The Inner Battle Between Bukowski and The Blue Bird

Introduction

Charles Bukowski’s well-known poem Bluebird depicts a metaphorical and invisible bird that inhabits in his heart. In one’s first reading, the poem leaves an impression which incites the readers to search for inner bluebirds inhabit in their own hearts. In the poem, Bukowski completely dominates the bluebird, feeding the bluebirds whatever he wants and locking the blue birds in his caged heart. The poet tells the readers that he has the power to restrain the bluebird despites its wish of getting out. However, a close examination of the poem shows the opposite — he only sees the phantom of the bluebird. First of all, Charles Bukowski’s claim that there is a “bluebird” hidden from others in everyone’s heart is questionable. Apparently, the bluebird signifies human’s authentic and unrestrained desires. According to Bukowski, human beings are forced to restrain their unfettered wishes. Perhaps, the bluebird is only a phantom of the poet’s imagination. Further, even if there is a bluebird — representing the id, could we control it as Bukowski depicts? In deploying the method of deconstructionism, this paper attempt to show the opposite as Bukowski struggled to convey, the readers apprehend nothing about the bluebird, but simply a phantom of Bukowski’s drunken dream.

Description of Deconstruction

In order to pave the way for further analysis, this paper clarifies the basic claim and method of deconstructionism. Deconstruction theory examines a given text in two steps. The first step entails understanding the poem, i.e., identifying the symbols, metaphors, ironies, tone, point of views, and etc. It requires readers to capture the signification and meaning a text aims to convey. However, the deconstructionists are the mischiefs, who questions all meanings. In other words, the deconstructionist does not believe a text has an immortal soul or an all-embracing signification that hinges the text together. Accordingly, meanings are always filtered by people’s point of views, i.e., the aspects of reading. For instance, deconstructionists utilise terminologies like, différence to denotes the arbitrariness and the futility of meaning. One only know what is by knowing what it is not. In other words, one only identify what is by recognizing what it is not. For instance, I claim this is book. My claim is valid under the condition that I recognize the book is not a chair, not a flower, and the list goes on. Therefore, what it is and what it is not are binary oppositions. The oppositions co-exist in the unfold of sense. The arrival of a privileged meaning requires the recognition its différence, i.e., by a continuing process of excluding. In other words, the meaning is a process of “defering”. However, deferring does not exclude the opposition — what is deferred remains. The so-called arrival at the ultimate meaning is always conditioned by its opposites, i.e, what it is not. Under the influence of psychoanalytical theories, deconstruction attends to the apparent, the slip of the tongue. It deconstructs the meaning which other theories attempt to construct and articulate.

Close reading of the BlueBird

Charles Bukowski’s Bluebird consists of two stanzas. In the first stanza, the poem straightforwardly points out its main target, the blue bird inhabits in the poet’s heart. The blue bird wants to get out. The line is repeated four times in the poem, which rhymes to the readers’ ears. The poet depicts the unliterary relationship between the blue bird and the himself. He completely dominates the blue birds, as he writes, “I am too tough for him.” Whisky and cigarette are the blue bird’s daily degustation. Whisky is a form of hard liquor, while the inhalation of cigarettes detriments one’s health. The blue bird has no choice, but to passively take everything Bukowski offers him. In order to understand the poem, it is necessarily to examine the poem closely.

In the first stanza, Bukowski depicts his relationship with the bluebird in his heart. However, it is not a smooth relationship, as the bird struggles under the poet’s domination. The poet tells the reader in the first line of the poem, “there’s a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out.” According to the poet, the bluebird desires the world outside, i.e., a world of freedom. However, the poet annuls its wish: “I am not going to let anybody see / you.” The red and bold part is repeated for many times in this poem, — a use of reiteration, it is the main theme of the poem, the bluebird inside the poet that had never been seen. Nobody knows about the bluebird. If only the poet sees the blue birds, the reader may posit a valid question: whether the bluebird exists?

The image of the blue bird is a metaphor, which represents the hidden visage of the poet, another-self that nobody else knows about. The bartenders who serve him drinks, the whores who sleep with him, and the grocery clerks who offers him daily food; they can only see Bukowski’s appearance, his face, his movement, and his body. However, none of them knows the blue bird inhabits in Bukowski’s heart. In other words, none of them really “knows” or “understands” the other/real Bukowski, that is, the blue bird in his heart.

