What Is Considered Freedom?
Freedom is considered as the ability for people to express themselves in anyway that they wish to without being restrained. In the book The Good Lord Bird, two characters are presented who raise the question of which one is granted more freedom than the other. One character presented is Pie; she is a mulatto house whore who is believed to get better treatment than the other slaves because she is half black and half white. The second character is Sibonia, who is presented as your stereotypical, beaten down slave. It may seem like Pie is given more freedom than Sibonia is, however, there are a few reasons as to why that statement may not be exactly all true. Sibonia has made it clear that she is the type of woman to do things the way that she wishes to do them. She is not the type to be taken advantage of, to be corrupted, or to be forced into doing things that aren’t done in her own way. It is clear that Sibonia has a mindset to obtain freedom and express her own individuality which makes her more free than Pie will ever be.
Unlike Sibonia, Pie has no intentions of following anyone else’s steps in the strive for freedom. Pie believes that she is granted more freedom because she has better treatment than any other slave for privileges such as being given her own bedroom and being allowed to open doors.. What Pie does not realize that these simple privileges do not give her the freedom she believes she has. Pie is fooled by the owner who takes care of her. She is deceived by Miss Abby because she gives Pie the wrong perception that she is treating Pie with freedom. Though these privileges may be better than how the other slaves have it, it does not mean that she is free. Pie lacks self-respect and dignity which is one factor at which her and Sibonia differ.
Sibonia expresses herself as a woman who has respect for herself who refuses to let anyone take advantage of her, unlike Pie. For example, in the novel, Sibonia said to Onion, “How I covers my skin is my business.” (McBride 163) When she says this, she is most likely stating how the only way she does things is not by what other people tell her to do, but how she wishes to. This is a statement of freedom because the reader can tell that Sibonia does not want anyone to have control over her body. You can detect the sense of self-respect that Sibonia has for herself. In contrast to Pie, Sibonia has more freedom already because she is able to keep her dignity and pride by not falling for the same false perception that Pie did.
Pie does not show the slightest respect for herself like Sibonia does. It is easily shown that she has not self respect just by the fact of how she lets her body be used by multiple men in a day just to make money because that is what her owner told her she has to do. Pie is given a false understanding that makes her believe that how she is being treated is better than any other slave. This shows that Pie is anything but free simply because she willingly gives up her body and self-respect in order to make money for Miss Abby. Sibonia does not let anyone take advantage of her in this way giving more of a sense of a free, self-respected woman than Pie is.
Sibonia expresses her strive for freedom in the story when she started to make a plan that would start a “riot” for freedom. Sibonia is not corrupted by the white man to sit back and listen to their every rule. Sibonia takes action in her riot for freedom with no intentions of being held back from what she is planning to do. She is proceeding to plan the riot because she has a desire to fulfill which is to be free. Anyone who has the idea to start a movement for freedom is someone who has is passionate about freedom. When she was confronted, Sibonia did not try to lie about what she was planning to do, she looked the man straight in the eye and told him that she was the one who was planning the movement for freedom that he had been told about. Sibonia said exactly, “I am the woman” and “I am not ashamed or afraid to confess it” (McBride 175). In this quote and overall situation, it can be detected of how Sibonia truly feels about freedom. By the way that she did not try to get out of this situation because she was scared of the consequence shows how passionate she is about standing up for herself and not letting anyone hold her spirit down.
For Sibonia to plan this shows that she has freedom within her because, at the time, no one would even think about standing up for a rebellion, especially not even Pie. Pie was the one who proceeded to tell Judge Fugett that Sibonia had been working with several people on her murderous plot and that she was the leader. This shows that Pie isn’t free and is corrupted because she immediately told authority of Sibonia’s plan. It was almost as if Pie did it because she felt as if she had to. This is where Pie is more of a slave simply because she showed weakness when it came to the information given to her by Onion by immediately going to the white men about Sibonia’s plan.
It seems that having control over herself and what she does is a noter one of Sibonia’s main priorities. Having control over herself is a quality of freedom because it means that no one else can tell her specifically what to do. She does things in the ways that she wishes things to be done. For example, in the last few minutes of her life Sibonia leaped out for her own death. The book described her death by stating “Sibonia suddenly sprung away from him, jumped high as she could, and fell heavily through the galley hole” (McBride 183). In this quote, it is describing how Sibonia took on her own death in her own way. This example best shows how Sibonia does things in her own way so that she can not only feel a sense of freedom but also so she can be remembered for what she does. Sibonia did not hang herself in the ways that everyone else is hung, she took her last moment to take a leap to show that she if she is going to do anything, it’s going to be in her own way.
Sibonia’s act to show herself off by doing something in her own way overcomes anything that Pie has ever done. Pie is always the type to do what she is supposed to because that is how she believes things are done. Pie would not dare to do something in her own way simply because she honestly believes that she has to do everything by the rules. Pie does things in the ways of which she is told because she refuses to think of any other way to do things. This is why more freedom is presented by Sibonia’s act than freedom will ever be shown in any act that is done by Pie.
Though Pie may have a little more freedom in a physical manner, mentally she is trapped. In contradiction to Pie, Sibonia has a mindset on obtaining freedom and expressing herself in her own way to obtain freedom. It is obvious how Sibonia was not the type to be abused by the white man without putting up a fight. She is not the type to be taken advantage of, corrupted, or forced into doing things that aren’t done in her own way. Sibonia has more freedom in her state of mind which is more than what Pie has overall. It is clear that Sibonia has more freedom than Pie does because she is self-righteous and has more intentions of obtaining freedom than Pie ever did.
Works Cited
- McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. New York. Riverhead Books. 2013. Print.
