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Kayla Baker

Mrs. Robinson

Honors English IV

20 September 2008

You’re the Yellow Bird I’ve Been Waiting For: The Truth Behind the Yellow Birds

Ever notice that once a certain object or idea is recognized, it seems to continuously reappear everywhere? The yellow birds seem to have this effect for readers. They are everywhere: in songs like “Poison Oak” by Bright Eyes and even in literary works such as In Cold Blood and The Crucible. The book and play portray the symbolism of the yellow birds more in intensely due to the conflicting representation on the surface level. The yellow birds in The Crucible and the novel In Cold Blood appear as symbols with different usages and meanings, despite their opposing properties the birds from the two literary works have a deeper, symbolic connection created from an overall world connotation associated with the yellow bird.

The yellow birds in both The Crucible and In Cold Blood are similar in that they both are utilized as symbols. A bird is commonly associated with having the connotation of being cute and kind and more specifically a “yellow” bird would even seem to be considered friendly. Nevertheless, in the novel and script the yellow bird can be interpreted to be more symbolic. In the story In Cold Blood, the reader can clearly recognize that this yellow bird is a symbol, “a warrior angel” that “[is] ‘taller than Jesus, yellow like a sunflower’” (Capote 93).Yet in The Crucible, it is not as obvious that the yellow bird can actually symbolize something: “Why do you come, yellow bird?” (Miller 50). Without looking deeper into the text, a reader could just perceive this as a literal meaning. These symbols can be interpreted differently, due to the dissimilar ways the author portrays the yellow bird.

In the broad appearance of both stories the yellow bird is not real. However, due to the context of the stories, the yellow bird has distinct usages in the book and the play. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses this idea of a yellow bird as a hallucination that Abigail appears to see: “She is transfixed – with all the girls, she is whimpering open-mouthed, agape at the ceiling” (Miller 50). This scene where Abigail envisions a yellow bird is only seen once towards the end of the play, unlike in the novel where the yellow bird is depicted more often and has more significance. Truman Capote describes the yellow bird as it is seen in Perry’s dreams: “He’d once told it to his friend Willie-Jay; he had described to him the towering bird, the yellow ‘sort of parrot’” (Capote 92). These different usages occur from the divergent meanings the yellow bird embraces.

Although the book and the play share the similar symbol of a yellow bird, the meaning of this yellow bird is not the same. The yellow bird in the novel, In Cold Blood, is illustrated in Perry’s nightmares saving him from the monsters. This bird symbolizes a way to escape problems and find some peace in a chaotic, unfortunate situation. In Perry’s dream, the yellow bird can be an angel or Jesus Christ, himself, bringing light to Perry’s darkness:

Throughout his life – as a child, poor and meanly treated, as a foot-loose youth, as an imprisoned man – the yellow bird, huge and parrot-faced, had soared across Perry’s dream, an avenging angel who savaged his enemies or, as now, rescued him in moments of mortal danger. (Capote 266)

The color yellow symbolizes the light, which can be interpreted to mean freedom. However, in The Crucible, the color yellow has a sense of darkness. In this part of the play, Mary Warren has apparently sent this yellow bird to harm Abigail and the girls: “But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary” (Miller 51). In this play the yellow bird is interpreted as the devil. Instead of freeing the girls, it is trapping them; it wants to bring harm to the girls instead of protecting them: “Her claws, she’s stretching her claws!” (Miller 51). Yellow has a unique symbolism, because it is also associated with cowards: “A yellow-bellied coward”. Abigail envisioned Mary’s spirit in the shape of a yellow bird. While this is happening in this scene, Mary is acting in a cowardly behavior. Therefore by Abigail imagining that Mary is a yellow bird, she is in a way calling her a coward for confessing. If the reader only looks at the text, they would understand that the yellow birds are clearly used as two differing symbols.

Knowing the deep, universal connotation of a bird helps the reader to notice that there is actually a connection between the two yellow birds in these literary works. Many people see birds as a symbol linking Heaven and Earth and as a messenger from God, either bringing a message or a forewarning (Chevalier 86). The yellow bird in Perry’s dream is an angel sent from God helping him escape the reality of his problems, allowing him some peace in his troubled life. The yellow bird Abigail “sees” is not necessarily the Devil, but God sending a warning to Abigail to stop her madness. Perry also viewed the yellow bird as the only friend that he could trust; Abigail pictures this yellow bird as the spirit of Mary Warren, Abigail’s friend that she thought she could trust to not turn against her. The yellow birds may be portrayed differently but in some way they are both connected by the same meaning.

Using an overall connotation of how the world depicts yellow birds helps the reader realize that there is a connection between the symbolism of the yellow bird in the script and in the novel, even though they have distinct meanings and usages. Other implications of yellow birds give other explanations as to why the authors used them. Birds are usually seen as spiritual beings on an initiatory quest or in dreams describing the personality of the dreamer (In Cold Blood) (Chevalier 87). Birds were also known to be connected to workings of imagination or worse a diversion (The Crucible) (Chevalier 87). These many connotations are why yellow birds are continuously seen throughout literary works.

Works Cited

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Vintage Books, 1965.

Chevalier, Jean, and Alan Gheerbrant. Dictionary of Symbols. Trans. John Buchanan-

Brown. New York: Penguin Reference, 1994.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Viking Penguin, 1952.

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