Robert Olen Butler Jealous Husband Summary

Insecurity and low self-confidence can be influential and very determining factors in shortening an individual’s life span; especially if you are an individual who is married and has jealousy issues. In Robert Olen Butler’s short story “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot Analysis.” we can appreciate the perfect example of how trust issues and not being able to exercise strong communication skills can make you a coward, a miserable, and pathetic low life human being; having such characteristics will eventually deteriorate and liquidate your relationships with your loved ones. In this essay we will analyze the different elements that Robert Olen Butler uses in order to educate us the readers in how destructive our insecurities and weaknesses …show more content…
The element of symbolism plays a critical factor in understanding the story. Symbolism drags the reader deeper in the story by making us engage, and elaborate ideas in order to create a bond or relate to the story. Symbolism challenges us readers to come out with a meaning and have a better understanding of the story. In this short story the author uses many different scenarios where we can easily spot elements of symbolism. A very good example of symbolism used by the author is the cage where the parrot was locked in. The author describes the cage as a “Black wrought-iron cage, very large “. A cage is known as a mechanism or object that confines or restraints physically an animal, but in this case the cage wasn’t only confining the physical body of the parrot. The cage can be consider as a barrier, an impediment called cowardice. During his life as a human the author was unable to communicate to his wife his sense of insecurity and lack of trust. “I can never say what is in my heart to her. Never.” The reason why he couldn’t face his wife is because he was a push over, he was a coward that lacked the guts to break throughout the mental barriers and cage that he; himself and no else had locked his mind in. All he could do as a parrot that lacked the tools to communicate to his wife was feel regret. “I was jealous in life. I admit it. I would admit it to her. But …show more content…
In fiction, irony is known as a figure of speech. Usually authors communicate us the reader’s words that he has assigned a different meaning to. Irony can also be found in situations when we expect things to happen and the total opposite occurs. In this short story we can appreciate different circumstances in where the authors portrays the element of irony. An example of irony in the story can be the body of the parrot that the husband comes back to life in. During his past life as a human, the husband had all capabilities of communicating his insecurities and fears to his wife but he decided not to because he was afraid of what the outcome could be. The husband was intimidated by his wife, he once tried communicating his wife his thoughts but he felt that his wife would of hate him or feel disappointed by the amount of insecurities he carries .In paragraph 10 we the information needed to support this statement. “I felt like a damn fool whenever I actually said anything about this kind of feeling and she looked at me like she could start hating me real easy and so I was working on saying nothing, even if it meant locking myself up. My goal was to hold my tongue about half the time. That would be a good start.” As we can analyze in the paragraph, the husband thought it would be a better idea to just not say anything; even if it killed him in the inside. He was very afraid of confrontation during his