Shatter Me

When Juliette is in her cell, every day she looks out of the window hoping to see a bird. Although humans have abused nature so much that birds are a rare sight, she keeps hoping to spot a bird because she has heard stories “of birds that fly” (8). In the novel, a bird symbolizes Juliette’s hope to be free. Since Juliette has been in isolation, whether physical or emotional, for most of her life, she dreams of being free as a bird and able to go where she wants.

Juliette has a specific image of a bird in her head, “a white bird with streaks of gold like a crown atop its head” (10). When she sees a tattoo of a bird that looks exactly like this on Adam’s chest, she perceives it as a sign that Adam is the one who will set her free. When Juliette asks Adam why he had decided to get this tattoo, he reveals that he, too, has always dreamed of seeing this bird. Thus, the bird becomes not only a symbol of freedom but also a symbol of kinship between Adam and Juliette, two people who are constraint by their circumstances but who dream of being free.