” In the poem Parrot humour is intensified by using an intelligent parrot as the speaker and making the humans very ignorant and ridiculous. ” Do you agree? Prove your view.
The poem Parrot by Alan Brownjohn is about a parrot who is caged. The poem is in parrot’s point of view. His owners try hard to speak him up. But he is angry with them as he is caged and don’t talk. But he is listening to everything that they talk. The parrot is very cunning and intelligent. So he plans to take his revenge from his owners. Like wise, the parrot makes his owners very ignorant. The poem brings out humour through the parrot and his owner’s actions.
The parrot is caged and used to entertain humans. The parrot is very angry about that. After thinking , he decides to do something that will surprise others.
” And give a squawk and start to speak
And go on for about a week ”
He is going to choose a time when everyone is present and start to speak. First the owners will be happy because the parrot is talking. But the parrot is very cunning. He tells that he will not stop talking after some time. He will talk until his owners release him. So the parrot will teach them a lesson that he not only entertains others but also intelligent to take revenge from them. The talking will not be pleasent anyway as it is very noisy when a parrot is talking.
And also the parrot doesn’t know what to take. So he will speak the words that have already told by his owners. When the parrot is talking their words, it will not be pleasent because the parrot does not know how to devide the good and bad and choose the right words. So if his owners have done something wrong, or blamed to a person, everything will be revealed. And they will be ashamed in front of the people. So they will be helpless in failing to stop the parrot. So the humour is intensified here as the parrot is making humans very embarrased.
Humans think that they are the only ones who are worthy to the world. They act as the superiors in the world avoiding other living beings. But here the parrot is destroying their superiority. They will try to do anything to stop the parrot’s talking. Maybe they will have to free the bird. So they have to become subsidiaries in front of the intelligent parrot. Here also humour is intensified because the little parrot is destroying the human superiority in a very clever manner.
And on other hand, the parrot’s owners are happy and proud about themselves. Because they have a caged parrot to show others. They think they are very intelligent and superior people as they have a caged bird. They don’t know parrot can understand what they say.
” But all the same, I’ve heard ;
They’re saying ” He won’t talk because
He is a thinking bird ”
They use this parrot for their entertainment. They are proud to have this bird and they give various reasons for not talking of the parrot. It is very sarcastic as they make themselves by hurting and caging a free bird who should fly everywhere he likes. It is also somewhat sarcastic and humorous as the humans ‘ ridiculousness and ignorance are shown up.
Like wise, the parrot makes humans humiliated. But there are some things that the parrot has been humiliated by itself. One is the parrot’s plan is impractical. Because he hasn’t talked human language amyday and no practice. So he can’t talk for a week ever. We should do something step by step. So this madness of parrot makes humour. And the parrot is very much revengeful. His revengeful thoughts make readers laugh. And it is somewhat sarcastic because the parrot is threathing people.
However, everyone needs freedom. We should not be selfish. Every living creature is worthy as humans. I think the poet wants to correct the people and demolish their selfish thoughts.
Anyway the parrot is very intelligent. So he makes humans very ignorant and ridiculous in a different way. It makes humour to the reader. So finally I think I can agree with the statement that in the poem ‘ Parrot ‘ humour is intensified by using an intelligent parrot as the speaker and making humans very ignorant and ridiculous.