Literary Analysis of the Jealous Husband Be careful what you wish for, in other words be careful when trying to catch your wife “in the act” . Robert Olen Butler uses symbolism to drive the story forward and leads the reader to understand the mindset of a man who now faces the confused mindset of a parrot. Butler has a style that makes readers think he has extraordinary literature or something more mediocre, but, regardless of the criticism, Butler's story A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain has become famous and for that Butler has an award for the new authors with his name on them. It. In this story, The Jealous Husband returns in the form of a parrot, the title reveals the plot. A man unable to face his unfaithful wife faces a fatal accident while trying to catch her. When the accident occurs, he wishes he had wings, this later comes to haunt him as he is reincarnated as a parrot and becomes his unfaithful wife's pet, watching various men come and go. We get a constant insight into the birds mind that shows us the psychological appeal of the husband's frenetic thoughts. The hardest thing to discover in this story are the symbols that Butler has hidden in the parrot. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Butler uses a strong sense of symbolism in this story. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. To analyze this story I will use the reader response perspective. Reader response means I will ignore the author information and even some textual information and focus more on what I get from the story and how I experienced it. The husband is presented as curious and caring despite his possessive nature and reluctance to address his problems. wife. His lack of confrontation, his skeptical nature, and his constant worry are relatable and yet make the reader frustrated with him. In a series of dialogues we get a better insight into the husband's thoughts: “He had been there for a month in the shipping department and she had mentioned him three times. He didn't even have to work with him and three times I heard about him, I just entered the conversation. 'Oh,' he would say when a car commercial came on on television, 'that car over there is like the one the new shipping man has. That's right." Hey, I'm not stupid." (butler 188). He immediately suspects that his wife is cheating on him and lets extreme worry plague his mind even though she has done nothing to make him suspect it. Both internal and external anxious dialect and the husband's shadowy nature push this point to the forefront of readers' minds. This is where I see the connection to a certain symbol, specifically the parrot it becomes. A parrot's personality is easily identifiable. Parrots tend to be extremely curious and quite emotional, as is their strong tendency to claim their love and affection. Their mannerisms are described by stating that they are "famous for their insatiable curiosity and multipurpose beak" (Nat Geo WILD) and that, "Parrots often show affection by preening their hair, nibbling your chin, or squawking loud enough to send them shattered." eardrums when you leave the room – perfectly acceptable behavior according to the parrot marriage manual. If he's angry about the direction the relationship is taking, your parrot can bite him, removing chunks of flesh, or destroy his cage with a group's skill..