Gabrielle Kissi

Professor Young

English 1101

9 March 2015

The Meaning of Freedom

            Freedom is having the power to be released from bondage, regulations or even physical restraint. Freedom is being free to be yourself. A free person lives his or her life by having the ability to express him- or her and make choices. To be free is to have one’s own life, liberty and happiness. A free person is able to voice his or her opinions and be fearless in any situation. In the novel The Good Lord Bird by James McBride, the narrator presents two slaves named Pie and Sibonia, who find themselves in a form of bondage yet fight to be free. Pie is a whore for men and Sibonia is a “mentally ill” woman. Sibonia, despite her status in society, is actually free because she uses her creativity to disguise her true identity, is fearless in the face of death, and expresses her true beliefs when it is unpopular or when everyone else is against her.

Sibonia is free because she creates a disguise for herself, which becomes her pathway to freedom. She presents herself as a person who is feebleminded. The main character in the novel, Onion, comments on Sibonia’s quality of acting in order to pass for someone she was not. As he points out, “I was a little shook about how she was tight in her mind, for if I played a girl well, she played a fool even better” (McBride 165). She was excellent at fooling everyone into believing that she was not mentally stable and did not realize what was happening in her surroundings. This shows that she is resourceful and has the ability to think on her feet, creating her own narrative so that she can survive. She chose to dress and act the way she wanted to without being judged. In the text, Libby tells Onion, “Don’t mind her. She’s feebleminded” (McBride 161). Sibonia was so smart even her sister, Libby, believed Sibonia was feebleminded. Furthermore, she dressed in rags, had messy hair and had dark skin. The narrator describes her in one particular scene, “But that silly fool in the middle of the yard, a heavyset, settle-aged color women setting on a wooden box, cackling and babbling, she got to cackling louder” (McBride 160).  When one is creative, one is free. Sibonia was creative enough to disguise herself as someone she really was not. She chose to be a mentally ill person. She did this to save herself from the manual labor as a slave. She also disguised herself to be protected from sexual abuse that many other slaves experienced. Therefore, she took her freedom because her creativity allowed her to be set free from slavery.

Sibonia’s freedom is also shown in the novel through her fearlessness and bravery. She confessed to being the leader of an insurrection where she and nine other slaves would murder whites. Sibonia said, “I am the women… I am not ashamed or afraid to confess it” (McBride 175). Judge Fuggett did not even question her; yet, he tells her not to deny the truth about her murderous plan. Sibonia was rebellious because she attempted a rebellion, refused to tell the Judge the names of the other seven slaves, and resisted slavery. Overall, the scene displays her confidence and how strong her mindset is. It sets her apart from others and proves her courage because she did not let the fear of death get in the way of what she strongly believed in.

            On the other hand, Pie, the ‘yellow and pretty’ whore, was not as free as Sibonia because Pie was a slave to the men she slept in bed with. Although Pie had the finer things such as good hygiene and clean and well-kept clothing, she was under Miss Abby’s, the whorehouse madam, bondage and went through physical restraint. As a whore, she was often brutally mistreated. As Onion observes in one scene, “I seen my Pie in there on a straw bed on the floor, buck naked, on all fours, and behind her was Drag” (McBride 190). Along with being raped, she was also being whipped with a switch. Pie was not free because of the men that took advantage of her, so she chooses to put her guard up by acting as if she is superior to the other slaves. Yet, her ego does not make her free because she gives into the white man’s world because they use her as they please. When she gives into their world she is giving up her identity and who she is. She becomes the white man’s whore. This shows that Pie does not have her freedom because men have their way with her. They beat and mistreat her any way they want.

            Freedom is not granted to Pie—she remains a prisoner throughout. She is captive and has no way of reaching freedom. In the speech, I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr., King mentions, “Your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality” (King 168). For Pie, the whorehouse was equivalent to a jailhouse because there is no freedom in either. Pie remains in her room day and night to be taken advantage of by white men. This shows that although her room is nice and fancy, her room is her prison cell that does not make her free.

            Freedom in its entirety has to be one of the greatest attributes of life. The power to do as one feels or just the mere thought of action upon one’s thoughts, especially when it's of a good deed or personal gain is certainly a heart felt moment. You should or anyone for that matter should be able to express him or herself in any way shape or form. An individual that has no free will has lost a major part of their overall well-being. Everyone should be entitled freedom despite his or her race or ethnicity. We were all created in this world to become great, to serve a purpose, and by doing so one must truly be in control of oneself.

 This story conveys a great detail of freedom and liberty. Overall, Sibonia is freer than Pie because she was untouchable, literally; slave masters did not want to deal with her because she was not mentally stable. In addition to her condition, she actually tried to fight for her freedom. Sibonia did all she could by disguising herself as a feebleminded woman and rallying up participants to kill off and rebel against whites into their own freedom, rather than enduring all the burden and pain of captivity of which was considered the norm. She stood by what she felt was best.

Works Cited

McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. New York: Riverhead, 2013. Print.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. I Have a Dream. New York, NY. 1963. Print