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The parrot is a common symbol, or even cliché, in Western literature, going all the way back fromancient Greece to the present date, and in many a genre. This study reads the oeuvre of the NobelPrize winner Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) as being closely related to these certain traditions andconnotations of for example religion, satire, and speaking nonsense, in his frequent use of parrotsand their symbolic potentials, in his writing. Furthermore, it is possible to distinguish a movementin Beckett?s use of parrots, from a more or less traditionally use, to one more philosophicallyprofound.Although the parrot graces us with its presence (or at least may be traced) in almost everywork written by Beckett, from the poem ?Whoroscope? (1930) to How It Is (1961), they are onlymentioned sparsely by his interpreters. Therefore, a brief history of the literary tradition of theparrot will be expounded. It will function as a reference for the exposition of the examples ofparrots from Beckett?s works. Those will, in the movement mentioned above, be viewed in relation,not only intertextually to traditional uses of parrots, but also to other writers with a fancy for theparrot, such as Gustave Flaubert and James Joyce. Their influence on Beckett?s authorship isnothing new; but the interest for the parrot which they all three seem to share in their writings, hasnot been pinpointed. Additionally, these authors will present important aspects which Beckett picksup, incorporates, and develops, into his own complex web of quotes and references to the tradition.By emphasising these issues, one might more easily observe the grand transformation theparrot is subjected to ? and how Beckett?s later uses are differentiated from his earlier and moretraditionally ones ? when being used as reflecting and symbolising the narratological experiments,the inauthenticity of language, and the indeterminacy of the written word, in for example theTrilogy and Texts for Nothing, as well as illuminating the mindless stuttering of Lucky, in Waitingfor Godot.