The Painted Bird

The boy heals in a regimental hospital and is allowed to stay with the young “untested” (185) soldiers who have camped on the field by the river. Listening to radio reports of Germans defeats, the soldiers doubt they’ll see battle. The boy is content and is taken care of by two soldiers: Mitka, “the Cuckoo,” and Gavrila.

Gavrila teaches the boy to read, and the boy is fascinated by books. He appreciates how “one could conjure up a world as real as that grasped by the senses,” one which, “like meat in cans, was somehow richer and more flavorful than the everyday variety” (186). He finds hope in books, reading, for example, about Maxim Gorky, who led a similarly difficult life before becoming one of Russia’s greatest writers. He also enjoys poetry, which is written like prayers, but for pleasure.

Gavrila also teaches the boy that there is no God, that “cunning priests had invented Him so they could trick stupid, superstitious people” and that God was “for ignorant people who […] did not believe in their own powers” (187). The boy learns that “people themselves determined the course of their lives” (187) and that individuals’ lives are intertwined through their actions. Even more importantly, Gavrila teaches the boy about Stalin, one of the great men who doesn’t wait for divine intervention to help others, and who in his exceptional wisdom and bravery becomes a leader to liberate the persecuted and end corruption and inequality. The boy admires photos of Stalin, who is dark-haired like he is. He laments all the time he spent praying and wonders what happened to his prayers. He thinks about the devastation priests would feel if they knew their prayers were for nothing.

Communist Party members hold meetings in which the Party “rid[s] itself of those who, like a jammed or crooked wheel on a cart, impeded progress” (192). The Party decides a man’s usefulness; a man is considered only as good as others think he is. According to Gavrila, “the individual seemed to have many faces” (193), and the Party works diligently to discover if one had the face of an enemy of the people. The Party also values people from industrial backgrounds over others, and the boy worries over his own origins, overwhelmed by the complicated structure and mores.

Mitka feeds the boy well and comforts him at his medical examinations. He teaches him poetry, sings songs, and plays guitar, and he takes him to see movies at the regimental cinema. Mitka, the admired sharpshooting instructor, is considered a hero and a legend; a fearless, decorated sniper, his accomplishments are the subjects of books and newspaper articles, and his rifle is worshipped by young soldiers “with the reverence of a priest at an altar” (198-99). Having never fully recovered from a bullet wound, Mitka no longer serves as a sniper, and he longs for the days “when he was both judge and executioner” (199). The boy feels proud to associate with him and reveres him for making “a better and safer world” (200).

The soldiers mingle with the peasants, flirting with the women and trading food items, against the wishes of their commanders, who warn that wealthy farmers are in league with nationalists who want “to prevent the approaching triumph of a government of workers and peasants” (197). One day, while attending a village feast, Mitka’s four closest friends are killed by jealous peasants. The incident results in orders forbidding the soldiers to associate with villagers. While the rest of the regiment moves on, Mitka remains devastated.

Mitka wakes the boy one night, and the boy helps him dress and gather his rifle and equipment. They slip out of camp and into the woods, the boy swelling with pride that “a Hero of the Soviet Union” had chosen him for this “mysterious mission” (202). In the forest at the edge of a village, they climb a tree, Mitka fighting through the pain of his injury. After letting the boy look through the binoculars, Mitka adjusts the telescopic sight of the rifle and proceeds to shoot villagers. Other villagers sob over the dead and hide, terrified, in their houses. The boy thinks about how “[m]an carries in himself his own private war,” how he must be “at peace with himself” (206) and how if Mitka had not avenged his friends, he would feel his accolades were undeserved.

The boy sees a dog and is reminded of Judas. He wants Mitka to shoot him, but Mitka refuses. They sneak undetected back to camp, where Mitka returns to his old self. He leads the soldiers in song, the sound of which mingles with the funeral bells of the village.