Feral Birds

In the story Becoming Feral by Sue Hubbell she uses the turkey hunters and other birds to show a connection between women and herself to the wild birds that live around her.   The main bird spoke of in the story is the turkeys, however the other bird she uses are the barn owl, the indigo bunting, cardinals, Carolina chickadees and sparrows.  Each of these birds serve a purpose in Hubbell’s story by connecting her to nature.  This connection starts with the turkey hunters, which leads her connecting the turkeys to woman, and then her directly connecting herself with some of the birds.

                The short story starts with two turkey hunters imitating a barn owl.  The hunters make these call to locate the tom within the early morning or late evening.  The owl hoot is used to cause a shock gobble from the tom and then when the hunters know the turkeys position and are ready they then use a hen call to lure in the tom.   Hunters normally make these calls 30 minutes before sunrise during the time that cardinals begin to sing (Gulvas).  They stop the owl calls a soon as the crows begin to call and then they switch over to imitate crow calls if needed.

                Within the story, Sue Hubbell uses the turkeys that the hunters are hunting and connects them to women.  One of these connections is when she says that men are attracted to females who are in their breeding years and sill want to build a nest.  This nest can refer to a woman wanting to find a home they can call their own to create a family.  These women see the home as a safe environment in which that they can live and peacefully raise their young.  The same goes for the turkey who build their nests after finding their mate so that they can lay their eggs.  Hens try to find a place to build the nest that is safe so they can raise their young peacefully without worrying about predators.

                The author’s connection to the birds allows her to desire to be closer to nature.  In the second to last paragraph she states, “I want a turkey too, but I want mine alive.”  “I want indigo buntings singing their couplets when I wake in the morning.” This leads her to also want other things in nature and wanting to know more about the nature around her.  Which allows her to decide to sleep outside where she may achieve gaining a closer relationship with nature. In a way using the they turkey and the indigo bunting in these last paragraph shows us that she may also want to be young again and to feel the love of a family.  Since the turkey can symbolize fertility and the indigo bunting can symbolize love. 

                I’ve only briefly gone over the relationship between birds with woman and the author, however it is amazing how much can still be uncovered in this short story.  Becoming Feral by Sue Hubbell is a story that I have enjoyed reading just to see these little relationships between the nature around her and lets us know what she may want in life which shows what she treasures.  This could also ably to the nature that we live in; it has the possibility to show us the little things we value in life and maybe a little about ourselves.

Sources:

Gulvas, Denny. Wild Turkey Sounds. n.d. 26 02 2017. <https://www.nwtf.org/hunt/wild-turkey-basics/turkey-sounds>.

 Swenson, M. (2003). I Will Lie Down. In L. Anderson, Sisters of The Earth (Second ed., p. 53). New York: Vintage Books.