Dana Cursi
Professor Young
February 11, 2015
Essay 1
Dare
to Dream
The word freedom to many can mean multiple things. It can
be about expressing yourself, making your own choices, and having a verbalized
voice. In The Good Lord Bird by James
McBride there are two slaves that are discussed, Pie and Sibonia. Although they
are both slaves, they differ in the amount of how free they truly are. Sibonia
is freer because she says what she wants, she expresses herself and how she
feels, and has control over her own decisions.
The
opposite of Sibonia would be Pie. Pie has more privileges. She gets her own luxurious
bed, her own room, doesn’t have to do manual labor, and even gets to stay clean
in the sense that she can shower and wash up. Pie would never go against her
masters and would do anything to stay on their good side. She does this in
order to keep getting the privileges and stay at a higher status then the other
slaves. Sibonia, on the other hand, has nothing to lose so she chooses to speak
her mind and say how she feels. Meanwhile, whenever Pie tried to tell her
master something you, “Could hear the terror in her voice” (McBride 150). She
never wanted to say anything in fear of losing the high status that she had. Although
Pie might seem to be freer, Sibonia is free to speak and able to verbalize her
voice.
In
contrast, Sibonia is out working in the fields all day and is not clean or put
together nicely. But that doesn’t stop her from being herself. Sibonia is not
afraid to speak her mind as we see how she speaks out to the masters and the
judge. When she was asked who the leader was, “Sibonia was calm as a blade of
grass. She looked straight at the judge and looked neither sideways nor over
his head, ‘I am the woman,’ she said, ‘and I am not ashamed or afraid to
confess it’” (McBride 175). She is not afraid of anyone and will do as she
pleases in order to stand up to them and not give in. Sibonia doesn’t let
anyone hold her back because she dares to reach her dreams. She wants what she
wants and even though she knows the situation she never gives up. When Sibonia
speaks out she has no regrets.
Meanwhile,
Pie is forced into the whore house not allowed to fight back or refuse, she
must do what they say. Since Pie is afraid to stand up for herself, that takes
away parts of her freedom that Sibonia won’t give up no matter what. Pie has Onion
to be her spy and has him go and listen to what is happening because she is
afraid of getting herself in trouble and losing the high status that she has.
She told him to, “Lay low and listen. Find out who them nine is, and when it’s
safe, slip back in here and tell me” (McBride 174). Pie is too afraid to get on
her owners bad side and locks herself in to her room until the drama is over. This
shows a lot about her and how she treats other people. Pie always puts herself
first so that nothing bad will happen to her. She has other people do her dirty
work and when she does speak up it is putting someone else down or getting them
in trouble.
Besides
being able to verbalize her voice, Sibonia also shows that she is able to
express herself. She doesn’t hold anything back and just does what she pleases.
For example, when she was with Onion she didn’t care what she did and, “She had
got up from her box, came to the edge of the fence where [he] was, picked up
another mud ball, and throwed that, and that one got [him] in the jaw” (McBride
161). They all find her to be crazy so she uses that to her advantage. She is
freer in that sense because she is able to express herself and how she feels
through her own actions.
Making
decisions on your own is a big part of freedom. Being able to decide what you
want to do and when to do it is huge and being a slave normally won’t allow for
that. Sibonia has more freedom because the masters/owners and Darg, the
overseer, finds her “crazy” so they let her do what she wants. In the novel
McBride writes, “That one there, she’s a witch. She’s under a mad spell”
(McBride 168). She acts insane so that they will leave her alone. Which also
allows her to manipulate Onion. Sibonia knows that Onion is a boy and not a
girl, so Onion offered her education in return for her to keep her mouth shut
because Onion “Know[s] my[his] letters. I can show you some” (McBride 163). With
this education, Sibonia will be able to learn letters which could make her
freer because she’d then be able to express herself in other ways which Pie
cannot. Having the slaves learn letters and reading is what the owners try to
avoid because that would allow them to gain more knowledge and could lead to
communicating with each other more.
What you see from the outside isn’t
always the truth. Although Pie seems to be the one that has the most freedom
being a slave, in reality she doesn’t. She is not allowed to express herself
verbally or physically, she can’t make her own decisions about whether or not
she wants to have sex with all of the men because she is just forced into it. Proving
she is forced into it, it states, “Pie! Pie darling! C’mon down. Guess who’s
back” (McBride 143). This shows that when the men came into the house they
immediately call for her and she has to show up to their calls and listen to
what they tell her to do. Meanwhile Sibonia, although not allowed, still is
able to express herself verbally and physically, and has control over her own
decisions which makes her freer. As demonstrated Onion states, “But that crazy
thing kept her mouth busy” (McBride 160). Showing no matter what she will
always be able to verbalize how she feels because she doesn’t care what happens
to herself and does as she pleases. Because she stands up for what’s right and
doesn’t hide around like Pie, Sibonia is freer.
Works
Cited
McBride, James. The
Good Lord Bird. New York, NY: Penguin Audio, 2014. Print.
