The story about the old woman and the children (Allegory)
Morrison explicitly states that the fable she tells is an allegory about the meaning of language and its use in human society. She uses the interaction between the old woman and the children as a foundation for rumination on the power of narrative.
The bird in the children's hand (Symbol)
Morrison chooses to read the bird in the story about the old woman as a symbol of language. In her reading, the bird, like language, is "partly as a system, partly as a living thing over which one has control, but mostly as agency." If the bird in the hands of the children is dead, it represents dead language, a situation over which the children exercise control and responsibility.
