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Symbols
In the United States, in times of war, yellow ribbons are used as a symbol of support to U.S. Army troops. However, in The Yellow Birds, yellow ribbons come to represent a more uncomfortable fact: most civilians’ ignorance of the realities of war. After Private John Bartle returns to the U.S. from the war in Iraq, he grows annoyed by the yellow ribbons around him. When an American bartender points to a yellow ribbon in a bar to explain why he wants to pay for Bartle’s beer, Bartle becomes frustrated, because he feels that he has not taken part in the heroic enterprise the bartender assumes war involves. Another time, Bartle angrily wants to burn all the yellow ribbons in the country, as he feels that he is being celebrated for being a murderer.
Bartle’s dissatisfaction with this symbol thus proves paradoxical. Although one might expect that he, as a veteran soldier, would feel grateful for the signs of civilian support he sees around him, Bartle’s resentment derives from his realization that people’s perception of the war (symbolized by the yellow ribbon) is overly simplistic and at odds with how the war truly is—brutal, destructive, and inelegant. Yellow ribbons thus begin to represent the lack of knowledge that people actually have about soldiers’ experience, as well as Bartle’s inability to reintegrate ordinary civilian life, where he feels like an impostor. The yellow ribbon thus acquires a meaning that clashes with its official definition: instead of highlighting the glory of war, it reveals the gap that exists between public narratives about war (which involve visions of camaraderie and grandeur) and the experience of war itself, which is infinitely more complex and unsettling.
The Yellow Ribbon Quotes in The Yellow Birds
The The Yellow Birds quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Yellow Ribbon. 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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Chapter 1 Quotes
A yellow bird
With a yellow bill
Was perched upon
My windowsill
I lured him in
With a piece of bread
And then I smashed
His fucking head
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This military song is included as a quote before The Yellow Birds begins. It gives meaning to the novel’s title and sets the tone for the work’s description of war and violence. In the song, the surprising shift from the peaceful setting described in the first stanza and the seemingly gratuitous violence in the song’s conclusion suggests that, in a context of war, successful soldiers must learn to perform cruel acts automatically, without reflecting on the moral value of their actions. However, if the yellow bird (or enemy) dies, the murderer becomes a yellow bird of his or her own—someone Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa.
I’d been trained to think war was the great unifier, that it brought people closer together than any other activity on earth. Bullshit. War is the great maker of solipsists: how are you going to save my life today? Dying would be one way. If you die, it becomes more likely that I will not.
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After the translator Malik’s death, Bartle reflects on his attitude toward survival and death. He realizes that war has forced him to focus exclusively on his own survival and to treat other deaths indifferently and instrumentally. Bartle’s understanding of other people’s deaths as a protection against his own death is fallacious, because nothing actually prevents him from dying as well. Like emotional detachment, this belief is nothing but a survival strategy, aimed at giving Bartle hope that he might survive. It allows him to find some logic in the disordered, selfish world he is immersed in. Bartle’s disillusion with the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. P
Chapter 5 Quotes
I didn’t want to smile and say thanks. Didn’t want to pretend I’d done anything except survive.
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After Bartle and his fellow soldiers leave Germany and land in the U.S., Bartle goes to the airport bar to wait for his flight to Virginia. There, the bartender chats with him about the war and insists on paying for Bartle’s beer, pointing to a yellow ribbon as justification for treating this young soldier with deference. Instead of feeling proud and grateful, Bartle becomes annoyed because he does not believe that what he did during the war truly served an elevated, collective ideal. Rather, he knows that the only reason he is now being celebrated—while other soldiers, not as lucky Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Lib
Chapter 7 Quotes
What would I say? “Hey, how are you?” they’d say. And I’d answer, “I feel like I’m being eaten from the inside out and I can’t tell anyone what’s going on because everyone is so grateful to me all the time and I’ll feel like I’m ungrateful or something. Or like I’ll give away that I don’t deserve anyone’s gratitude and really they should all hate me for what I’ve done but everyone loves me for it and it’s driving me crazy.” Right.
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At home in Virginia, Bartle feels as though he cannot share his feelings with anyone. His inability to communicate derives from his knowledge that he would shock people by revealing how much pain and guilt war has left him with, when everyone keeps on thanking him for what he has done. Bartle does not want to disappoint anyone, nor does he want to burden them with his own suffering. After being so detached from his emotions during the war, Bartle is now experiencing their full force. Their sheer intensity, he discovers, makes him feel separate from everyone else, since the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus cor
[…] there isn’t any making up for killing women or even watching women get killed, or for that matter killing men and shooting them in the back and shooting them more times than necessary to actually kill them and it was like just trying to kill everything you saw sometimes because it felt like there was acid seeping down into your soul and then your soul is gone and knowing from being taught your whole life that there is no making up for what you are doing, you’re taught that your whole life, but then even your mother is so happy and proud […]
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This section of Bartle’s long internal monologue, in which he finally confronts all of the emotions that war has left him with, constitutes the most direct denunciation of the horrors of war. Despite defining shooting and killing as actions that he took part in, Bartle also notes that these are actions that the army and the public condone. Paradoxically, then, society celebrates the very actions that Bartle feels have destroyed his core as a human being (“acid seeping down into your soul”). In this way, Bartle denounces society’s moral hypocrisy. Although everyone knows that killing is wrong, war proves to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum volup
[…] a deeper hole is being dug because everybody is so fucking happy to see you, the murderer, the fucking accomplice, the at-bare-minimum bearer of some fucking responsibility, and everyone wants to slap you on the back and you start to want to burn the whole goddamn country down, you want to burn every goddamn yellow ribbon in sight, and you can’t explain it but it’s just, like, Fuck you, but then you signed up to go so it’s all your fault, really, because you went on purpose […]
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In Bartle’s long monologue about the impact of the war on his psyche, he confronts issues of justice and responsibility. On the one hand, Bartle feels that he should be considered responsible for at least part of what happened during the war, since he was the one who held the rifle that killed other people and, more generally, he decided to enlist in the army and obey any orders he might receive. However, he also knows that, in becoming a soldier, he lost much of his agency to the army and cannot be entirely responsible for his actions, since he Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi
Chapter 8 Quotes
We were unaware of even our own savagery now: the beatings and the kicked dogs, the searches and the sheer brutality of our presence. Each action was a page in an exercise book performed by rote. I didn’t care.
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As Bartle learns to detach his emotions from the actions he performs, he begins to perform them mechanically, without giving them any thought. Paradoxically, it is this indifference that makes him a good soldier, allowing him to obey orders and to overcome the violence and monotony of daily life in Iraq. However, after the war, Bartle becomes aware of how brutally he behaved and can no longer sustain the indifference that kept him sane during the war. He assigns brutality not only to the explicitly violent acts the soldiers take part in, but also to a more political and cultural Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et.
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The Yellow Ribbon Symbol Timeline in The Yellow Birds
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Yellow Ribbon appears in The Yellow Birds. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: March 2005 – Richmond, Virginia
...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...
(full context)
Chapter 6: September 2004 – Al Tafar, Nineveh Province, Iraq
...this story, Bartle turns around to throw up, noticing that the bile comes out in yellow ribbon s.
(full context)
Chapter 7: August 2005 – Richmond, Virginia
...Iraq. He feels that he wants to burn the country down and destroy all the yellow ribbon s, even though he knows that joining the military was his own decision—one he made...
(full context)
