons are usually observed in. Pigeons are commonly found in public areas with many people around.
They tend to do as they please without the concern of other things and have the ability to go where ever they want as they can live in almost any public area. The blue jay in southern America is seen to carry a negative connotation with it as “Their occasional consumption of other birds’ eggs and nestlings probably did not help their standing “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard,” he counsels, “but I know you’ll go after birds.” While notably declaring off limits the namesake of the novel, Atticus permits his children to take aim at other birds, naming one species in particular. “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em.” His remark suggests these birds were held in the lowest regard”. This specific negative connotation associated with a blue jay with its behavior of adapting to almost any surrounding and their destructive behavior allows the bird to have negative connotations in literature. In contrast, the mocking bird carries a connotation in literature opposite of that to the blue jay.
With it being very protective of their nests and environment alongside their melodic tunes create positive characteristics that give it its positive connotations in literature. Birds are again used in To kill a mockingbird however this time it is the mockingbird that it mentioned. Atticus mentions that it is a sin to kill a mocking bird and Miss Audie explains that “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird”. The two different connotations that these similar birds carry are derived primarily from the bird’s natural behavior. This contrast in connotations is representative of how birds in literature carry different connotations that are derived from other literature that has previously used that specific kind of bird or form the bird’s natural connotations. Birds provide authors with the ability to create there own meaning as the connotation that birds carry is dependent on the meaning that the author is able to derive from a bird and the situation.
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One of the most renowned authors to use birds in his literature was Shakesphere. Shakespeare references to 64 differnet kinds of birds throughout all of his literature. Renown for his literature Shakespeare used the symbol of birds in his different pieces. One of the most well-known usage of birds by shakesphere is the presence of birds in Macbeth. “One of the first lines in Macbeth is, Fair is Fowl. This introduction to Macbeth establishes that not everything will be as it seems. This is also represented in the way the author uses birds in Macbeth.” Birds in literature are usually associated with freedom, unrestrained, and a connection between earth and heaven.
However in Macbeth birds are “often harbingers of death and destruction, as lady Macbeth sees the raven under her battlements, and an obscure bird shrieks the whole night of Duncans’s murder.” Macbeth not only uses birds as a symbol of negative things to occur Shakesphere uses birds in his literature that are not predatory in relation to the innocence of the children. The symbol of birds in literature is dependent on the meaning that an author can bring out of them. Shakesphere’s frequent usage of birds is representative on how the meaning of the symbol of birds is derived from the context of the literature unlike other symbols like that of an apple which is associated with Adam and Eve from the Bible.
