Invention of Wings

In The Invention of Wings, Sarah Grimke and Handful are both ultimately striving for freedom, though their paths to that goal are quite different. Sarah, the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, feels imprisoned by the expectations put upon her as a young lady of Charleston society. In contrast, Handful is a slave who is literally shackled and forced to work long hours in often horrendous conditions. Despite their different circumstances, both women eventually come to see that they need to take action to gain their freedom. For Sarah, this means defying social conventions by learning to read and becoming an abolitionist. For Handful, it involves plotting a daring escape from the plantation. In the end, both women succeed in achieving their goal of freedom, though it comes at a great cost. The point is that freedom is a quality that is developed over time; it takes root in the soul and grows like a seed does into a tree. Both girls see freedom grow within them, just in different ways.

Freedom is not really a static condition. It is more like a process or a dynamic condition. There are degrees of freedom in other words, and ones freedom can change like the wind or the tide. It all depends on what one is doing with oneself, because as Kidd shows, freedom is very much a spiritual quality. Nothing symbolizes this spiritual aspect of freedom in the book like the feathers that Handfuls mother Charlotte uses for stuffing comforters. One feather that is collected is lost and it fluttered off on the sea wind. It flitted to the top of the high brick wall that enclosed the yard, snagging in the creeping fig (Kidd 31). This symbolizes the spirit that rises up, that seeks to soar and be free, but it has to get past the creeping...…working on possessing freedom more and more fully throughout the story in their own ways.

In Kidds story, Sarah and Handful achieve true freedom in different ways. For Sarah, freedom comes from learning: she is born into a wealthy, slave-holding family, but she rejects the values of her upbringing and becomes an abolitionist by teaching herself in her fathers library and reflecting on her own experiences. In the end, she chooses to follow her conscience, even though it means giving up her privileged lifestyle. For Handful, freedom is something that must be fought for. She is born into slavery and spends her early years working in brutal conditions. But she never gives up hope of escaping to a better life. She holds onto the symbols of freedom in her spiritthe birds wings, the feathers. She and Sarah grow in freedom together, as Sarah teaches her to read, and Handful teaches Sarah the importance of following the…