Theme Of Under The Rice Moon

Under the Rice Moon In the short story “Under the Rice Moon” by Rhiannon Puck a swallow is trapped in it’s cage wants nothing more than to be free and fly under the rice moon. The encaged bird gets promised they would take good care of it by multiple people, but instead was traded for other items the people wanted. Every time she is given a new owner it begs to fly under the rice moon, but nobody understands her. For example, The first girl told the bird “I promise to take care of you, little bird,” and ended up trading the bird to a boy for a pair of colorful slippers. The boy then promises to take care of the of the bird, and once again traded it to a man searching for the perfect gift for his sick daughter. When the bird is given to the man’s daughter she says “I know what you need, little bird,” but the swallow no longer

All of the people before the girl were just trying to get a bargain on the bird not even thinking about it’s happiness or well-being. The sick girl could have just kept the swallow for her own amusement, but instead let it be free to make it happy. This theme is portrayed by several characters in the story.
One way the author conveys this message through the bird by implying that nobody understood how the bird felt because they weren't in its situation. The only one to understand the bird was the girl, because she knew what it was like being stuck. Both the swallow and the girl wanted freedom, but were denied by sickness and a cage.
The message is conveyed by the girl because she was the only one to understand the swallow. She could have been so angry about her sickness that she wanted another creature to feel her pain, but instead she knew the right thing was to grant the swallow freedom. In return, the swallow flew to her window every night because she wanted to keep the promise that nobody had