The story is about wildness and the fact that most situations are beyond our control. The narrator maps the story of how his sportsmanship was ended just from his first experience at it. His father ended the life of an innocent bird something that angered him and discouraged him off being a sportsman. The narrator then compares this to the transitions made by her wife from being wild autonomous and unpredictable to being predictable like a hen such that one could now know her behavior in advance. The main theme across the story is being wild just like the bird was wild, the narrator’s wife was also wild but this changed after sometime, something that now seems to sadden the narrator.
The protagonist in the story is the narrator who seems upset about the changes in the wilderness of her wife. She fell in love with his wife because of the wilderness but now feels that the love may be fading away as his wife is now predictable. However, in an instance where that wilderness is rekindled, he blames it on himself that his wife was not wild because he was there watching all the time. The narrator was perhaps right with the changes he observed on his wife as it turned out she was now with another man and the narrator had perhaps lost her to him. He is also afraid to confront his father for killing an innocent bird as well as the man who was kissing his wife.
The antagonist is the narrator’s wife who at first seemed to have loved the narrator and was wild and unpredictable as a result of that connection. But she slowly lost that wilderness as someone else now triggered the wilderness in her. She is immoral given that she is the narrator’s wife and still engages in sexual behavior such as kissing with another man. She is also certainly beautiful enough to arouse feelings and emotions from those around her right from the narrator to the people in the bus to the man she walked into the dark doorways together.
The setting of the story ranges from the house where the narrator and the wife lived from where the narrator would always enjoy her wilderness. There is also the bus station and the bus as well that the narrator’s wife took to meet the other man. And lastly the dark doorways where the kissing with the second man happened. Time is present given that there is reference to events that happened in the past. Symbols used in the story include the bird which is seen as a reflection of wilderness, the aspect of unpredictability and being autonomous of the bird makes it wild. The concept of wilderness is also another symbol as the narrators wife is perceived to be wild because she has the same autonomy and unpredictability of the bird.
The undergrowth where the bird had perched also seems to symbolize a place where wilderness thrives best, similarly to the streets where the narrator pursued his wife. There are several instances of irony in the story first after the lengthy process where the narrator pursued his wife from the house to the dark doorways, finally he does not intervene again taking the audience through the impacts of such an intervention is he were to intervene. Most audiences, expect that the narrator would at least intervene and get more answers to the many questions when he sees his wife kissing another man.
It’s also ironical that the narrator’s wife suddenly becomes wild again after leaving the house, contrary to the audiences believe that the narrators wife had lost her wilderness or perhaps that the narrator had lost vision of that wilderness, the narrator confuses audiences more with the sudden resurgence of wilderness in her wife when her wife believed to be out of sight from the narrator.
The story of the chase is quite interesting especially given that the events occurring in the first stages awakens some desire from readers to know what happens in the long run. The story only highlights cases where the narrator loved her wife but no instances where the wife replicated that love. This seems like a relationship that no longer satisfied both parties as the narrator no longer enjoys the wilderness in her wife and the wife engages in sexual acts with another man. Readers are also left to guess what happened in the end as the narrator does not intervene to generate more answers to the readers’ questions.