The Egg

Before he got married, he was kind and cheerful, but after the marriage, he became ambitious along with his wife. The narrator sees chickens as an obstacle and an ugly aspect of life. It goes through stages that are predetermined and aren't special in any way. The narrator almost seems to see them as a disappointment. The narrator claims to have had a bad childhood because they lived on a farm and it was headed for disaster. We can take from this that the narrator is cautious against optimism so that we don't get our hopes up, then be let down. The father's collection of "grotesques" plays a role of symbolism. it symbolizes gloominess and being contained. It also is a way of showing that he doesn't know what others want and he's blind to what they think. He then decides he will be happy, but since it is forced and not real, it doesn't work and is only an illusion. When the narrator talks about the final draw of the egg, it means he is done and is finished with the egg. He has given up on eggs as a whole.