By far and away, my favorite part of the novel is Handful's reflection on her moments of rebellion.
"Now I sat here with the palmettos clacking in the wind and thought of the girl who bathed in a copper tub. I thought of the woman who stole a bullet mold. I loved that girl, that woman." (345)
As a teenager, I can't help but be proud of the moments when I acted on my own beliefs, the moments when I felt certain of my own worth. Even though I've had a lot of trouble relating to Handful's character while reading the novel, this concept of self-declaration I could completely understand.
In the hallways, it makes me sad to see girls shrinking and hiding their accomplishments because they don't want to make other girls feel inferior, and lately I get the urge to do the same almost every day. But once, when working in a non-profit girls' organization, someone told me that when we let ourselves be proud of our accomplishments, we give permission to other to do the same. Teenage girls have a tendency to undervalue themselves by a long shot, and no girl wants to be the odd one out. Handful's pride in her actions reminded me that even if I didn't assist a slave rebellion, that I can have pride in my moments of self-declaration and independence. By including this healthy example of pride in oneself, Kidd does an excellent job of appealing to young girls everywhere, and letting them know that pride is not always so bad.
I would like to note that butterflies have wings, too. Why has everyone been giving birds all the credit? Come to think of it, so do wasps and bats, but those aren't nearly as cute as birds. Why must everything be cute? I would totally post a picture of a bat if I didn't think it would turn people off of my blog. Alas, cute always seems to win in the end.