The wireless radio to which Nat and his wife repeatedly turn for guidance ultimately comes to represent both their isolation and the broader failure of human technology to withstand a natural attack. A radio broadcast is what first informs the family that the attacks are not limited to their coastal town, and it gives the Hockens false hope that outside help will come, emphasizing their misguided faith in human ingenuity. But though the radio initially connects the Hockens with the outside world, broadcasts stop within a day of the attacks and Nat and his family are afraid to turn on the radio too often lest they drain its battery and permanently isolate themselves, which suggests the hubris of humanity’s reliance on manmade technology to protect them against nature. At the end of the story, as hawks appear to be breaking down his front door, Nat turns the static on once again, perhaps hoping for a final sign of human contact in the face of death.
The Wireless Radio Quotes in The Birds
The announcer’s voice was smooth and suave. Nat had the impression that this man, in particular, treated the whole business as he would an elaborate joke. There would be others like him, hundreds of them, who did not know what it was to struggle in darkness with a flock of birds.
The Wireless Radio Symbol Timeline in The Birds
