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While phrases about birds (such as the consistent refrain about a mated pair of Mandarin ducks) are very common to the language of nu shu, the manner in which Snow Flower uses the language of birds is decidedly less conventional. For her, both writing about birds and other flying creatures and embroidering them is a way to express her desire for freedom in an acceptable fashion, as her actual freedom is slowly taken from her. Snow Flower is essentially able to use birds as a sort of alter ego for herself, where as a bird she's free and able to soar above the earthly things that keep her subjugated and at the mercy of others. While Snow Flower's fixation on birds and freedom scares Lily as a child, as a young woman Lily repeats these phrases and motifs back to Snow Flower to remind her of her free spirit.
Birds and Flying Quotes in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The Snow Flower and the Secret Fan quotes below all refer to the symbol of Birds and Flying. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Rice-and-Salt Days: Sons
Quotes
With her bold act, I realized the true purpose of our secret writing. It was not to compose girlish notes to each other or even to introduce us to the women in our husbands' families. It was to give us a voice. Our nu shu was a means for our bound feet to carry us to each other, for our thoughts to fly across the fields as Snow Flower had written.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Snow Flower LitChart as a printable PDF.
Birds and Flying Symbol Timeline in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The timeline below shows where the symbol Birds and Flying appears in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Sitting Quietly
...for the reader, the text of which she has memorized. An elaborate design of flowers, birds, and messages cover the fan, telling a story of optimism and promises that give way...
(full context)
Daughter Days: Snow Flower
...was tied to a chair where she could only look out the window at the birds. Hearing this both scares and thrills Lily. Snow Flower puts her hand on Lily's cheek,...
(full context)
Daughter Days: Love
...passed through Madame Wang. While Lily writes "little-girl things," Snow Flower responds with messages of birds, flight, and escape. This is both frightening and exhilarating to Lily, and she wants to...
(full context)
...puts her down, and immediately she and Lily begin talking. Snow Flower doesn't speak of flying away; rather, she acts like a normal little girl interested in normal things. Snow Flower...
(full context)
...and Uncle laugh during dinner. Lily says her family treats Snow Flower like an escaped bird among chickens, but everyone is amused at the situation. That night, Snow Flower suggests that...
(full context)
Hair-Pinning Days: Beautiful Moon
...than Lily. Snow Flower works on a pair of purple and white shoes embroidered with flying creatures, and Beautiful Moon works on her red wedding slippers. Village children stop to chat...
(full context)
Hair-Pinning Days: The Flower-Sitting Chair
...all the usual sentiments, even from Snow Flower. Snow Flower's book begins by mentioning a phoenix and a golden hen.
(full context)
Hair-Pinning Days: Truth
...Flower never told the truth. She wonders if Snow Flower actually believes she can just fly away with the birds.
(full context)
...arrives home, she opens the fan and, to mark Snow Flower’s marriage, writes about a phoenix soaring over a common rooster. Lily cries and paints a wilted, crying flower at the...
(full context)
Rice-and-Salt Days: Sons
...son's name on the wall of their ancestral temple and then serves a variety of poultry dishes. Snow Flower sends a beautiful jacket for Lily's son, but Lily's mother-in-law makes it...
(full context)
...candid voice, allowing their feet to carry them to each other and their thoughts to fly to each other. Lily composes a similarly constructed letter inviting Snow Flower to her natal...
(full context)
...the beginning of farming season, so women make sticky rice balls to offer to the birds to distract them from the fields. After they leave the rice balls, Lily gets in...
(full context)
...Flower doesn't wait for an answer before referring to herself and her husband as two mandarin ducks that enjoy it. Lily is bewildered, especially when Snow Flower admits that Snow Flower's husband...
(full context)
Rice-and-Salt Days: Into the Mountains
...Snow Flower’s daughter Spring Moon, Lily says the girls will be like a pair of mandarin ducks .
(full context)
Rice-and-Salt Days: Winter
...edge of the cliff. Lily follows her, afraid that she'll jump to be like her birds. After eleven days, Snow Flower finally speaks and tells Lily that her husband beat her...
(full context)
Rice-and-Salt Days: Letter of Vituperation
...that she will sing a Letter of Vituperation (a public grievance). Snow Flower starts, "the pheasant squawks and the sound carries far." She lists all the miseries of her life and...
(full context)
...don't criticize her, but comfort her and visit her. She says she feels like a bird flying without its mate. Lily thinks of her grievance against Mama and ignores Snow Flower....
(full context)
Rice-and-Salt Days: Into the Clouds
Lily begins working on burial shoes for Snow Flower and embroiders curly-wing bats and deer on them. Snow Flower's feet and legs start to turn purple, and Lily...
(full context)
...and writes on it that one day she hopes that she and Snow Flower will soar together. She says she'd have many years to consider the writing on the fan and...
(full context)
Sitting Quietly: Regret
...a man would treasure his wife if he sees her as little better than a chicken or a water buffalo. Hearing these stories made Lily consider her own life, in which...
(full context)
