Justine Fernandez

Professor Young

English 1101

Freedom Essay

February 10, 2015

            Freedom is the ability to be an individual in the world. It is the ability to express your self in any manner without being penalized for it. In the book The Good Lord Bird By James McBride reveals characters that are not free and do not attain freedom. The characters believe that they have freedom due to the result of such restriction that any type of leave way the characters define as freedom. Two characters stand out in this aspect both Pie and Sibonia. They define their freedom in different ways but in reality neither of them are free.      Freedom in McBrides novel is described differently depending on the character.  For Pie freedom means that she gets to be the head of the whore house. “I wouldn’t throw her outta bed for eating crackers.She was all class(McBride 144). She gets to be a part of something more and she has the title and reputation of a so-called upperclass slave in the sense that men view her as beautiful. While on the other hand Sibonia defines her freedom as being undercover and staying under the radar. Freedom is defined by both characters standards of free. Sibonia’s definition of freedom is different from Pie’s definition of freedom. On the other hand freedom is what you define freedom as. In todays society freedom can mean a million of different things to different people. For example freedom to a six year old is being able to walk to school by him or herself while a twenty year old definition of freedom is being able to chose the career path that they want to follow. Freedom has a wide range of definitions.

            In addition, neither Pie nor Sibonia are free. They don’t have their independence as human beings. In that sense someone else essentially owns them and they do everything under their commands. “Miss Abby wouldn’t like that”(McBride 146).  It goes to show that even though others view her as a higher ranked slave she still goes by what her boss is telling her to do. She worries about the approval of her boss. Both their definitions of freedom include acting in their own way under someone else authority. Pie works under someone but she defines her own freedom because Mrs. Abby lets her run the whore house the way that she wants to but essential she is still a symbolic slave to Mrs. Abby. While Sibonia does work in the whorehouse she defines her own freedom as playing the mentally challenged card and plotting against the rebellion but same as Pie she is under the order of someone else essentially not being free.

            Therefore both Sibonia and Pie disguise themselves in the novel to help improve their helpless freedom that they are trying to obtain. Pie disguises herself as a whore so that she has protection from the different levels of slavery. Sibonia plays the mentally ill card that keeps her under the radar from being figured out with her plot. “She was feebleminded”(McBride 161). This demonstrates the view that others have on Sibonia hence her disguise exactly what she wants others to view her as so she can stay under the radar. While both disguises help maintain their own level of freedom it does not free them from everything else that Is happening around them. They are free within themselves not to other people. To the outside world they are both just another slave in a different category of slavery.         In conclusion neither Pie nor Sibonia are free. They aren’t free because they are own essentially by others. Their freedom comes from being able to be independent as much as they can by being a slave, which limits the ability of freedom. Therefore freedom is a state of mind and in both of their minds they are free but looking from the outside in they are anything but free. Freedom is being yourself and independent in the world.

Work Cited

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