Winter

What is the importance of birds in the novel, Winter?

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Throughout the novel, the presence of birds often symbolizes human connection, whether romantic or within a larger community. Whenever they appear, birds are portrayed as beautiful, yet flighty and intangible. After Charlotte tweets that she has spotted a Canadian warbler on the Art in Nature account, she prompts a mass search for the rare bird. While her claim is false and the quest must ultimately end in failure, when Art observes the way the bird watchers are unified by their search, he realizes that his blog is part of a larger, nature-loving community. Finding the bird is not the point; what is important is the search, which brings these happy strangers together on Christmas. Later, Art uses a bird metaphor to reflect on the end of his relationship with Charlotte: “One flown bird doesn’t stop the whole kingdom of birds from singing. It’s just one gone bird” (303). Though the relationship has been meaningful, like all human relationships, it has lived out its cycle, and now it is up to Art to be open enough to find new points of connection.

Source(s)

Winter, BookRags