Ravens

Ravens are both a massed presence in the sky and recurring targets in the narrator’s account of shooting. Their brief appearances connect a father’s contempt for birds with the narrator’s later adoption of that violence, while showing how the birds are seen primarily through the human urge to aim and fire.

The Migrating Flock

The ravens first appear in their thousands, cawing as they migrate and darkening the sun. The image turns an ordinary flock into an overwhelming presence, defined by its number and its power to alter the sky. In the surrounding recollection, the narrator’s father treats birds as targets and regards them with hostility; the ravens belong to this world of inherited contempt.

Targets in the Desert

Later, the narrator describes wandering for days or weeks with loaded firearms, shooting at birds, especially ravens. He does not go looking for the bodies after they fall. He distinguishes this conduct from hunting: the shooting is part of the self-described marksman’s search across the desert for signs of life and movement, rather than an effort to obtain game.

Narrative Significance

The ravens recur across two generations of violence: first within the father’s outlook, then in the narrator’s own actions. They are not given an individual identity or a perspective of their own; instead, the narrative makes their vulnerability visible through the ease with which they become targets. Their migrating multitude and the narrator’s solitary shooting also form a stark contrast: the birds cross the sky together, while he ranges the open land alone.