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The red bird that appears to Leigh in the aftermath of Mom’s suicide represents rebirth and transformation, particularly as they pertain to death and the afterlife. It also represents the importance of memory in making peace with death and coming to terms with one’s grief. The novel begins with Leigh’s conviction that Mom is not dead, but has instead transformed into a large, red bird. The bird that is Leigh’s mother leads her to reconnect with her Taiwanese family and the traumatic past which led Mom to cut ties with them. In this way, the bird initiates another kind of metamorphosis, guiding Leigh to confront issues of identity, grief, and guilt, and thereby altering her understanding of herself and her family. It is worth noting that Mom’s continued existence as the red bird is temporary, lasting 49 days after her death. Nevertheless, the bird’s final act recalls the image of a phoenix—a mythical bird that bursts into flames and is reborn from the ashes. In the same way, Mom’s presence is not erased so much as it is transformed, as Leigh gains access to a deeper understanding of her mother through her memories. Thus, the red bird’s symbolism challenges the idea of death as an ending by showing how a person can view death as a transition to a new state of being.
Red Bird Quotes in The Astonishing Color of After
The The Astonishing Color of After quotes below all refer to the symbol of Red Bird. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapters 1-10 Quotes
“Leigh,” said the bird.
I would have known that voice anywhere. That was the voice that used to ask if I wanted a glass of water after a good cry, or suggest a break from homework with freshly baked cookies, or volunteer to drive to the art store. It was a yellow voice, knit from bright and melodic syllables, and it was coming from the beak of this red creature.
My eyes took in her size: nothing like the petite frame my mother had while human. She reminded me of a red-crowned crane, but with a long, feathery tail. Up close I could see that every feather was a different shade of red, sharp and gleaming.
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Chapters 11-20 Quotes
“Listen. Your grandparents put this package together, planning to send it. But they changed their minds. Instead, they burned it. The photos and the letters. The necklace, which I mailed to them. They burned all of it.”
Waipo murmurs something, shaking her head.
“They burned it so that your mother could have these with her on her next journey,” Dad translates, his voice dropping low.
“But Mom—the bird.” I feel everything tilt and bump. I’m a top teetering at the end of its spin, a squeeze of asphaltum paint sullying zinc white. “You have to tell them about the bird.”
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Chapters 31-40 Quotes
“After a person’s death, they have forty-nine days to process their karma and let go of the things that make them feel tied to this life—things like people and promises and memories. Then they make their transition. So the temple will keep each yellow tablet for forty-nine days. After that, they’re burned.”
The thudding in my head matches the thudding against my ribs. “What transition?”
“Rebirth, of course,” says Feng.
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Chapters 61-70 Quotes
“I think people see ghosts all the time,” says Feng. “And I think ghosts want to be seen. They want to be reassured that they truly exist. They drift back into this world after passing through the gates of death into another dimension, and suddenly they hear every thought, speak every language, understand things they didn’t get when they were alive.”
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Chapters 81-90 Quotes
What if I wasn’t meant to unlock all those memories? What if those things were supposed to stay tucked away, hidden and eventually forgotten?
Is this what my mother—before she turned into a red and winged beast, back when she still wove magical worlds over the piano keys, and delighted in the look of a perfectly done waffle, and called my name in her warm bismuth-yellow way—is this what she would’ve wanted? For me to chase after ghosts? For me to uncover what answers I could, and try to stitch together the broken pieces of my family history?
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I want you to remember
Maybe Mom crossed that out because she changed her mind.
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Chapters 91-100 Quotes
My mother’s dying soaked down through the carpet, through the wood. When it was done with the bedroom, it took over our house, and then it moved on to me. It soaked through my hair and skin and bone, through my skull and deep into my brain. Now it’s staining everything, leaking that blackest black into the rest of the world.
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Chapters 101-108 Quotes
It’s not my room at all. I mean, it is, but it looks completely different. While I’ve been away chasing after ghosts and memories, Axel has been busy painting my walls.
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It feels like the inverse of what he usually does—making music out of images. This time he’s captured a world of sound in two dimensions. It feels like one of Mom’s piano sonatas described in paint.
