“The Hundredth Dove”: The Silent Serving of Death
Has there ever been a time in your life when something unexpected has silently snuck up on you? An awaited marriage, a true love, even death, can change life for the better or for worse. In the story “The Hundredth Dove” written by Jane Yolen we see how she is trying to show us how something so beautiful can be taken away from us so easily.
Picture something so elegant and lovely. It may seem perfect in your eyes and for the time being all you can see is perfection when you look at it. We can relate this image of perfection to the quiet, soon to be queen and the beautiful white dove in “The Hundredth Dove”. But when the king asks the fowler to serve one-hundred doves for his marriage to the Lady Columbia, she seems to show a different side of herself; almost like she is pleading for the doves to be saved. This can relate to our life so easily. When you don’t get something you want to plead and try to bargain. Although we know the final decision is made we can’t help but try. Though when a fatal mistake is suddenly made by the sly fowler retrieving the doves his only option may be to start a whole new life with a whole new purpose.
There are times in our lives where we all make mistakes. I know that in my life making mistakes is common. I maybe don’t finish my homework on time, or try to fake something that I am doing. But in “The Hundredth Dove” the fowler not only makes a mistake but causes a death. While trying to catch the one-hundredth bird, a white silk dove; he notices that she is different from all the rest. But his loyalty gets in the way and the beautiful white bird perishes. A simple mistake of loyalty causes the death of something so beautiful. We can relate this to a flower. Something so beautiful has to die eventually , even though we may take care of it and love it. When there is nothing left for the fowler to live for; since the beautiful queen and the gorgeous white bird have passed way, he starts a whole new life with a whole new purpose.
The passing of something we cherish is like a silent death. No one makes a sound for some still can’t believe that the death has happened. I think the lesson in this story is to have loyalty but to not let it get in the way of something that really matters.
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