The Invention Of Wings By Sue Monk Kidd

Setting is everything in a novel. It describes the historical background and provides a modern background for which the characters of the novel can flourish or decline in. The setting in The Invention of Wings is a normal one at the time, or at least it was normal.

Although the novel is intended for young people the age of twelve-year-old Sarney, it is unsparing in its depiction of slavery. The novel is written in dialect, and attempts to show the reader what it was really like to endure the pain of being considered a possession. Despite her youth, Sarney has already seen people being beaten before her eyes, attacked by dogs, bound and chained and punished for running away. As a future slave woman, she knows she is likely to be forcibly 'bred' or subjected to serve her white master's pleasures. The actions of Nightjohn result in getting him dismembered in punishment, but Sarney and John both believe that the rewards of reading are too great and continue to try to help other slaves

Susie Baker was born under the slave law in Georgia, in 1848. She was raised by her grandmother in Savannah, Georgia. It was Susie’s grandmother that ensured she learned to read and write. Susie was sent discretely to study with a friend of the family, and tutors were sought out wherever they could be found. Discretion was necessary because some southern

Douglass’ narrative demonstrates how his literary education is both a blessing and a curse. He believed that permitting slaves to read was a contradiction, a paradox if you will, unable to render freedom, or provide them a legitimate education. Douglass reasoned that the education was a ploy to let African Americans believe they were treated fairly. Douglass expresses, “As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish” (Douglass 1200). Douglass displays the injustice and frustration of this situation; he is fully aware that he is being treated unfairly.

In discussing the various differences between Biblical slavery and Southern slavery, Grimke points out about treatment of slave families in comparison to non-slave families, asking, “But do the fathers of the South ever sell their daughters?” (Grimke, 1836, p5). This somewhat rhetorical question induces an instinctive condemnation of Southern authority figures in the readers. She actually uses this question to build up to a more pointed question for the readers, personally, asking , “…but then you may try this question in another form—Am I willing to reduce my little child to slavery?” (Grimke, 1836, p13). These questions involving family members as examples act yield intuitive answers that work quickly to dismantle pro-slavery arguments in the minds of

Originally illiterate and unaware of the evils of slavery and segregation, Douglass was taught the basics of the English language by his slave master’s wife. Soon after the beginning of his instruction, Douglass had developed a raging fire that could only be quenched with more knowledge. As his pursuit of reading and writing lead him to become literate, it also gave him a real-world understanding of the evil concept of slavery. As time went on, he began to resent his master and mistress for subjecting any human being to such a fate. It was his belief that the color of your skin or your country of origin should have no standing to what rights and abilities any person has. Becoming literate further exemplifies Douglass’ refusal to adhere to societal expectations, as people of black heritage were not allowed to be taught how to read in the United States. This was the way of the land, but it didn’t inhibit his resolve to become a learned man who was capable of understanding language, reading and writing. This passion is what set him apart from other people, not his

In different time periods, events have happened that mark as important to certain people. In chapter 2, Janie's grandmother talks to her after she found with a local boy under a tree. It is revealed that Janie’s grandmother was born a slave. She became pregnant with Janie’s mother. She wanted to have a better life and did not want her daughter to have the same life as her. “You know, honey, us colored folks is branches without roots and thats things come round in queer ways. You in particular. Ah was born black due to slavery so it wasn’t for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman ought to be and to do. Dat’s one of de hold-backs of slavery. But nothing can’t stop you from wishin’. You can’t beat nobodt down so low till you can rob’em of they will. Ah didn’t want to be used for a work-ox and a brood-sow and Ah didn’t want mah daughter used dat way neither. It sho wasn’t mah will for things to happen lak they did. Ah even hated de way you was born. But, all de same Ah said Thank God, Ah got another chance. Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored woman sittin’ on high, but they wasn’t no pulpit for me. Freedom found me wid a baby daughter in mah arms, so Ah said Ah’d take a broom and cook-pot and throw up a highway through de wilderness for her. She would expound what Ah felt. But somehow she got lost offa de highway and next thing Ah knowes here you was in de world. So whilst Ah was tendin’ you of nights Ah said

This effective depiction of the merciless treatment creates sympathy. Frederick Douglass, who grew up as a slave, was promised an education by his “kind and tenderhearted” mistress, but was not given a complete one because of her belief that “that education and slavery are incompatible.” Douglass would then take any measure to improve his literacy, even going to the shipyard to watch workers carve letters into lumber. It is ironic that she becomes apprehensive about Douglass’ new knowledge, and was even “narrowly watched,” because the mistress was the one that taught him all he knew. The tense diction creates the sense that Douglass has now become a threat, now that he has some education.

