https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds By: Alex Smilor and Emily Tran en-us 2017-10-12 20:37:57 UTC 2025-07-24 11:45:24 UTC hello@padlet.com awsmilor100 https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds/wish/196634898           "Outside, the sparrows were still chirping, and as she lay in bed, Millicent visualized them, pale gray-brown birds in a flock, one like the other, all exactly alike.
And then, for some reason, Millicent thought of the heather birds. Swooping carefree over the moors, they would go singing and crying out across the great spaces of air, dipping and darting, strong and proud in their freedom and their sometime loneliness." (Plath 13)
          She is, at the time this quote is stated, at the end of the sorority's initiation and is in the basement, while the members are deciding whether she made it in or not. She decides that she wants to be free, and not just one person in a flock of identical people. In the end she decides not to join the sorority, the sparrows, and instead wants to be different and unique.]]> 2017-10-12 20:44:36 UTC https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds/wish/196634898 awsmilor100 https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds/wish/196966531

]]> 2017-10-13 20:15:08 UTC https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds/wish/196966531 https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds/wish/196967580           The heather birds symbolize what Millicent wants to be: individualistic and free. She wants to be able to make her own decisions and to be her own person. Millicent prefers to be a heather bird instead of a sparrow because unlike heather birds, sparrows are all the same. Sparrows lack individuality, which sets then apart from the kind of person Millicent aspires to be.

          The symbol is concluded when Millicent decides she no longer wants to be apart of the sorority she was looking forward  to the most. She grew closer to discovering her true identity with the help of the heather birds and their uniqueness. She realizes the type of person she wants to be  will differ from others; in this case, sparrows.]]> 2017-10-13 20:21:05 UTC https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds/wish/196967580 awsmilor100 https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds/wish/196969864 "'Heather birds live on the mythological moors and fly about all day long, singing wild and sweet in the sun. They're bright purple and have very tasty eyebrows.'" (Plath 12) 
This quote comes when Millicent interviews the last man on a bus, in order to find out what he ate for breakfast. She was doing this because her big sister  had made her do it and, if she did not do it, she would not get into the sorority. After hearing mundane answers of toast and eggs, the man's answer of "heather bird's eyebrows" catches her by surprise and she is confused. ]]> 2017-10-13 20:36:23 UTC https://padlet.com/awsmilor100/Heather_Birds/wish/196969864