Jealous Husband Returns In Form Of A Parrot Analysis

We know death is an inevitable part of the circle of life but is it really? In the story “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot” by Robert Olen Butler a jealous husband reincarnates in the form of a parrot. He is ironically purchased by his ex wife and has to see her moving on with other men. This drives the jealous husband crazy, as he has to see the love of his life bringing men in and out of what use to be their home. By the end of the story, the jealous husband realizes there is no more future with his wife because he is a parrot now and nothing will change that. Magic realism allows authors to add surrealism and fantasy to their work; it is like entering dreams where any fantasy is possible. In this particular story the author uses …show more content…
When he was a man he said, “I had a bare chest,” (Butler 221). Masculinity is something he paid a lot of attention too because he always believed his wife was into “Big in the chest and thick with hair” (Butler 221). These descriptions were types of guys that he was not like, which caused his insecurities to show up. On the contrary a parrot has lots of feathers, a step up from being a man with no hair. The narrator demonstrates masculinity as a parrot when he is around one of the new men his wife has met and says, “I fluffed up all my feathers, made myself about twice as big, so big he’d see he couldn’t mess with me,” (Butler 221). Butler is criticizing the theme of masculinity by saying that masculinity is about hair and stature and that’s why as a parrot the narrator wants to make himself as big as possible although a bird is only so big in contrast to a man. He jealousy is the main form he shows his insecurities. When his wife mentioned her coworker three times he, “went to his house…went up…crawled on along...” a tree that led up to a bedroom widow (Butler 221-222) which shows his extreme actions he would take to catch his wife cheating. Everyone has insecurities but Butler had a message in his story that communication could help control the inner …show more content…
Butler incorporates magic realism into his story but creating a character returning to life as a parrot. A parrot that was ironically taken home but is ex wife and has to live with the idea of not having her anymore. Something we know drives him crazy since he very jealousy and was unable to ever fully communicate with his significant other. Through the story “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot” I learned that communication is always important. It is not okay to leave anything unsaid because life can be taken at any moment. The narrator did not communicate with his wife and lived a very jealous life and in return he had to see his wife through the eyes of a parrot with someone else, unable to communicate his love for