Back to Poo-tee-weet?

"The bird let go with its cry once more. May-awe! it went. Nobody said anything. What was there to say?" pg 18. Once again we go back to Slaughterhouse 5. In both cases there is a bird involved in which it gives a simple bird sound, but what do they mean? Poo-tee-weet? In Slaughterhouse 5 whenever Poo-tee-weet appears, it usually has little to do with what is going on, being it more of an add-on to make emphasis on a point. Slaughterhouse 5 talks about predestination, taking into account Billy, the main character, and how it is that he lives every moment of his life in a never ending cycle, moving back and forth through time. So by fitting Poo-tee-weet into context you can think of it as the add-on that is actually something that brings us back into a reality the story has, the reality of who cares? If things happen in a way that is irreversible, who would even mind it happening? The meaning of the Poo-tee-weet inside of Slaughterhouse 5 is put there to symbolize something completely meaningless. It's as if everything that is being said really has no point to it. But is there really a connection between it and May-awe in Raymond Carver's Cathedral?

.

A peacock in the short story of Feathers, presented in Cathedral, really has no importance within the story. It is as if it were just supposed to be there to do absolutely nothing. But once we take the idea of what happened in Slaughterhouse 5, you can give new meaning to the peacock's presence. By the peacock being there and making the May-awe sound every now and then, it shows something very similar to the purpose of Poo-tee-weet. Jack and Fran had never thought of having babies, and actually didn't even like the idea of it. After their visit to Bud's house, it becomes apparent that they decide to have a baby. But what was it that made them decide on having the baby? An ugly baby would have the contrary effect on a person who was in the same circumstances, I mean, who, that doesn't like the idea of having children, after seeing an ugly baby would want to have one? Well, here is where May-awe comes in, being it the source of what is to come. It's as if the whole situation that is created after the visit had happened not because of that visit, but rather because it was already meant to happen whether they visited or not. Isn't it a Poo-tee-weet of the moment, a May-awe of who cares? The meaning of the peacock could be said to be a factor which is trying to explain to us the meaning of why it was that the short story ended as it did. The real meaning of Fran and Jack having a baby has nothing to do with the visit, as predicted by the peacock taking the example of Billy in Slaughterhouse 5, but rather is something that was supposed to happen.