Black Swan Theory

    Upon reading "Black Swan" I was intrigued by the image of the black swan itself. It's so specific and slightly obscure that of course it had to be intentional. So like any scholar, I took to google. After sifting through links to Black Swan the movie, I found something interesting. There is what's called "Black Swan Theory." This theory is "a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact." (wikipedia) I found this to be fitting, given the relation of the black swan to the birth of the boy in the poem. Pregnancy can come at a great surprise to a woman and it is one of the most major life events possible. It is very possible that the narrator is telling the boy the tale of her unplanned pregnancy and his creation.

    At it's core, the black swan theory deals with the frailty of systems, whether they be philosophical, logical, etc. The black swan of the woman's pregnancy shatters the way in which she lives her life, everything she knew and believed is now changed because of the boy. Before the boy and the swan, there was a "strange garden" that could represent her life pre-pregnancy, and when the boy wishes that he was never born the image of the garden (and the life she lived before him) reappear "shadowed and more strange."

    Lastly, while perusing google results for "black swan" I found out that black swan goslings are actually born with white down. The narrator makes note of the baby's "skin/ so white it was not like the skin of a boy at all." The boy is a gosling of the black swan; he is a human manifestation of the surprise pregnancy.