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Human Vulnerability In Daphne Dumaurier's The Birds

709 Words3 Pages

In Daphne DuMaurier s The Birds, main character Nat, military veteran, husband, and current farmer, is put under siege when swarms of birds start attacking his property and seem to have a newly found combativeness toward humans. Fighting to protect his family from this unpredictable situation, the chaos only escalates when the birds take the lives of the Hocken s neighbors, the Trigg family. Ultimately, the fate of the characters is left up to the imagination as the birds continue their persistent bombardment of the Hocken s family home. Discussing themes of human vulnerability and nature, this short story is compelling in its own way. The story is extremely well written by the author because of the author's creation of tension and suspense …show more content…

It is not optimal when characters are flat, especially in a story when the characters are vulnerable, as it is common to have little compunction when a character dies or is in danger when they are flat and dull. As well as, DuMaurier's exploration of themes of sacrifice, human vulnerability, and the force of nature. The unpredictability of the birds, along with when Nat finds out that the birds rose and fell in the trough of the seas, heads to the wind, like a mighty fleet at anchor, waiting on the tide (DuMaurier 8). This new revelation gives the characters a time window to gather supplies and expands the setting beyond their home. Exploring the themes of human vulnerability and the force of nature, the story surveys the fragility of civilization versus nature; furthermore, in the story the vulnerability of humans is put on display when he pushed Whitehorn the children through the door to the passage and shut it upon them, so that he was alone now in their bedroom with the birds (DuMaurier 3). This constant fear of the safety of Nat s children adds tension when the family is in danger, as the children are the most vulnerable in the

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