The Painted Bird

The head of a village places the boy with a farmer named Makar, his son Anton, or “the Quail,” and his daughter, Ewka. The family lives outside the village and is disliked by the peasants. Rumors circulate that Makar and his children, ages twenty and nineteen, engage in an incestuous relationship. Makar and the Quail often lock themselves in the stable with the goats. Ewka sometimes refuses to leave the house lest Makar and the Quail take her to the stable with them.

Ewka takes the boy into a sexual relationship and “tried to make [him] become a man”; the boy “followed all her wishes” and “felt secure and happy” (146), forgetting that he’s “a Gypsy mute designed for fire” (147). His dreams take on a sexual tone, sometimes becoming nightmares.

Makar pays special attention to his rabbits. He appears especially interested in a large white female rabbit, which he sometimes takes to the house, only to return her to her cage with animal ill and bleeding. One day he tells the boy to kill her, shocking the boy, who hits her on the head until he believes she’s dead. He’s in the process of skinning her when she awakens.