The Painted Bird

The book, The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski at first struck me as utterly grotesque, almost to the point of unreadable. For an example, the scenes with the miller and his help and Stupid Ludmila come to mind. However, after the first hundred pages or so of the book it became interesting on a visceral level. To begin with, one cannot help but be filled with admiration for the sheer tenacity of the Boy. In …

…his own self identities and prejudices. In essence, he is a blank tablet for outside experiences to influence. In this way Kosinski shows his readers what he thinks war does to an individual. The Painted Bird is a laboratory of sorts in which Kosinski attempts to explain what it is like to have one’s entire character influenced by the war, and what it would be like to be defined by the world around you.