Parrot in the Oven Study Questions
- Describe when the analogy is given. Is this idea only in the narrator’s mind at this point?
- Think about and discuss the way the parents are described. Is this stereotypical or accurate? Why is it important to the story?
- Analyze the scene when Manny and Nardo are picking peppers in the field. How does what happens there influence their lives at home?
- "He didn’t know how awful she felt about embarrassing him at the pool hall" (59).
- "’You can’t take my rifle . . . you can’t take my rifle,’ his voice sinking into a plea" (67). Discuss the significance of this scene, including Manny’s mother’s anger.
- "Grandma used to keep her face pretty like a baby doll, dabbing cold cream on it every night. . . . Now her face was webbed with wrinkles, and her hair sworly white and frazzled" (81).
- "How we never take responsibility. She said that’s why we’re so confused and screwed up. Only she didn’t say ‘confused’ and ‘screwed up,’ but said ‘neurotic’ and another medical word I couldn’t make out" (149). Describe and discuss the circumstances for this scene. Look closely at the narrator here. And what has just happened to Magda. Draw a connection between this epiphanic scene and the one when Manny recognizes Magda’s "lover."
- "I passed the glass door; and from the light of the outside lamp I saw the reflection of a ridiculous boy, a clumsy boy. It was me, looking at myself, except that it wasn’t me, but someone ghostly and strange" (181).
- "’Well, I suppose it’s okay,’ she said, finally. ‘But don’t come back later.’ . . .like she know I’d do the right thing" (200).
- "This room was what my mother spent so much energy cleaning and keeping together, and what my father spent so much energy tearing apart. And it was wondrous, like a place I was meant to be. A place, I felt, that I had come back to after a long journey of being away. My home" (215).