The battle between the poet and the bluebird was having a serious war. In the second stanza, the poet depicts the war. Again, the poet emphasizes his toughness in treating the bluebird. The poet demands the blue bird to sit down, keep calm, and not to mess him up. However, the only answer he gets from the blue bird is: it “wants to get out”. Perhaps, out of frustration, the witty poet finds a reconciliation with it. As the poet writes, “I only let him out / at night sometimes / when everybody’s asleep.” The bird does get the freedom it desires. Only in the dark nights, when everyone is asleep. Is that true that no one can be the witness of the blue bird’s existence? The poet claims the opposite, he is enough to witnesses and affirms the blue bird’s existence. He comforts the blue bird by telling the blue bird: “I know that you’re here, so don’t be sad”. Inevitably, as a dweller of the poet’s heart, the blue bird carries all the poet’s secrets. Those secretes, the poet tells the reader, are “nice enough to make a man weep”. Those lines create a sentimental feeling: if the blue bird is free, the poet would live as if he has no secret. However, secrets are incompatible with reality, as the blue bird would screw up Bukowski’s works and blow his book sales in Europe. Weeping is nice because it smooths the scars, secrets are harsh because they entail discontent, resentment, and resistance, and life is fragile because human are mortals, so does the blue bird. Only when the night comes, the poet shows some tenderness to the blue bird, and the blue bird sings. The poet is content to be with the blue bird, but only alone. The poem ends depressively, the poet is tough, tough enough to not weep for the human fragility. Life is harsh, man must not to weep and affirm his short existence, which carries all his or her secrets.

To summarize, the poem creates a binary between an unfulfilled wish of human existence and its unfulfilled. The truthful and authentic self is forever hidden behind one’s pale face. In this poem, Bukowski expresses that he is for himself. Bluebird is nothing Bukowski’s masquerade. Bukowski masquerade himself, as if there is an unspeakable essence behind his pale face.

Deconstruction of the Bluebird

However, there are multiple readings of Bluebird. On the surface, Bukowski depicts his power over the bluebird, and the domination entails struggle. However, Bukowski does not make a legitimate claim. In other words, he fails to control the bluebird in essence. The binary between desire and control is only a superficial phantom. Though the poet claims that he has total domination of the blue bird, i.e., his secret desire. Through a deconstruction method, this paper attempt to show that he never successfully controls the blue birds. Throughout the poem, we can only hear the poet’s voice, but we never hear voice of the bluebirds. According to the poet, the bluebird wants to get out. Perhaps the bird does not mind. Perhaps, it loves whisky and the cigarette smoke. The bird never complained, never struggled to get out. Seemingly, it only waited, for the night to fall on the earth. The poet let it out then, the bird has no feelings. It simply wants to exists, it does not care, whether the poet is successful, whether his books sells the bird cares not. The poet attempts to comforts the bird, telling it not to be “sad”. The bird does not care, it “makes a man/weep”. The bird is the powerful one. The bird controls the poet instead of the poet controlling the bird. The bird carries all the poet’s secret and makes people weep. Weeping shows a person’s vulnerability. Weeping is a form of cleansing, the scars in one’s heart.

If the blue bird is able to touch the poet’s weakness and makes him tumble, it is the blue bird who controls the poet. The poet’s conscious ego serves the blue bird, which is his id. The meaning of the poem is binary, which lies in a complicated a fusion of desire and control. Influenced by psychoanalytical theory, deconstructionists focus on the arbitrariness of the Id, which is outside the domination of the ego. The ego falsely believes its power in dominating the id, however, it is only a phantasy. The secretive desires are never falls to trouble the ego, i.e., the conscious self. The ego attempt to hide and repress the desires, as shown in the poem, the whores, the bartenders “and the grocery clerks/never know that/he’s in there.” This is only a fancy of the poet, the whores, the bartenders, and the grocery clerks do know about the existence of the bluebird. They see the bluebird in the poet’s slip of tongues, in the jokes that the poet tells, even in his toughness. All those manifestations reveal the poet’s weakness.

The poet dreams of killing the bluebird, but he cannot kill him, as shown in the poem, “I haven’t quite let him/die.” In other sense, the poet cannot let bluebird die, even if he wants to. The bluebird makes him humane, a person with emotions and sentiments. As the poet irresistibly expresses: “we sleep together like / that / with our / secret pack / and its nice enough to make a man / weep.” Secrets controls our behaviors. The binary lies in the irresistible reconciliation between the poet and his secret blue bird.

Conclusion

This paper analyzes Charles Bukowski’s celebrated poem bluebird. Seemingly, the poem exhibits a sense of control, where the poet struggles to control the bluebird inhabiting in his heart. In a sense, it shows that humans unavoidably repress their authentic wishes and desires. However, the wishes cannot be repressed, they always control people’s behaviors, as shown in the poem, those wishes never disappears, as the bluebird never dies. The binary meaning of the poem shows that desires dominates the person — i.e., people’s desires and sentiments makes us people.