In “The Chicken” the chicken saves herself from death and gains her power in the household by laying an egg. The proves her place by showing a motherly act of laying an egg. She starts as the “chicken for Sunday’s lunch.” (49). An piece of meat that will be eaten and then forgotten, something that isn’t important. “[The chicken] looked at no one and no one payed any attention to her.” (49). Before she lays an egg and becomes a mother she doesn’t exist to anyone nor does anyone care for her. She isn’t treated like a living creature, and instead is treated like something for their next meal. Then everything changes when she lays her egg. “It was then that it happened. Positively flustered, the chicken laid an egg.” (51). This is a pivoting moment for the chicken’s life, everything afterwards is different.
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The tone of the father saying “to think I made her…” shows that if he knew that the chicken was going to lay an egg he would therefore never try to kill her. They no longer see her as their next meal and instead see her as a mother. The chicken cares for the egg as if it will turn into a chick and “from the moment she was born, as if destined for motherhood, the chicken...settled on the egg and there she remained.”(51). The chicken enforces her relationship with the egg by showing the people that she will always protect it. The motherly gesture gave her the power which in turn saves her life. Afterwards “The chicken became the queen of the household...exploiting her two sources of power: apathy and fear” (52). She not only gains power but then also becomes the queen of the house. It was only after laying an egg does she go from an object of food who was about to be killed to the most powerful of the
The tone of the father saying “to think I made her…” shows that if he knew that the chicken was going to lay an egg he would therefore never try to kill her. They no longer see her as their next meal and instead see her as a mother. The chicken cares for the egg as if it will turn into a chick and “from the moment she was born, as if destined for motherhood, the chicken...settled on the egg and there she remained.”(51). The chicken enforces her relationship with the egg by showing the people that she will always protect it. The motherly gesture gave her the power which in turn saves her life. Afterwards “The chicken became the queen of the household...exploiting her two sources of power: apathy and fear” (52). She not only gains power but then also becomes the queen of the house. It was only after laying an egg does she go from an object of food who was about to be killed to the most powerful of the