Elixir. Natural. Uncontrollable. Kidd often incorporates water into major events in Sarah and Handful’s lives such as Handful’s bathtub rebellion, Sarah’s swim in the ocean, and Handful’s escape to freedom. The water in the copper bathtub represented Handful’s small revolt. Sarah even said, “it seemed like an act of rebellion, an act of usurpation” (114). It was Handful’s own way of obtaining a little bit of freedom and power over slavery. When Sarah swam in the ocean for the first time, she gained freedom for herself because she did not have to listen to anyone else’s opinions of her (183). Perhaps the last scene where Kidd uses water is the most important. She uses the ocean to represent both Sarah and Handful’s freedom: Sarah has broken ties to her family and Handful is finally free from slavery (359). Water is something natural, so I think that Kidd is trying to show us how inevitable and pure freedom is. It is necessary to live a healthy, good life and without water, people become thirsty. All her life, Handful is thirsty for this idea of freedom. I think that by using water, rather than a specific color to represent freedom for example, Kidd makes freedom a more tangible and universal idea. But water, just like freedom, is not all positive. Water has the power to suffocate and drown people just as the dream of freedom lured slaves into an empty promise.
I think love and guilt are feelings that we often confuse because of the vague meaning they carry. Someone cannot give you a simple definition of either word, and, from experience, I tend to get the response, “it’s something you just feel.” In other words, I am still very confused on their meanings. But I have come to realize that it’s easier to identify both words when your point of view is from the outside. For example, one of the main themes of Handful and Sarah’s friendship is if it is out of love or guilt. Throughout the novel, Handful struggles with the difference between the two emotions because she believes that love has barriers (54). She believes that whites only pity slaves and cannot truly feel a love for them because of a lack of empathy. Handful, unlike Sarah, understands the difference between sympathy and empathy. With empathy, both people have similar experiences that allow them to feel the same thing as the other person, enabling them to understand and love each other. Even in the last pages of the novel, Handful still struggles with defining what her and Sarah share, claiming that it is still not love (335). I now have a clearer definition of love and guilt because I view Sarah and Handful’s relationship from the outside. I find guilt in the way that Sarah uses Handful as a way to satisfy her need to have anti-slavery views. I understand love better because of the lack of love Sarah has for Handful because she lacks empathy for Handful’s life as a slave. I realize that love and guilt are vague and can easily change meanings depending on context. But by reading this novel, I have filled and improved my lack of understanding for love and guilt that I had in the past.
It is interesting that Kidd stresses guilt over pity. This is the link to a graph I found that shows the word “guilt” was used most in literature during the early 1800s, the same time period Kidd writes about. When did the term “fashionable” become part of our vocabulary? When did dressing a certain way express your personality and judging a person based on their outfit became natural? Although The Invention of Wings is set nearly 200 years ago, Kidd places a key emphasis on women’s fashion in order to convey a larger meaning about the time period and characters. Kidd first shows the importance of clothing during the 1800s when she writes how Handful and her mother are both seamstresses and, therefore, worth more money than some of the other slaves. She goes into great detail about the elaborate dresses of wealthy women, using specific examples such as “a shawl of flounced tulle” or “an imported van-dyke cap” (215). These details provide an image of fashion during this period—it was much more decorative, stuffy, and it allowed wealthy families to boast their prosperity. Another example is when Kidd first introduces Quakers. Sarah’s first reaction is to contrast “the women and girls clad in dismal, excoriated dresses” and the “almost flamboyant” attire of Presbyterians (192). Society judged and identified Quakers with their simple, plain clothing. When the Guard stops Sarah and Nina in the street, his attention “was not on the turnip in [her] hand, but on [her] dress” (252), which shows how society solely identified Quakers by their clothing. In this way, Kidd connects a character’s clothing to their beliefs or identity. Sarah’s clothes were her only connection to her home and family, they were her identity, and that is the reason why she struggles with abandoning them while in the North. Kidd writes of fashion similarly to how it is thought about today, a way to learn about a person’s personality or beliefs before knowing them completely. Although I do not find fashion as important as other people might, I appreciate the way she emphasizes apparel during this time as well as the importance of it in establishing one’s place in society. Scroll over each picture to view caption. By clicking on the picture, it will take you to the picture's website.
I find myself trapped in my mind when I overthink situations. I become obsessed with trying to find a solution that pleases my parents, my friends, my parents, my teachers, society, etc. It is not until I separate myself from the group that I choose to do what I think is best. Similarly, Sarah’s mind is trapped by what society and her mother’s expectations are. She struggles to discover what she wants because she is constantly worried about others around her. In this way, Sarah is trapped in mental slavery just as Handful is trapped in physical slavery. I admire Handful’s character because she only remains in physical enslavement, and she keeps her mind open and free from oppression. Despite how many times the missus scolds her, Handful preserves her own beliefs and never submits her mind to the missus. Maybe I admire Handful because I admire women with strong personalities and firm beliefs. But I also admire Handful because she doesn’t want to become an insider, a slave who never rebels and allows the master to control their mind as well as body. Handful accepts that she is a slave, an outsider to white society, and does not what she can to still remain free in her mind. On the other hand, Sarah has the power and opportunity to break away from being an insider of society, yet she stays in her own bubble. She fears of being an outsider and, therefore, remains trapped in the ideas set by the majority.
Inspiration: “She was trapped same as me, but she was trapped by her mind, by the minds of the people round her, not by the law." (200) |