Across the themes of friendship, mother/daughter relationships, sisterhood, destruction of societal limitations, bravery, hope, desperation, fear, non-complacence and nonconformity, rebellion, and class, The Invention of Wings is about one thing at its core: slavery. There is Handful's literal slavery, but there is also the enslavement of Sarah's thoughts, and the Southern society that makes everyone (particularly women) its slave. This is why the following is one of my favorite passages in the book: "The worst troubling thing he told me was how his neighbor down the street--a free black named Mr. Robert Smyth--owned three slaves. Now what you supposed to do with something like that? Mr. Vesey had to take me to the man's house to meet the slaves before I allowed any truth to it. I didn't know whether this Mr. Smyth was behaving like white people, or if it just showed something vile about all people" (118). There is a very interesting hypocrisy in this that is discussed about slavery quite frequently overall, but isn't touched on in this book all that much. Another common example is how the creators of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the latter of which states that all men are created equal, were slaveowners themselves. Anyway, Handful's understanding of the fact that it simply takes a bad person, not necessarily a white person, to enslave another human being strikes me as incredibly wise.
As I read Handful's reaction to this behavior, I realized perhaps for the first time how much I admired her character. She is personified so well and her personality is so realistic and consistent that it almost feels like she's real. I must admit, as I was thinking about how to analyze this passage, the first thing I thought was "it's impressive that a slave like Handful could recognize the injustice here." Instantly I heard Handful rebuking me in my head, saying "I've been commenting on injustice for this whole book and you're just now deciding that it's impressive? I'm very intelligent and you shouldn't say that something is 'impressive for a slave.' " I was very surprised because it really did feel like Handful was reprimanding me, and I realized that Sue Monk Kidd did a great job with her character, especially considering that she was one of the characters Kidd almost entirely made up.
Well folks, this here marks the final blog I will make about The Invention of Wings. Thank you so much for reading, and for going on this adventure with me. Please leave a comment with what you thought about the hypocrisy of slavery, of my previous blogposts, or the book overall.
As I read Handful's reaction to this behavior, I realized perhaps for the first time how much I admired her character. She is personified so well and her personality is so realistic and consistent that it almost feels like she's real. I must admit, as I was thinking about how to analyze this passage, the first thing I thought was "it's impressive that a slave like Handful could recognize the injustice here." Instantly I heard Handful rebuking me in my head, saying "I've been commenting on injustice for this whole book and you're just now deciding that it's impressive? I'm very intelligent and you shouldn't say that something is 'impressive for a slave.' " I was very surprised because it really did feel like Handful was reprimanding me, and I realized that Sue Monk Kidd did a great job with her character, especially considering that she was one of the characters Kidd almost entirely made up.
Well folks, this here marks the final blog I will make about The Invention of Wings. Thank you so much for reading, and for going on this adventure with me. Please leave a comment with what you thought about the hypocrisy of slavery, of my previous blogposts, or the book overall.