46 pages • 1 hour read
James McBrideThe Good Lord Bird
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Faith
Faith, and the Christian faith, in particular, is a core theme in The Good Lord Bird. Brown fights against slavery because he wishes to liberate the slaves, but he does so because he believes it is God’s will. Brown believes that slavery is a moral sin, and that is why he is willing to dedicate his life to eradicating it. He interprets everything he sees as a sign that he is on the right path, and he sees omens in everything. He believes that Henry came into his life to be his good luck charm, even though Brown’s actions lead to the death of Henry’s father. His faith extends into the realm of folky superstation as well, such as his belief in the power of the Good Lord Bird feather.
Henry’s father is a believer as well, and the influence of him and John Brown are what lead Henry to say, “I weren’t a believer, having been raised by my Pa, who was a believer and a lunatic, and them things seemed to run together” (23). Henry is skeptical of faith throughout the story, although he prays when he thinks he is about to be killed.
The faith of Brown’s men in the abolitionist cause wavers depending on the amount of danger they are required to face. Many of them are not Christian believers, but they have faith in their cause. Brown’s faith sustains him throughout, even when he is nearing his execution. He believes that his life’s deeds have prepared him for a reward in Heaven. It does not discourage him that the end of slavery will not occur during his lifetime, because he has faith that his actions will lead to societal changes.
Faith is the belief in things that are not seen, but which are taken to be true anyways. All characters in the novel who fight against slavery do so out of faith, because they do not know when it will end.
Identity
Early in the novel, Henry says: “Lying come natural to all Negroes during slave time, for no man or woman in bondage ever prospered stating their true thoughts to the boss. Much of colored life was an act, and the Negroes that sawed wood and said nothing lived the longest” (28). The theme of identity—and how it may be manipulated, hidden from others, and denied by the self, recurs many times in the story. Slaves must speak the words that their masters want to hear, or risk punishment. Most of Henry’s three years with Brown are spent in the charade of pretending that he is a girl. But as they travel, he comes to see that slaves in the South are each living a charade as duplicitous as he is. They are unable, forbidden, to express their actual thoughts, feelings, and desires.
The identity of the slaves is dictated by their masters, who have the liberty to sell them, beat them, kill them, separate them from their families, and deny them any sort of education that would enrich their lives. Slaves have so little autonomy that their aspirations, when they have them, rarely go beyond plans of escaping to the North and being free.
Lying is an act of necessity for the slaves in the novel, and a life of lies is not authentic. Henry faces this realization most acutely when he has nearly escaped with Annie, and is contemplating the idea of a future with her. He would rather go back to Harpers Ferry and die as a man then slink away under the guise of his girlhood, knowing that he made a mistake that could have gotten Annie’s father killed.
Voicelessness
As Henry watches Brown give speeches during his fundraising tour, he sees white people distraught over the suffering of the slaves. But they have also taken it on themselves to speak for the slaves, rather than giving them a voice. He thinks:
A bit sad, truth be to tell it, to watch them hundreds of white folks crying for the Negro, for there weren’t hardly ever any Negroes present at most of them gatherings, and them that was there was doodied up and quiet as a mouse. It seemed to me the whole business of the Negro’s life out there weren’t no different than it was out west, to my mind. It was like a big, long lynching. Everybody got to make a speech about the Negro but the Negro (233).
Henry learns that even the white people who want to end slavery show little interest in hearing what black people have to say on the matter. The slaves are forced to overhear conversations about their fate without being asked what they think about it. As Brown recruits fighters, he assumes that every black person is desperate to fight for their freedom and give their life if they have to. However, there are men like Bob who have no interest in literal fighting against slavery. They would rather try to escape to the North than participate in violence.
Many of the people who talk the most about slavery in the novel are those who are not inclined to action. The educated blacks in Canada, Frederick Douglass, and many of Brown’s alleged supporters are eloquent in their condemnations of slavery, but have nothing to say when asked to actually fight.
When Henry reveals to Annie that he is a boy, it is his final transformation into a man who will speak with his own voice, in his own identity, even if it results in his death.
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By James McBride
