“The School” and “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot”

1. Who or what is being characterized in “The School” and “Jealous Husband”?

In “The School”, the class and its teacher are characterized by their resilience in spite of their bad luck. In the “Jealous Husband”, the husband is characterized. In the body of a parrot, his character is revealed by his weak responses to his wife cheating on him. 

2. Why are these stories told from the point of view of the teacher and the parrot? What emotional, dramatic, or character-building effects are made possible by the writers’ point-of-view choices? What do you think these stories might be like if they were told from the students’ or the widow’s points of view?

Observing the story through the teacher’s perspective displays his burden of having to watch his students’ education fall apart. This differs from how the story would play out if it were from the student’s perspective, because the students live presently with the creatures and people they adopt or play with. Contrary to the teacher, who recognizes the unfortunate pattern at the school, the children don’t anticipate death. Constant disappointment is demoralizing for someone who’s supposed to take on the role as an advisor. His unique grief therefore gives the last scene emotional substance. At the end, giving into showing affection to the teacher assistant becomes his way of communicating to the children how to move forward in spite of death.

As for the jealous husband, returning to his original life in the body of a bird gives him freedom to act upon everything he wants to do, whether it’s to fly away from the situation, speak up to his cheating wife, or verbally attack men she sleeps with. However, being stuck in a bird cage, his parrot form ironically still portrays his incapability to confront his wife. In human life he had the power to make a difference, but was too timid to do so. Now he’s passionate about what he wants, but has lost the power. It’s because of his new animal perspective that his flaws from his previous life are now dramatized in an agonizing method.