The Painted Bird: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Painted Bird" is a novel that follows the harrowing journey of a young, unnamed war refugee as he traverses Eastern Europe during the horrors of World War II. The narrative centers on the boy's search for identity and understanding in a world marked by brutality and violence. As he is sent away by his terrified parents, he experiences a series of traumatic encounters with various characters, each representing different facets of human nature and survival under duress.
Key characters include Marta, a superstitious old woman who provides initial care but ultimately becomes a victim of fate; Olga, a wise healer who offers the boy protection and knowledge of folk remedies; and Lekh, a heartbroken peasant whose love story reflects themes of loss and longing. The boy also meets Ewka, a young woman who introduces him to the complexities of love and desire, only for those experiences to be tainted by violence from her own father.
Additionally, Gavrila, a Soviet officer, imparts political and historical education, while Mitka, a sniper, introduces him to the concepts of vengeance and artistic expression through poetry. The character of the Silent One, another orphan, highlights the lasting scars of war on children and the extremes they may go to in seeking justice or closure. Collectively, these characters serve to illustrate the boy’s evolving understanding of morality, survival, and self-determination amidst the chaos of war.
The Painted Bird: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Jerzy Kosinski
First published: 1965
Genre: Novel
Locale: Eastern Europe
Plot: Social morality
Time: World War II (1939–1945)
The young boy, an unnamed war refugee whose wanderings through Eastern Europe (from ages six to twelve) constitute whatever plot the novel can be said to contain. He has no history when his parents, fearful of Nazi reprisals, send him to the country for safekeeping. His first contact is soon lost. As the boy wanders from village to village, as slave or indentured servant to various peasant families, he witnesses scenes of increasing violence and cruelty. His own education follows from these episodes, as he tries to figure out how the world operates and what laws, if any, govern it. When the brutality becomes too much, the boy loses his voice and becomes mute; there is apparently nothing to be said in response to the cruelty here. At the end, reunited with his parents, the boy begins to speak; there is perhaps hope after all. The only real development in what seems a meaningless and disconnected series of cruel and violent incidents in the novel is, in fact, the quest the child makes for some kind of meaningful value system for himself. His selfishness at the begin-ning—clearly necessary for survival in this world of fear and ignorance—gives way by the end of the novel to a kind of personal self-determination.
Marta, a crippled, superstitious old woman with whom the young boy first lives. After Marta dies of natural causes, the boy accidentally sets fire to her house and burns her body in the conflagration.
Olga, a wise old woman who saves the young boy from other sadistic villagers. Olga is a medicine woman and has folk cures for a variety of ailments. When the boy catches a plaguelike fever, for example, she buries him up to his neck in a field, and the sickness soon leaves him.
Lekh, a peasant who traps birds and sells them to villagers. Lekh is in love with “Stupid Ludmila,” and when jealous villagers kill her, Lekh is heartbroken. It is with Lekh that the boy witnesses the title story, of the painted bird destroyed by its own flock because it is different (a metaphor for the boy himself).
Ewka, a young woman who introduces the young boy to sex. He feels secure and happy with Ewka—for one of the first times in the novel—and his sexual initiation is thus a happy one. Makar, Ewka's father, forces the girl into unnatural sexual acts, and the young boy loses his love for her as he begins to understand the nature of evil in the world.
Gavrila, a Soviet political officer who teaches the young boy how to read. Gavrila also gives him a political education, teaching him not only about socialism but also about the Marxist view of history and religion. The boy idolizes Gavrila and tries to model himself on the officer's behavior.
Mitka, a crack sniper in the Russian army who teaches the boy self-respect and—in contrast to the political education that Gavrila is giving him—introduces him to poetry and song as well. He also teaches the narrator the importance of vengeance. When several Soviet soldiers are killed by drunken villagers, Mitka enacts his own silent revenge through the scope of his high-powered rifle.
The Silent One, who, like the young narrator, is a resident of an orphanage at the end of the war. It is the children who are the greatest victims of the war's violence and cruelty, the novel shows, and they bear the scars. The Silent One has his own sense of the world and causes a terrible train wreck as a means of getting back at a peasant merchant he thinks has humiliated the young boy.