Significance of birds

Birds are a symbol of home for Xavier and they symbolize a shift in Xavier's ideology or a change in his life. Whenever Xavier sees a bird, his world shifts a little bit. The most prominent examples of this are when he encounters the grouse during their mating dance and the swallow in his cabin during the war. Xavier sees the dance of the grouse when he is young and that fosters a shift in his thinking. Once he has seen the mating dance of the grouse, Xavier is able to understand that "all of life is in the circle" (331).