Starling Symbol Analysis

In A Sentimental Journey, the caged starling represents the evils of slavery and incarceration. Yorick encounters the starling shortly after learning that the French police are after him for traveling without a passport. At first, he minimizes the danger he’s in, thinking to himself that prison is just “a house you can’t get out of.” But when he encounters the caged starling, which regularly repeats the phrase, “I can’t get out,” the true evils of captivity strike Yorick: he is reminded of “the millions of my fellow creatures born to no inheritance but slavery” and imagines the suffering of an individual captive. The starling inspires Yorick to get a passport and save himself from incarceration. That is not the end of the starling’s story, however. Yorick’s servant, La Fleur, buys the starling for him, and Yorick brings it back to England, where he gives it as a gift to Lord A, who gives it to Lord B, and so on. Yorick ends up putting a starling on his family crest of arms, but neither he nor any of its subsequent owners free the bird. The starling’s permanent captivity and passage from owner to owner suggests that while people like Yorick may care about slavery or incarceration when it affects them directly, they stop caring about such evils as soon as they are personally safe.