Homeless Bird

In Homeless Bird, animals are important symbols, often representing either Koly herself or an aspect of the life she seeks. Her arranged marriage makes her feel trapped, “like a newly caged animal that rushes about looking for the open door that isn’t there” (23). Reinforcing this comparison after her husband dies and Sass subsequently abandons her, Koly realizes that her government has no interest in protecting her right to a widow’s pension. In the marketplace, she sees a “trained monkey on a chain” and a caged mynah bird that “had been blinded to make it sing” (98). These animals represent Koly. Their chains, cages, and abusive captivity symbolize the institution of arranged marriage and thematically support The Impacts of Cultural Traditions on Women’s Rights and Identities. The author depicts the institution from a feminist viewpoint, highlighting its underlying transactional nature. Like many others, Koly’s marriage is arranged based on economic interests rather than compatibility, and thus Koly is treated like a commodity, not a human. Like the cruel people who blind the mynah bird to get it to sing, Sass mistreats Koly and takes advantage of her helplessness to benefit from her dowry, her labor, and later, her widow’s checks.

Koly also relates to the titular homeless bird from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem. Widows in Koly’s society lack family support, financial security, and even meaningful status. They may have a house to live in—or, like the women abandoned in Vrindavan and sleeping on the sidewalk, they may not—but without love and belonging, they don’t have a home. Like the homeless bird, Koly longs to fly away, to find something different than the life she has with the Mehtas. She envisions the bird “flying at last to its home” (212) when she’s ready to marry Raji, thus developing the theme of Defining “Home” in Terms of Love and Belonging. Another bird metaphor similarly alludes to women’s oppressed status. Koly says of her baap’s scribe work: “I watched as the spoken words were written down to become like caged birds, caught forever by my clever baap” (1). Although her baap is a kind and loving father, he accepts and reinforces his society’s gender disparities. The taboo against girls learning to read disempowers them. Thus, Koly’s depiction of her father’s written words becoming like caged birds in this quotation symbolizes that disempowerment.

The stray dog that lives near the Mehta household and the bandicoot that lives under their veranda symbolize Koly’s need for love and affection. When Koly realizes that she can’t earn Sass’s love or kindness and can no longer talk to Sassur, she begins caring for the stray dog and the bandicoot: “If no one would love me, I could at least love something” (94). Giving affection to these neglected creatures when she herself has been made into one reveals her love for herself and helps her survive long enough to escape her cage and find her true home.