1. Focus on a particular species of bird. Depict it in its familiar habitat or somewhere it seems out of place.
2. Observe the bird's behavior or characteristics as something that might personify human beings. Draw parallels between the bird and a lover ("By the Nape") or an enemy.
3. Generally speaking, the bird is used to get at the relationship of the speaker to the larger natural world.
• it may be a symbol for all of nature (as in "Vulture") which the author uses to address nature and characterize his relationship with it.
• it may come to represent the author's wonder at the natural world ("Egrets").
• it may come to represent some sort of moral example ("The Kingfisher")
4. Perhaps the bird may serve as the focus of a narrative that the author returns to to provide glue for the disparate narrative threads (as in "One Thing and Another")
5. The bird may serve as a basis for a contemporary, revised myth, such as in "Mockingbirds."
This assignment is worth one point
Examples:
1. By the Nape—Sandra Alcosser