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There is, at the top of the southwest corner, a red beast with wide wings, a dark beak, a long trailing tail. I freeze in place, because there’s no way he knew about the bird.
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Red Bird Symbol Timeline in The Astonishing Color of After
The timeline below shows where the symbol Red Bird appears in The Astonishing Color of After. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapters 1-10
Leigh insists that Mom has literally become a bird. She remembers how the June afternoon that Mom died, she encountered Dad on their porch,...
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...air is unseasonably cold as she opens the front door. Leigh watches a large crimson bird fly toward her and land on the front porch. It says her name in Mom’s...
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...is “grayer than a sketch,” and Leigh knows this isn’t her mother, who is a bird now. The body is missing the jade cicada pendant Mom always wore. Axel is present...
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...to tell him the truth: it is from Mom, who is now a large, red bird. Dad questions her about the significance of birds and the color red, as if trying...
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...goes to an ice cream parlor with her friend, Caro. Leigh tells her about the bird, but Caro, like her father, does not believe her. She claims to be worried about...
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Leigh continues to leave the front door cracked, waiting for the bird to return. A week after the funeral, Leigh wakes to a sudden chill. She finds...
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...She does not know if its contents will convince Dad of Mom’s return as a bird. She sits on the living room sofa, facing Mom’s piano. Leigh never got around to...
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Leigh retrieves the package and tells Dad that the bird (Mom) brought it. Exasperated and concerned, he suggests an appointment with Dr. O’Brien. Leigh insists...
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...learn he has already met them. Her family feels shrouded in mystery. Leigh senses the bird wants her to go to Taiwan, and she feels haunted. Dad refuses to let her...
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Later, Leigh dreams of the bird and wakes to find the living room warping around her. Unable to sleep, she researches...
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Chapters 11-20
...often cold now, and she wonders if this is the first step to becoming a bird.
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...Waipo goes to turn on the TV, Leigh implores her to wait. She retrieves the bird’s package and shows Waipo and Waigong what’s inside.
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...Dad asks Leigh where she got the box but becomes angry when she references the bird. According to Waipo, she and Waigong were going to send this package to Leigh but...
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...survived being burnt. She opens the curtains to look at the city and sees the bird staring at her through the window’s bars. It gives a startled scream and flies off,...
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...she discovers a red feather and a rectangular box. The feather reminds Leigh of the bird, and she wonders if this is another message. There are Chinese characters on the box,...
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...morning, Leigh and Waipo go into the city to buy breakfast. Leigh repeats the word “bird” in Chinese, but she doesn’t know if Waipo understands. The woman at the breakfast shop...
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...the apartment. Leigh examines the bag of pastries and discovers a logo of a red bird on it.
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Chapters 21-30
...if she were here. Feng talks incessantly, irritating Leigh. Feng informs Leigh that the red bird logo is new: it was inspired by a bird the owner has seen flying over...
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...skyscraper’s 89 floors and look out from the observation deck. Leigh does not see the bird. Feng insists they take a picture, and Leigh is distressed to find she looks like...
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That night, in the apartment, all Leigh can think of is the bird. She wonders if this restlessness was what led Mom to become the bird in the...
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...her eyes are images of Mom, who is not exactly dead because she is a bird. Leigh remembers how out of sync her parents felt. She wonders whether she and Dad...
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Chapters 31-40
...Leigh hopes that visiting all the Taiwanese places Mom loved will help her find the bird. She, Waipo, and Feng make their way through crowded streets to Mom’s favorite temple. Leigh...
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...a man tossing wooden crescent moons into the air. The moons are red like the bird’s feathers. Leigh hesitates to ask Feng questions, as Feng makes her feel like a tourist....
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Leigh searches the temple but sees no sign of the bird. They return to the apartment, where Waipo makes tea. Feng explains the process, irritating Leigh,...
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...life. This distresses Leigh, who feels she now has a time limit to discover the bird’s message. Again, she is irritated by Feng’s involvement, as her presence makes Leigh feel like...
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Leigh hypothesizes that the longer Mom is a bird, the more she forgets her former life. She died 41 days ago, meaning Leigh has...
