In T. Coraghessan Boyle’s story “rara Avis,” Boyle expresses the 12 year old narrator’s sexual repression and coming to terms with it. The narrator in great detail introduces imagery to symbolism and describe his evolution of his repression. The imagery present is coupled with actions taken through the scope of the story. Throughout the story actions the narrator makes subliminally introduces the narrators true sexual desires. The deceptively simple plot hides the true desires of a 12 year old boy coming to terms with his sexuality and his sexual repression.
The plot of Rara Avis is held together by the appearance of a bird. This bird had not been seen before and was perched motionless on top of a roof of a furniture shop. The narrator symbolizes the bird as woman, describing the feathers as a skirt with its “long legs naked and exposed.”…show more content… The first time this occurs is when the town gathers in front of the bird. The narrator exclusively notices sexual aspects of the people around him. He notices the girl and boy leaning up against the front of a car. He also notices Mrs. Schelcta and his father talking privately. The first observation he makes is how moist the lips of Mrs. Schlecta is. Later in the story the narrator retells the burning down of an abandoned home. He describes the event as a moment where he grew up. He was in this house with some friends, including girls and boys. The house also had scattered pieces of porn. He reveals that he had set the house on fire and was outside with many spectators of the blaze beside his dad. He states that he is usually repelled by the smell of armpit, crotch and “secret hair” of his father but in this instance comforted
