Freedom 
What is
freedom? Is it the ability to say what
you want or be who you are? People’s
freedom is like their identity; it is defined by how they act, what they say
and them being who they really are. Is
your freedom really free? It all depends on what you do and how you act. If someone is always following what other
people are doing and saying what other people want him or her to say, how is
that free? That person is basically
society’s puppet. In James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird, readers see
difference in freedom through Sibonia and Pie.
Sibonia was a darker skinned slave who lives in something like a barn. She sleeps on dirt and wears rags, has messy
hair and has no power. She tries to plan
a rebellion and gets hanged for it. Pie,
on the other hand, is a light skinned person. She is a beautiful prostitute. She is able to stay in the house, and she has
her own room. She wears the finest clothes
and has her hair done. And she has
power. On the outside, obviously Pie
looks to be the freer person, but really
She is able to be and believe what she wants. Sibonia is freer because Sibonia doesn’t have
to hide how she feels about slavery or snitch on others just to maintain her
status, like Pie did.
Although
Pie seems like she has everything, does she really? She is so worried about maintaining her
status, that she would do anything to keep her spot as the main prostitute. She would snitch on friends and family; it
didn’t matter. As soon as she found out
about Sibonia’s planned rebellion, the first thing she did was tell on
Sibonia. From the account of Onion he
said “Someone from the pen must’ve told Pie that Sibonia was planning a
breakout, and Pie told it to the judge for some kind of favor” (McBride 186). Her telling on Sibonia ultimately led to the
death of Sibonia and others. How are
free when you have to sell out your own people?
The answer to that is you aren’t.
Unlike Pie,
Sibonia isn’t a snitch. She is up front
and honest. When the judge came to her
and asked her if she was planning a rebellion without hesitation she “I am the
woman, and I am not ashamed or afraid to admit it” (McBride 175). She knew that it would lead to her death but
she took the punishment and said nothing about anyone else. “We all got to
die," she said, "But dying as your true self is always better. God
will take you however you come to Him. But it's easier on a soul to come to Him
clean. You're forever free that way. From top to bottom.” Unlike Pie, Sibonia is true to herself who
makes her free, because Sibonia doesn’t have to hide that she doesn’t like
what’s going on, she openly admits it.
She also doesn’t have a lie like Pie.
Also Pie
also has to in a way, hide who she is and how she feels. Like when it comes to the treatment of the
other slaves, it bothers Pie that because they are treated poorly. “They’ll pull the trigger and tell the hammer
to hurry”. The quote means the slaves
will pull the trigger on the rebellion, so the court needs to hurry and arrest
them and on sentencing them to death. They’ll
that Pie is referring to is the Sibonia and the rest of the slave planning the
rebellion. But she doesn’t want to risk being thrown outside with them and
losing what she has. She takes her feelings and bottles them up inside. Like she does not like how the slaves are
treated but instead saying something in fear of losing her status she keeps her
mouth shut. If you can’t express your
feelings you are not free.
In conclusion, McBride’s The Good Lord Bird tells an amazing
story. The book makes readers start to
really question what freedom is. What
are the characteristics of freedom? Is
your freedom really free? You look at the characters in the book like Pie and
Sibonia realize though each character is free in their own right, one is freer
than the other. Yes, Pie had freedoms; they
are materialistic such as her clothes, her room, and status. Those materialistic
freedoms are small for pie but they are freedoms. Those freedoms come with the cost of her
selling her body as a prostitute. That also led to pie being raped. Sibonia has her freedoms in a way. Unlike
Pie, Sibonia didn’t have to sell her body to get the mental and physical
freedoms she had. But the free thoughts
and plans that Sibonia had led to her death, after being told on by Pie. So, they both have their own different
freedoms but everyone’s freedom comes with certain costs whether we realize it
or not. Overall even though Sibonia died
she is still freer compared to Pie.
Works Cited
McBride, James. The
Good Lord Bird. New York: Riverhead Books, 2013. Print.
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