Papa's Parrot

Have you ever wondered what would happen to your pet if you had a heart-attack? When Mr. Tillian has a heart-attack and has to stay in the hospital, his son helps with the bird and they both realize that they need each other more than they think they do. Cynthia Rylant’s comedy, “Papa’s Parrot” makes me remember a story that my mom used to tell me as a child and also recall a lesson that was taught.
“Papa’s Parrot”’s mode of literature is a comedy. Being a comedy you know that the story has to be realistic. It starts in normalcy when it says, “his father was fat and merely owned a candy and nut shop, Harry Tillian liked his papa”. This is a perfectly normal scene and there is absolutely nothing uncanny about it. The conflict arises when Harry’s Dad has a heart attack. The main character realizes this and does something about it when he goes to his Dad’s house to feed the bird and maybe clean up the house a little bit. Harry then goes to the hospital to visit is Father because they don’t talk much any more and he feels awful about it; this is when the conflict gets resolved. The story returns to normalcy when Harry’s Dad is getting better and when he is now going to take over the candy shop until he is completely healed. Also the purpose of a comedy is that people like conflict resolution and this story had a great resolution.
Even though this story is a comedy, it also reminds me of a story from the past. When I was a little girl my Mom used to tuck me into bed and then tell me a bedtime story every night, she would make them up as she told the story which made them very interesting. One night I was in bed and she told me a story of a man who lived a normal life and decided to go on a vacation far away, but when he left his home he also left his dog by mistake, this is where the conflict arises. The dog was alone in the house until the neighbor came over because she wanted to borrow a cup of sugar for the cake she had been making. She knocked on the door and there was no answer so she went in. She found that there was nothing in the house except for the dog. He was curled up in a ball, sleeping on the couch. He woke up and ran to her. The neighbor then looked at the calendar and saw that two of the days that had passed had not been crossed off so she had thought that the owner of the house had been gone for that long, this is when the main character realizes the conflict. The neighbor then riffled through every cabinet until she found the dog food. When she did, she filled the dog’s bowl with the food and the other bowl with water. The dog ate the whole thing within the time-span of about one minute. The mans neighbor brought the dog to her house so that she could take care of him until the owner came home. When the owner arrived home, this is where the conflict gets resolved. And when the two people go back to living a normal life, that is when the normalcy begins again. This story is similar to “papa’s parrot” because both of the pets were left alone when the owners were occupied with something else so someone found them and took care of them. When the owners were able to take care of the pets again, that is when the conflicts are resolved. They are also both comedies. “Papa’s Parrot” reminds me of a childhood story and also teaches a lesson. The lesson taught was that you should spend more time with your loved ones because you never know when your/their last day is going to be so you should live everyday like it is your last. When Harry’s Dad had the heart-attack the felt terrible because he grew apart from his Dad and they didn’t talk anymore, so when he found out about the heart-attack he was scared because he could have lost his Dad.
The gloomy comedy of “Papas Parrot” has many things such as a life lesson and a blast from my past. This story teaches that when you love someone you need to show it because you could be gone any second and you never know when so spend as much time with them as you can so that when one of you go you wont regret not being with them.