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Jealous Husband Returns In Form Of Parrot Summary

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Rough Draft Robert Olen Butler’s short story “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot,” outlines how dastardly behavior affects one’s self esteem and relationships. In this text, an envious man dies because of his cowardly way of facing his wife’s extramarital affairs. Upon dying, he is reincarnated into a parrot- again, dying a coward. As displayed by the parrot, the speaker, we see how cowardliness can be the direct result of emotional instability, low self esteem and compulsion. Butler uses this character to show us that cowardliness can be ultimately self-destructive and lead to the end of what could have been a momentous life. The husband is shown as having an undeniably unconditional and almost desperate love for his wife. This character is portrayed as a pathetic, meager man who was not only cheated on; but, belittled and marginalized by his wife. Although it “....drives me (him) crazy,” (Butler), to see men on a constant basis in his home with his wife; he is not able to do anything. Desperation for his wife’s attention is first present when we see him try to desperately to communicate to her in the pet shop where she picks him out. This theme is also present when we see him squawk and …show more content…

Butler portrays this lily-livered behavior with a toxic combo of the parrot’s strong emotions. Suffering from feelings of inability, low self esteem, and much angst over the thought of losing his spouse if there was ever mention of her adultery. It is when he becomes a bird that he finally starts to express his envy and deficiencies as her husband. Describing one of the men engaging in God knows what with his wife as: “A guy that looked like a meat packer, big in the chest and thick with hair, the kind of guy that I always sensed her eyes moving to when I was alive. I had a bare chest and I’d look for little black hairs on the sheets when I’d come home on a day with the whiff of somebody else in the air”

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