Following requests may be vital to all of life. A request is made and not followed; maybe it is just the thought that it is not actually there, it could just be your conscious telling you that you should not go through with something and at other times there is someone, or something else telling you what to do. In the short story “The Hundredth Dove” the fowler doesn’t listen to the pleas of the dove and kills it any way. Going through with this one small task destroys the life of not one but two. Listen to what is said and what is not said, there may be a second meaning.
The task was set, for the fowler to kill one hundred birds for the king’s wedding feast. The queen who, the birds are in honor of, requests that the birds are not served, and not eaten at the feast. No one hears her though, and even if they did they did not take into consideration of what was asked. Had the king listened to Lady Columbia, there still would have been a wedding, but he did not. Taking the chance to get input from others, keeps mistakes to a minimum, in this case it would have saved the life of an innocent person who at a point is in fact a dove.
To accomplish certain tasks the directions must be followed. There are many things that directions do not cover, leaving them open for the person to chose what to do with them. Following the instructions that are given is vital but so is following the ones that are not. When you listen to what is not said there is a high possibility to find a loop hole or an easier way and sometimes the reward will be greater than it would originally. The dove told the fowler that the queen would be his true love, he would get gold and silver, and that fame and fortune would come upon him. Not once was consideration taken into what the dove said, while hiding the fact that the death of it would cause more than just the death of the dove but it would also cause the death of the queen. The only given information was that the fowler should not kill the white dove, but he never listened to the hidden message, what was not said.
Hugh, the fowler, killed the white dove to prevent it from escaping. The dove however had begged him continuously to set it free. Ignoring this request could ruin chances of so much good. So even though the task the king had assigned before his wedding was completed there never was a wedding because the lady who was to be married vanished. The Lady was the dove. The pleas were not abided to leaving everyone out to dry. Listening to what others say and taking others input is a vital task for all to survive in life.
