The role of names in a personal matter Names are an important part in defining one's identity. After all, when someone asks you who you are, tell them your name. Reading A Personal Matter I was struck by the role of names in the story. The main character is known as Bird, and this nickname gives Bird an identity that he struggles to overcome throughout his story. It looks just like a bird. "It wasn't just that his hunched shoulders were like folded wings, his overall features were bird-like. His tanned, elegant nose protruded from his face like a beak and hooked sharply toward the ground... Then the image he was observing in the window glass was a combination of his entire life" (3). His only problem is that he can't fly away from his problems, despite his desire to "fly away" to Africa. He seems to be flapping his wings helplessly most of the time, lacking direction in his life and the decisions he has to make. At the end of the story, however, Bird finds direction in his life, even if it's not what he wants. had originally planned. This change in his identity is greatly marked by his father-in-law's statement: "You have changed. The childish nickname like Bird does not suit you" (165). Bird is no longer like a bird, he is instead a person with his own directions, his own established "flight pattern". He has hope and patience in his life. The naming of Bird's son is also a significant part of the story. For much of the story his son is nameless, as if naming him would give the child a real place in Bird's life, which is what Bird wanted to avoid. "Give the monster a name and from that moment it would seem more human, it would probably begin to assert itself in a human way. Once Bird had given it a name it would have meant to Bird a difference in the nature of the creature." same existence" (146). When he names the child, it is after a childhood friend that Bird eventually abandoned.