Words: 599
A mocking bird is a bird that mocks other birds. It always does whatever it hears even if its omitting that is not very important. A good example of the use of a mocking bird is when Miriam Sees a mocking bird as it copies the sounds around it and flies into the clouds. The sky is a place that is far away from all the violence that takes place on the ground where Leila is living. The mocking birds want to fly to the sky since it is the perfect place for them to avoid all this violence.
Hussein writes about mocking birds as he says, “Outside, mockingbirds were singing blithely, and, once in a while, when the songsters took flight, Miriam could see their wings catching the phosphorescent blue moonlight beaming through the clouds. ” (Hussein 218) Hussein uses the mockingbird as a symbol of freedom, something that Miriam wants more than anything. These times are filled with nothing, but suffering the bird is a good symbol to remind the people of Afghanistan that despite all the bad things that are taking place from this war there is always hope no matter how bad the situation is.
Another bird that is shown throughout the novel is the parakeet. The parakeet is a pretty, colorful, and exotic bird that loves to copy what it hears. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in the novel they made list of rules that everybody living in the area must follow. One of these laws is explained by the Taliban as he says, “If you keep parakeets, you will be beaten. Your birds will be killed. ” (248) Any kind of entertainment such as flying kites, parakeets, and even people laughing were banned by the Taliban.
Rehashed becomes very angry when Miriam continues to fail to give birth to a baby boy. Miriam has a hard time when her husband shows a lot of anger towards her and with the violence from the war. The banning of parakeets, the banishment of laughter and entertainment, show the loss of joy and hope n Maria’s life. Throughout the novel there are many uncertain and unexpected deaths. A lot of innocent people get killed in the streets and nothing can be done to prevent this from happening.
The crows are used a lot as symbols of death and, they are used by Hussein as another example of how birds can symbolize something. Near the end of the novel Leila comes back to the kola to where Miriam lived in her childhood and sees a crow. Leila walks around as she looks at her environment, “Before she leaves the clearing, Leila takes one last look at the kola where Miriam had slept, eaten, reamed, and held her breath for Jail. A crow has landed on the flat roof. It pecks at something, squawks, flies off. ” (356) After Leila saw the crow fly away she said her goodbyes to Miriam and started to cry.
The crow symbolizes that Leila has suffered a lot through these past experiences, and she just wants to be free from a life filled with violence from the war in Afghanistan. Hussein also used this crow to symbolize Miriam and her death. Throughout the novel the people of Afghanistan just want peace to return to the old Afghanistan before it was taken away by the Taliban; when they took power in the country. They all went through these hard experiences differently; it emotionally disturbed some of them more than others.