In Shaping of the Modern World, we are learning about political and cultural changes around the world. Slavery is a significant topic in Shaping of the Modern World, how our world change throughout slavery and how slavery changes over time. In the narrative writing, Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, she talks about how her life changed while serving different and new masters and mistresses. I think that this narrative writing is an important text to help us understand the different perspectives of slavery in America. There are some slave owners that are kind and humane, and some slave owners that are cruel and abusive. Additionally, reading from a female slave’s perspectives teaches us that life on the plantations and life in the house is different. Especially as a female, they would get different treatment from their masters and mistresses. The text has changed my understanding of slavery that not all slave owners are harsh, and not all slaves are not intellectual.

The laws of the United States at the time stated that the children would hold the status of their mother and that slave parents didn’t own their children. This meant that a slave woman would give birth to children that would become slaves to the mother’s owners and the mother couldn’t control what happened to the child in the future. Those laws enforced an emotional abuse in which the slave owner could threaten to separate families if slaves were to try to do something such as escape. To prevent slaves from gaining power through access of books, it was illegal to teach slaves how to read or write. This stems from the belief that Mr. Auld sums up as “It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master…It would make him discontented and unhappy” (Douglass 531 par 3). Reading and writing would lead to slaves becoming unhappy in their situations because they would learn about other opportunities of work that would be more beneficially such as being able to be paid. Slaves would be able to learn of laws that they could challenge in court and try to declare them as unconstitutional. Slaves were unable to be present in court. There were many slaves that witnessed slave owners raping and killing slaves but because they had no power in court, they could do nothing about it. Reading and writing could potentially lead to them gaining power in court and ultimately lead to many slave owners being jailed for rape and/or murder. Slaves were considered property and consistently reminded of their status through a variety of ways. One was when property had to valued when someone passed away. Douglass’ master Captain Anthony passed away when Douglass was in another household and the property had to be valued because Anthony didn’t have a will. Douglass had

Throughout Kidd’s exquisitely written story, Handful struggles, sometimes with quiet dissidence, sometimes with open rebellion, to cultivate a belief in the invincibility of her spirit and in the sacred truth that one does not need actual wings in order to rise. Barely a stone’s throw from the slave quarters where Handful and her mother share a room behind the grand Grimké house, another young woman fights a different battle with the constraints of her society. Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter of a wealthy and prominent family at the pinnacle of Charleston’s social hierarchy, the daughter her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. From the time of her first violent childhood confrontation with slavery, Sarah is unable to abide the oppression and brutality of the slave system that surrounds her. Ambitious and keenly intelligent, she harbors an intense longing to have a voice in the world and to follow her father and brothers’ footsteps to a profession in the law. Crushed by the strictures that her family and society impose on women, Sarah forges a tortuous, yet brave path toward

Each time the bird is unable to break free it injures itself, adding to injuries left over from past escape attempts. Dunbar depicts the bird 's hopeless and unsuccessful struggle for freedom. Around this time, the late 18th century, African Americans were released from slavery but they still had limited rights. Restrictions such as The Grandfather Clause and Jim Crow Laws prevented African Americans from reaching their full potential even after the abolishment of slavery. Since there was really nothing that those who were enslaved could do to help their situation, they had to stay strong mentally and physically in order to survive under their harsh conditions.

Sarah Foster beings teaching ex-slaves and colored children after the civil war. In her entries she writes about the progress she has seen in her students. For example she writes about a man being able to spell 75 long words, missing only 2. These ex slaves were kept illiterate during the civil war so they wouldn't be able to hear about the abolitionist movement sweeping across the nation. Foster doesn’t quite know what to expect, but she is surprised by colored people showing up each day despite their lack of protection when traveling long distances. It is clear by her writing that Sarah Foster feels as though she can offer ex slaves a valuable education to improve their future.

Douglass gives detailed anecdotes of his and others experience with the institution of slavery to reveal the hidden horrors. He includes personal accounts he received while under the control of multiple different masters. He analyzes the story of his wife’s cousin’s death to provide a symbol of outrage due to the unfairness of the murderer’s freedom. He states, “The offence for which this girl was thus murdered was this: She had been set that night to mind Mrs. Hicks’s baby, and during the night she fell asleep, and the baby cried.” This anecdote, among many others, is helpful in persuading the reader to understand the severity of rule slaveholders hold above their slaves. This strategy displays the idea that slaves were seen as property and could be discarded easily.

Sarah and Hetty both belonged to different communities and races; grown with different stereotypes and inequalities as Sarah belonged from a wealthy white family whereas Hetty was from poor black slave family, in Sarah’s society women weren’t allowed to become lawyers , get a job , they had to get married and have kids no matter what and Handful, simply having the skin color that she has, realizes that her situation is very unfair in Handful society all the slaves knew the slave sins by heart “Number one: stealing. Number two: disobedience. Number three: laziness. Number four: noise” (Monk Kidd 6). As they both grew up they tend to see more and more inequality within their world. Sarah and