Suspense In 'The Birds' By Daphne Du Maurier

In today’s society, individuals have the need to feel superior in situations where they do not necessarily comprehend the circumstances. In order to have a sense of normality, they make up explanations to compensate for their lack of knowledge. The characters in Daphne Du Maurier’s “The Birds” take on this style of thinking when a plethora of birds mysteriously appear in the sky. The main character, Nat, warns his family and neighbors of the deadly potential of the birds which was demonstrated to him one afternoon. Once the birds begin to attack, Nat and his family must proceed to protect themselves. With reason and logic thrown into the air, the characters in the story fill themselves with false confidence in order to convince themselves that

Throughout “The Birds,” the suspense in the story is used to portray the tendency for people to lose all reason in situations that are extremely complex. "[Du Maurier] forces Nat and the reader to remain in a claustrophobic house where all they can do is sit, listen, and wait for the inevitable terror that’s certain to return" (Kattelman 13). Not only is the point of view restrained to Nat, but it follows all of his actions, thoughts and inner monologue about survival. As a second-hand witness, the reader experiences all of the anxiety and anticipation he experiences. As soon as Nat checks for survivors, he witnesses that "[t]he line was dead. He climbed onto a bank and looked over the countryside, but there was no sign of life at all, nothing in the fields but the waiting, watching birds" (Du Maurier 97). After the attack of the birds, the surrounding area is completely wiped out. The suspense of being alone creeps into Nat 's head as he takes off to work on his house. The isolation drives him crazy because he does not know how to deal with it. Just like Nat, humans make decisions based off of what is real to them. Psychologically speaking, when reality becomes questionable, all familiarity and comfort with the situation go away due to people 's loss of power in knowledge (Kattelman 12). When the characters of "The Birds" are forced to confront

In each of her characters, Du Maurier shows the explanations they came up with in order to avoid accepting reality. For Trigg, his explanation got him killed due to its irrationality. In Nat’s life, his justifications had him feeling so restricted that he dropped all the rationality to it, and embraced insanity in order to survive. By the virtue of suspense, isolation made the people of Cornwall lose their minds due to them not being able to feel comfortable in their own homes. Finally, the birds themselves represent paranoia and false assumptions people made in the Cold War. Unlike the explanations displayed in this story, not all justifications are bad. Only when they are exclusively used for situations that do not need them, do they become problematic. In cases like so, it is best to accept a problem for how it is rather than assuming the details. The public’s need to provide explanations for unknown situations is part of human nature. As fascinating as it might be, humanity will never truly stop this habit. In the end, society’s need to label the unknown will end up consuming them if not