or feels further withdrawn from the other characters and more connected to nature. The narrator’s disdain for David is a result of her previous relationship with her ex-lover. We eventually learn that she had an abortion, and we can concur that it has had a major effect on her life. She is no longer content with being a victim to men. “After the slaughter, the murder,” she says, “he couldn’t believe I didn’t want to see him any more; it bewildered him, he resented me for it.” In fact the narrator wanted to abolish all connections with men, which leads to the eventual separation with her lover Joe. Although Joe is not yet totally taken over by the “American” culture, the narrator feels alienated from him because of his masculinity and inability to understand her at an emotional level. Their connection is merely physical. She also successively grows unattached from Anna, because Anna lets herself fill the role that men have created for her. Rather than standing up for herself, she allows David to dominate and manipulate her to the point that she is just a product of his rule.The negative effects of the abortion is fully realized when the narrator encounters the dead heron. The unnecessary murder of the bird provides a direct connection for the narrator between the effect men have on both nature and women, and propels her into the purification process. “Why had they strung it up like a lynch victim,” thought the narrator, “why didn’t they just throw it away like the trash? To prove they could do it, they had the power to kill. Otherwise it was valueless; beautiful from a distance but it couldn’t be tamed or cooked or trained to talk, the only relation they could have to a thing like that was to destroy it.” The narrator feels solace for the dead heron, because in effect it shared the same fate with her unborn baby. The narrator finally comes to terms ...