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...to sell her to another family. The baby’s adoptive parents name her Yuanyang “like the birds,” and Leigh realizes the child is Waipo.
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...told her. But she is sure that glimpsing the past will lead her to the bird.
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Chapters 41-50
Having finished cutting up clothes, Leigh tries and fails to sleep. She imagines catching the bird in her makeshift net and gently coaxing her mother into telling her what she needs...
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In the present moment, Leigh finally falls asleep. She dreams of the bird struggling to fly, and hears Mom’s voice calling her name. Leigh interprets the dream as...
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...Waipo’s story and her fractured family history. She begins weaving the net to catch the bird. On her phone, she finds two new emails. The first is from Dad, who has...
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...Understanding now that she needs an object to burn, she looks through the box the bird left her and finds an old drawing from when she was a child. Leigh hesitates...
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Chapters 51-60
...asks if Leigh is American. Feng pulls her away. The man shouts after them, saying “birds belong in the sky.” He is gone when Leigh looks back.
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...and she longs to search for Mom alone. A vendor shouts that a large red bird came out of the sky and stole his fish balls. Feng tells Leigh those fish...
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...them had tetrachromacy—a condition where a person sees colors others can’t. Leigh wonders if the bird is like a color only some people can see, and remembers that most birds are...
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...over her treatment of Feng. Looking for distraction, she looks through the box from the bird and finds a drawing she and Axel did together. Each drew the other person separately,...
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Chapters 61-70
In the present, Leigh only has six days left to catch the bird. She wonders why the incense showed her Mom and Axel, what purpose that memory serves....
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In the present moment, Leigh finally falls asleep. She dreams of Mom as the bird, flapping frantically and screaming her name. Before she wakes up, Leigh can smell Mom’s flesh...
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...confides in Feng that she has seen Mom’s ghost in the form of a red bird. Suddenly, Waipo finds a red feather on the ground.
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Chapters 71-80
...present, Feng takes Waipo and Leigh to visit Mom’s old university. She reasons that the bird brought Leigh to Taiwan, so it must want her to see or do something here....
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...so during Ghost Month, when ghosts are around. The room features decorative fans with red birds painted on them. Fred brings up a neighborhood map and shows them where they can...
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...are clearer now that it is Ghost Month. Leigh searches for the shape of a bird, but she sees nothing. Fred offers to drive them back, where he will explain everything.
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...attracts many ghosts. He leaves Leigh on the balcony. She hears wings and sees the bird circling above. Leigh says “Mom,” and the bird flies away.
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...before Mom’s spirit is lost, and Leigh is exhausted. She watched the sky for the bird all night in Jiufen. Leigh tells Feng about Fred. Feng speculates that Jingling would have...
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Chapters 81-90
...in the present, Leigh wonders how these memories are meant to help her find the bird. According to Waipo, there are no more significant places in Taiwan for them to visit....
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...Mom cry out her name. When she wakes, Leigh sees her shadow morph into the bird. There is a weird smell in the apartment hallway. Leigh follows it to the bathroom,...
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Chapters 91-100
...of them is broken like the rest of the world. Leigh despairs over finding the bird in time. Feng gently suggests that maybe all Mom wanted was for Leigh to come...
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...Leigh on a fragment of the moon, looking out at the darkness of space. The bird appears, circling and tracing the stars. Leigh knows the bird sees her. She thinks of...
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Chapters 101-108
Leigh believes her otherworldly experiences with the bird, the incense, and Feng truly happened, though no one else remembers them. Her relationship with...
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...but Leigh feels that they are processing their shared grief and memories. Leigh sketches the bird and Feng, and thinks Waipo might remember some of their strange experiences. Dad agrees to...
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...to see Axel’s drafts folder, but it is empty apart from a photograph showing a bird’s shadow on Leigh’s lawn. Leigh accepts Axel’s explanation as one more strange occurrence.
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...colors that flow like his music. Leigh sees silhouettes in the paint, including the red bird, which she never told Axel about. She is amazed he did this all for her....
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...hopes Mom would be proud of. On the plane, she sees the shadow of a bird in the clouds. Leigh’s exhibit is called “The Rememberer Series,” and it features eight pieces...
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