On the Yellow Bird

             I decided to do my critical essay on Tennessee Williams" short story "The Yellow Bird." The view of the story is 3rd person, the narrator lets us see into the lives of the characters but does not let any of the characters interact with the reader. It is like someone telling hot gossip about someone else, while repeating anything that the person might have said. The setting in this story is extremely important. It begins in Salem and transfers itself to Hobbs, Arkansas and New Orleans, Louisiana. The story needs to be placed in these setting because it lets the reader know about the morals and hardships of living in these territories at the time. There were standards set as to how one had to act and how one went about their life, which were very difficult to follow if you were a wild and free person like the main character in this story named Alma. Other characters that are encompassed in this story were her father Increase Tutwiler, her mother, Mrs. Tutwiler, Goody Tutwiler, the Circle girls, John and Bobo the bird. .
             Throughout the story the tone manages to stay the same. It is incredible how the story manifests itself from one place to another. It starts off in Salem where the popularity of witchcraft had been present for many years and the accusation and hanging of the woman named Goody Tutwiler. It is uncertain to me if this was Alma's mother, but I do not believe so because she died at the beginning of the story. This may have been Increase Tutwiler's first wife. There is talk about a bird by the Circle Girls (a group who gets hysterical around witches) that Goody would be seen with, and it was said that the bird named Bobo was the gateway between her and the devil. Tennessee Williams gives us this information in order to wonder about the characters and how they lived, he then changes the setting to Hobbs, Arkansas where it can further develop. I believe this is because in Salem all would have been restricted and ended by the Circle Girls.