As I read The Invention of Wings, I began to notice a pattern. Every time fire was mentioned, either in the hearth or on a candle, an idea or some kind of independent thinking was taking place. And whenever someone is being kept from thinking or acting for themselves, fire is either put out or not allowed. It made me think that Kidd was using fire as a symbol for independence. When mauma tells Handful that her life is changing and that everything she does has to be for Sarah and not herself, she tells her “don’t light no candle” (15). When Sarah sneaks off to write the letter freeing Handful, the “library’s fireplace lay cold” and before she runs off she has to “bl[ow] out the flame on [her] candle” (19). Both of those times, they have to suppress themselves or sneak off to do to what they want. They cannot fully be themselves, as mimicked by the lack of fire where there would normally be one. However, when Sarah states her belief that “slaves should live among [whites] as equals” there was “a fire rag[ing] on the grate” (144,145). In that moment, Sarah goes against what is considered normal and voices her independent idea. When I realized this connection between fire and ideas, I started to make note of it and saw multiple instances where fire was mentioned when someone has an idea or is independent, and where Kidd writes about the absence of fire when someone is having to suppress themselves.