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Part 1, Pages 14-17
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Grief is the Thing with Feathers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Grief and Self-Destruction
Family and Love
Art
Despair, Faith, and Hope
Summary
Analysis
The boys find a small fish in a small pond, not much larger than a puddle, near the ocean. They decide to kill it. To catch the fish, they fill the small pond with stones until the fish is cornered. Then, one of the brothers brings down a rock and kills the fish. After that, they both feel dejected. One brother swears. They run back to Dad, who is reading on the beach. As soon as he sees the boys, he knows they’ve done something wrong. After that day, one of the boys begins to draw diagrams of how the boys had trapped the fish. He also uses those diagrams to try and explain their choices.
This passage shows how the boys, in the throes of grief, begin to act in violent and destructive ways. Notably, the boys are initially caught up in their attempts to harm the fish. Once they succeed, though, they feel dejected and unhappy, showing that while grief impels the boys to act recklessly and destructively, that reckless and destructive behavior only ends up making them feel worse.
Active
Themes
Now that Mum is gone, Dad thinks that he and Mum will never fight again. The house is still filled with evidence of her life. She was there one day and then, suddenly, she was gone.
Dad’s reflection that he and Mum will never fight again shows how, once someone is gone, what once seemed like the worst parts of one’s relationship with that person— like fights—can become something that one misses.
Active
Themes
Crow thinks Dad could learn a lot from him. Dad thinks there is a fascinating interplay between Crow’s natural and civilized selves, which mirrors the interplay between mourning and living. One day when Dad leaves the house, the boys listen at the door of the bathroom to Crow, who says the words, “Sudden” and “Trauma.” When Dad comes back, Crow begins squawking. Sometimes, Crow thinks, he performs being a crow for Dad, who likes to think he is hearing a bird spirit. Crow is happy to do it if it helps Dad.
Active
Themes
