This realization comes from a series of events that occur throughout the story, but Plath's use of symbolism with the heather birds encapsulates this idea in the best possible way. Millicent's first chronological encounter with heatherbirds occurs with a man in the back of a bus, the setting for one of the above-mentioned trials. When Millicent asks him what he had for breakfast, he simply replies with "The eyebrows of heather birds", heather birds are creatures that "live on mythical moors and fly all day, singing wildly and sweetly in the sun..." (Plath (something). Her reaction to this is a burst of laughter and a newfound camaraderie that overcomes her fears of "the rest of the humiliating tasks she's assigned during the initiation process, because she really doesn't care about being a" other." (Yasoni something.) This disconnect from the brotherhood continues to grow through the story until the end, where he compares the sparrows he observes to heather birds, "pale grey-brown birds in a flock, one like the other, all exactly the same ” (Plath a page) is a depiction of sorority girls, a bunch of characters who don't care about freedom, individuality, or any form of expression that deviates from their standards. This is in contrast to his description of the heather birds, "Swooping carefree upon the moors, they went singing and shouting across the great spaces... strong and proud in their freedom and their sometimes solitude" (another quote please) . The man and the heather birds allow Millicent to accept her differences and those of others to be a happy and free being. This final development provides an optimistic conclusion to the story, in which Millicent is no longer held back by her