What Does The Bird Of The Children s Hands Represent

1. According to Morrison, what does the bird in the children’s hands represent? According to Morrison, the bird in the children’s hands represents language. 2. What does the old woman mean when she says of the bird: â€Å"I don’t know†¦in your hands†? Why do you think she repeats – â€Å"It is in your hands.†? How has this phrase become a metaphor? What is it a metaphor for? The old woman, when she says of the bird â€Å"I don’t know†¦in your hands,† means that the fate of the bird is inevitably going to be decided by the children. She repeats the phrase, â€Å"it is in your hands,† being as the bird symbolizes language, to emphasize that the use of language can be once again corrupted or pure, literally the bird’s fate. This phrase has become a metaphor†¦show more content†¦How might Cholly relate to this idea? The statement relates to how the adults in The Bluest Eye communicate with the children, especially among the black adults and children, because they are taught to loathe their blackness and envy and adore the whiteness of their white neighbors. The adults , instead of â€Å"expressing love† for their skins and appearance, shame their color which they pass on to their children who, inheriting this self-hatred, continue to use language to destroy themselves. For example, in the scene when Claudia, Frieda, and Maureen are walking home, they come across Pecola who is bullied by a group of boys. She is called â€Å"black e mo† repeatedly and other offensive language not because she specifically committed a crime against them but because of their â€Å"contempt for their own blackness (Morrison 65).† Their detestation against their own skins was bred and cultivated; it was â€Å"learned self-hatred (Morrison 65).† Cholly Breedlove, foreign to the idea of the unconditional love a parent provides, was rejected by both his parents. His mother left him on the side of a railroad as an infant and his father, already being absent from the time of his birth, told Cholly, after he has completed in journey in finding his father, to leave because his mother already received money for Cholly’s birth. A parent’s responsibility is to provide the guidance