Importance of Parrot

The parrot symbolizes beauty and vivacity held in captivity, and encapsulates Aminata's and her fellow slaves' situation, as they too are beautiful beings held in captivity. When Aminata travels to America on the slave ship, she is forced to sleep in the medicine man's bedroom. The medicine man, an ugly older man, keeps a blue and yellow parrot in a cage. As Aminata states, "it was locked in that cage just as surely as I was locked in the ship" (105).