Ava Sing Lo

At the beginning of the narrative, Ava is a young woman who is alone in the world. She is one of the dead birds the title of the narrative references as she does not live. She exists with her mother after finishing graduate school, but does not communicate with her. Her mother tries to not let people know that Ava is her daughter. She does not feel as if she fits into any culture as she has dark skin, but she is also half Korean and was raised solely by her Korean mother. Her looks, however, keep her from being seen as member of the Korean culture. Although she tries hard to communicate with her mother through sounds, she does not have the words to communicate with her. The sign that the two of them are not surviving together are played out vy the fact that...