The Yellow Birds: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

On the plane on his way home to the U.S., Bartle realizes that he feels like he has left a part of himself in Iraq. To him, home has become an undefined image, shaken by the long months he spent in a foreign land. When he wakes up from a nap, he reaches for his rifle before realizing that it is not there. He then looks around the plane and counts the number of soldiers missing, including Murph, listing their ranks, and concluding that the number might be somewhere between twenty and thirty. As Bartle admires the landscape, he realizes that he has been forming a thought in his mind: he wants to go home.

When the plane lands in the U.S., a sign thanking the soldiers for their service welcomes them and the lieutenant gives them a short speech reminding them not to drink and drive or hit their girlfriends. When the soldiers are dismissed, many look confused and wonder what their lives will be like now. Bartle, who also feels lost and confused, goes to the airport bar. He notices that the bar is extremely clean but wants to clean the dust his boots have left on the floor. When he asks the janitor if he can use the man’s mop, however, the man tells him there is nothing on the floor and pats Bartle’s shoulder to reassure him.

Bartle drinks a few beers and has a brief chat with the airport bartender, who tells him that he finds it a shame young people like Bartle have to go fight in Iraq and that they should simply annihilate “those sand niggers.” When he asks Bartle if Iraq is filled with “savages,” as he has heard, Bartle replies that it is “something like that.” When Bartle then hears his flight announced, he wants to pay for the beers but the bartender insists on giving them to him for free, showing a yellow ribbon as an explanation. However, Bartle, who is annoyed to be treated with deference for his role in the war, where he feels all he did was survive, insists and gives the bartender his money before he leaves.

On the plane to Virginia, the pilot makes an announcement expressing his honor to be taking an American hero home. Bartle feels annoyed and embarrassed but is given a seat with more legroom on the plane and drinks four Jack and Cokes. He imagines what other soldiers in other planes must be feeling, as they return to girlfriends and friends with the impression that the world is slipping away from them, unable to get rid of a loneliness that has become impressed into their very bones.

Bartle falls asleep and soon finds himself in Virginia. His mom welcomes him at the airport, her hands pressing against his face and uniform, as though she were afraid he could fade away. She begins to cry, repeating his name over and over and slapping him in the face when he tries to keep her hands from pressing against his cheeks. She tells him that he is home and, although he feels protected by her embrace as he lays his head against her chest, he finds that he cannot believe her.

On the drive home, Bartle looks out at the landscape and, when he sees the valley below, imagines himself patrolling and taking cover in the fields, examining which positions would allow him to take cover. His mother asks him if he is okay, startling him, and he says that he is fine. When they arrive home, Bartle says that all he wants to do is shower and sleep. He shuts the blinds in his room and concludes that he has reached emptiness instead of a much-awaited home. When he takes off his clothes, he feels that he is disappearing and might vanish at any moment. Feeling tired, he lies in bed and falls asleep, dreaming of Murph and the war, as he does every night.